ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Pushed Output on Accuracy and Fluency of Iranian EFL Learners' Speaking
Author: Sadeghi Beniss, Aram Reza
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Accuracy,English (Second Language),Language Tests,Second Language Learning,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Interviews,Language Fluency,Course Descriptions,Second Language Instruction,Audio Equipment,Statistical Analysis,Oral Language,Foreign Countries,Females,Young Adults,Linguistic Theory

The current study attempted to establish baseline quantitative data on the impacts of pushed output on two components of speaking (i.e., accuracy and fluency). To achieve this purpose, 30 female EFL learners were selected from a whole population pool of 50 based on the standard test of IELTS interview and were randomly assigned into an experimental group and a control group. The participants in the experimental group received pushed output treatment while the students in the control group received non-pushed output instruction. The data were collected through IELTS interview and then the interview of each participant was separately tape-recorded and later transcribed and coded to measure accuracy and fluency. Then, the independent samples t-test was employed to analyze the collected data. The results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in accuracy. In contrast, findings substantiated that pushed output had no impact on fluency. The positive impact of pushed output demonstrated in this study is consistent with the hypothesized function of Swain's (1985) pushed output. The results can provide some useful insights into syllabus design and English language teaching.
A Cross-Disciplinary and Cross-Cultural Study of Directives in Discussions and Conclusions of Research Articles
Author: Jalilifar, Alireza
Date: 2014-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Interdisciplinary Approach,Cross Cultural Studies,Indo European Languages,English,Academic Discourse,Research Reports,Discourse Analysis,Trend Analysis,Written Language,Physics,Chemistry,Counseling,Sociology,Periodicals,Form Classes (Languages),Contrastive Linguistics,Metalinguistics,Grammar,Writing (Composition),Language Usage,Computational Linguistics

The current study provided cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary analyses of the distribution of directives in discussion and conclusion sections of English and Persian research articles (RAs) in disciplines of physics, chemistry, counseling, and sociology, representing hard and soft sciences, respectively. To that aim, 80 RAs from both English and Persian journals between 2000 and 2012 were selected. The RAs were textually analyzed to determine the distribution of directives. Findings revealed a significant difference between Persian hard and soft science RAs in the employment of directives, with soft science writers employing directives more frequently in discussion and conclusion sections in comparison with hard science writers. However, no significant difference was found in the distribution of directives across discussion and conclusion sections of English soft and hard RAs. Moreover, findings did not show a significant difference across Persian and English RAs. Overall, results suggest that Persian and English academic writers tend to follow a similar generic and discursive trend in the employment of directives in their discussion and conclusion sections pointing to the universal nature of directives as persuasive strategies employed by academic writers in canonical branches of science. The findings of the present study might raise learners' awareness of the conventions and lexico-grammatical features of academic writing in Persian and/or English RAs.
The Aesthetic Values of Silence in Two Plays by Harold Pinter
Author: Amiri, Niloufar
Date: 2016-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Aesthetics,Drama,Literary Styles,Literary Devices,Literature Appreciation,Figurative Language,Social Values

In our modern world where people suffer from self-alienation and are after the meaning of existence in their mechanical and flamboyant outside world, finding a discernible language is very important. Dejected minds of people are the products of the miserable modern societies which have changed them to the taciturn and uncommunicative creatures in search of meaning. The significance of language specifically poetic or living language is an undeniable fact in different eras. Therefore, it would be easier for the artists to communicate people by letting them get the maximum meaning with the least amount of words. This article shows the aesthetic values of silence in two Pinter plays, &quot;The Birthday Party&quot; and &quot;The Dumb Waiter&quot;. It uses Samuel Taylor Coleridge's theory of &quot;organic unity&quot; to show that the simultaneous presence of language and silence in Pinter's dramas keeps the whole work of art in balance, allowing opposite particles to reconcile.
Computer-Aided Assessment of Tone Production: A Case of Zimbabwean Students Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language
Author: Mushangwe, Herbert
Date: 2014-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Chinese,Second Language Instruction,Tone Languages,College Students,Pronunciation,Computer Assisted Testing,Acoustics,Computer Software,Pictorial Stimuli,Visualization,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Audio Equipment,Error Patterns

This study examined how technology can help in assessing and teaching Chinese tones to foreign students who are not used to tonal languages. It was an attempt to show how we can use the PRAAT software to make learners of Chinese as a foreign language realize their tonal errors. The data used was collected from the students at the University of Zimbabwe studying Chinese and this was part of a continuous assessment for the students' pronunciation of Chinese tones. This method which was used by teachers to assess students' tones was found to be easy to follow such that students could also utilize it for their own pronunciation practice. We argued that the use of computer-aided assessment makes assessment of students' tone acquisition lesser arbitrary than when the teacher merely gives comments based on his or her individual perception. This is because this assessment method gives PRAAT acoustic pictures which show the tone structures for each student; hence, both the student and the teacher can visualize the errors. Since PRAAT can provide a platform to compare the student's pronunciation with that of the native speaker and at the same time can help the teacher to explain why student's pronunciation is wrong, this paper concludes that PRAAT can be a useful tool in assessing and teaching Chinese tones.
Who Provides Professional Development? A Study of Professional Development in Qatar
Author: Freeman, Donald
Date: 2016-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Faculty Development,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Language Teachers,Public School Teachers,Teacher Competencies,Cross Cultural Studies,Course Content,Colleges,Government Role

This paper argues that understanding what is offered as professional development frames what matters in English language teaching in a national education system. Analyzing these offerings articulates the values and perceptions of the work environment in which teachers live professionally. The &quot;Learning4Teaching&quot; (&quot;L4T&quot;) project is a multi-country series of national studies that examine public-sector English language teachers' experiences of professional development. The studies document 1) the learning opportunities provided in the national context, 2) how teachers view participating in these opportunities, and 3) what they believe they take from them. Drawing on data from the first phase of the study (#1 above), this paper examines the provision of professional development to ELT teachers in the &quot;independent&quot; (public school) sector in Qatar between 2012 and 2015. Of the 150 events offered during this period, 50% concerned teaching methodology. The university/training center sector provided the bulk of professional development (79% of events). The professional development offerings presented teachers with a view of English language teaching as: highly focused on methodological expectations and skills; driven by a set of policy priorities around managing the learning environment, assessment, and standards; in which methodological knowledge and skills are seen as the currency of a teaching identity.
Improving Iranian High School Students' Reading Comprehension Using the Tenets of Genre Analysis
Author: Adelnia, Rezvan
Date: 2016-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Reading Skills,English (Second Language),Literary Genres,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Reading Tests,Pretests Posttests,Reading Instruction,Hypothesis Testing,Second Language Instruction,Reading Comprehension,High School Students,Quasiexperimental Design,Statistical Analysis,Instructional Effectiveness

This study is an attempt to investigate impact of using a technique, namely, genre-based approach on improving reading ability on Iranian EFL learners' achievement. Therefore, an attempt was made to compare genre-based approach to teaching reading with traditional approaches. For achieving this purpose, by administering the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) 80 female EFL learners were chosen. We assigned the participants to an experimental and a control group randomly. A reading test was administered on the whole population as the pretest. 10 reading passages were taught using the tenets of genre based instruction, while the same reading passages were taught to the participants in the control group traditionally. After 10 sessions of instruction when all the passages were taught, the participants sat for a posttest. The research hypothesis according to which using genre-based approach to teaching reading does not significantly improve reading ability of Iranian EFL learners was rejected at 0.05 level of significance. Differently stated, using genre-based approach to teach reading can improve EFL learners' performance in their reading classes. The result also showed that there is a meaningful difference between the performance of students who go under a traditional approach in teaching reading comprehension and those who are instructed using genre-based approach. The outcomes of this study can be used by English language teachers to consider the importance of a genre-based instruction.
Incorporating Different Designs of Interaction into Vocabulary Instruction: Its Effect on Learners' Lexical Depth in an EFL Context
Author: Zoghi, Masoud
Date: 2016-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Vocabulary Development,Associative Learning,Statistical Analysis,Scores,Teacher Student Relationship,Interaction Process Analysis,Comparative Analysis,Language Proficiency,Language Tests,Foreign Countries,Task Analysis,Native Speakers,Indo European Languages,Linguistic Input

This study examined the effect of the interaction approach on young EFL learners' lexical depth in a private language institute in Talesh, Iran. To achieve this, a Michigan test was administered to 40 EFL learners. Those language learners who met the selection criterion, i.e., performed one standard deviation above and below the mean on the test were divided into two classes (N = 28): group A (N = 14) and group B (N = 14). In both groups, the interaction approach was incorporated into vocabulary instruction. However, the design of the interaction was different in each group. In group A, interactions were mostly between learners. On the other hand, in group B, learners mainly interacted with the teacher. After 18 weeks of instruction, a test of lexical depth, word association tasks (WAT), was administered to both groups. The results of statistical analysis showed that the standard deviation (SD) was almost the same in both groups. However, the mean in group B significantly outperformed group A. A &quot;t&quot; test was used to compare means of test scores between groups. The findings of this study suggest that learner-teacher interaction is a more effective design in the improvement of learners' knowledge of vocabulary depth in comparison with learner-learner interaction.
Transformation of Consciousness: Decoding Conceptual Metaphors in Mira Bai
Author: Amrita
Date: 2016-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Figurative Language,Poetry,Cognitive Processes,Spiritual Development,Philosophy,Metacognition,Religion,Foreign Countries,Religious Cultural Groups,Poets,Correlation,Concept Formation,Indo European Languages,Discourse Analysis,Text Structure

Mira Bai, a saint-poet of North India is an important figure in medieval Hindi literature. Her &quot;bhajan&quot;-s (songs) profoundly represent the transforming of consciousness working through conceptual metaphors which fall in the realm of religious poetry wherein target domains are generally abstract. Since, the working of the mind is more powerful than anything else, consciousness has become the central issue in modern philosophy of mind and metaphysics. Can we try to gauge abstract ideas and consciousness? What do we need to make such ideas explicit? What happens when the line between the abstract and the real becomes blur or transparent, especially with respect to spiritual experience? It is here that metaphors step in providing us glimpses into representational relation between mental processes, state of mind and the material world. Therefore, this present paper attempts to study conceptual metaphors which are replete in Mira Bai's poetry conforming to her spiritual journey. The paper is divided into three sections viz. Mira Bai, Understanding Conceptual Metaphor, and A Study of Mira Bai's Selected Poetry.
Effect of Cultural Distance on Pragmatic Comprehension and Production
Author: Rafieyan, Vahid
Date: 2016-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Pragmatics,Cultural Differences,Multivariate Analysis,Undergraduate Students,Predictor Variables,Teaching Methods,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Language Tests,Foreign Countries,Holistic Approach,Task Analysis,Discourse Analysis,German,Korean,Native Language

National cultural distance is considered to be a strong predictor of language learners' pragmatic competence. To test the actual effect of national cultural distance on pragmatic competence holistically and comprehension and production aspects of pragmatic competence discretely, the current study was conducted on two groups of undergraduate students of English: 24 German students considered culturally close to Britons as target language community and 28 South Korean students considered culturally distant from Britons. A 24-item pragmatic comprehension test developed by Taguchi (2007, 2008) was used to measure language learners' pragmatic comprehension ability. A discourse completion task developed by Bardovi-Harlig (2009) was also used to measure language learners' pragmatic production ability. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed the significant positive effect of national cultural distance on pragmatic competence holistically and comprehension and production aspects of pragmatic competence discretely. The pedagogical implications of the findings suggested incorporating target language pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic features into class instruction and providing abundant opportunities for language learners to be exposed to pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic features of the target language.
The Effect of Context on Iranian EFL Students' Amount of Speech Production of English Language and Their Ways of Using Hedging Devices
Author: Mostofee, Saheb
Date: 2016-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Gender Differences,Sociocultural Patterns,Teaching Methods,Language Proficiency,Context Effect,Discourse Analysis,Video Technology,Foreign Countries,English Literature,College Students,Interpersonal Communication,Communication Strategies,Computer Software

Socioculturally and sociolinguistically, gender can have a profound effect on learning and teaching English language as a foreign language. Also learning cooperatively in which both female and male students are involved seems to play a constructive role in creating and enhancing students' performance, achievement and competence of a foreign language. This study intends to determine whether male or female students will be more productive and active when co-educationally discussing the same topic together in a mixed-sex context as a bi-gender speech community regarding English as a foreign language or when either male or female students participate in the discussion as a mono-gender speech community. This study also aims at determining whether students of different gender would use different hedging devices and strategies in different contexts or there is no difference regarding the types and amount of hedging uttered by male and female students in three different contexts. One topic familiar to both groups about which both have some background knowledge will be given to all eight participants consisting of 4 male and 4 female students. The whole utterances during the discussion will be taped and video-recorded, and then it will be analyzed. The findings may provide us with some significant implications both for gaining higher production performance ability and higher linguistic competence of English as a foreign language which can be of use in both English teaching and learning processes.
The Effect of Time-Management Training on Test-Anxiety and Self-Efficacy of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners
Author: Behnam, Biook
Date: 2014-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Time Management,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Majors (Students),College Students,Quasiexperimental Design,Test Anxiety,Self Efficacy,Scores,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Training,Comparative Analysis,Surveys,Program Effectiveness

The present study aimed to examine the effect of time-management training on Iranian EFL learners' test-anxiety and self-efficacy. A quasi-experimental design was used. The study was carried out in Tabriz Azad University and University of Applied Sciences and Technology. Thirty-eight BA students majoring in TEFL who enrolled in the above mentioned context in the academic year 1390-1391 participated in the study. The instruments used in the study were Time-Management Behavior Scale constructed by Macan, Shahani, Dipboye, et al. (1990), General Self-Efficacy Scale constructed by Jerusalem and Schwarzer (1992) and Westside Test-Anxiety Scale constructed by Driscoll (2007).The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of experimental group's test-anxiety before and after time-management training and also there was a significant difference between the mean scores of experimental group and control group's test-anxiety after intervention. These findings also apply to the mean scores of self-efficacy. Therefore, it can be concluded that time-management training affects EFL learners' test-anxiety and self-efficacy. The findings of this study have some implications for researchers, teachers, universities and institutions.
Discipline and Gender Variation in ESP Learners' Use of Metacognitive Strategies
Author: Seifoori, Zohreh
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Metacognition,College Freshmen,Gender Differences,Intellectual Disciplines,English (Second Language),Foreign Countries,Learning Strategies,Second Language Instruction,Majors (Students),Measures (Individuals),Second Language Learning,Language Proficiency,Statistical Analysis,Surveys,Self Evaluation (Individuals)

Metacognition involves conscious thinking about one's learning and is implemented in language learning when learners set goals and evaluate their performance, plan their studies, use their language knowledge, attend to the input, search speaking and reading opportunities and ways of enhancing their learning outcomes and focus on their errors. This study sought to measure the use of metacognitive strategies by eight groups of Iranian ESP freshmen in four different disciplines and to detect probable discipline and gender variations. Having assessed the initial homogeneity of the groups via Analysis of Variance of the scores obtained from a Key English Test (KET), the researcher administered the Metacognitive section of Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (1985). The Between-subjects Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of the research data revealed that the participants studying Mechanical Engineering and Computer outperformed those studying Management and Psychology. Gender variation, however, was observed only in the participants' use of self-evaluation strategy where males reported a more frequent use. The findings revealed the ESP learners' need for metacognitive training particularly across gender and major.
English Language Learning in the Malaysian School Setting: Where Can We Find 10,000 Hours? A Theoretical Perspective
Author: Iber, George
Date: 2016-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Second Language Learning,English (Second Language),Time on Task,Language Proficiency,Curriculum Development

In these days of standardized assessments in education that seek to measure the rate of learning in all subject matters, the question is seldom asked, &quot;Just how long does it take to become proficient?&quot; No matter the subject, we all agree that some amount of practice is necessary for basic proficiency and that more will be needed to really master a skill or subject area. But how much is difficult to say because different individuals come to the task with different levels of motivation and opportunity to learn. In the case of learning a second or foreign language different theories predict that a two to five year &quot;structured exposure&quot; is needed for either a basic communication or an academic level of proficiency (Cummins, 1980) respectively. This paper proposes that the range can be described in terms of hours. Based on the concept from &quot;Outliers&quot; by Gladwell (2008), this paper proposes that 10,000 hours is the target &quot;time-on-task&quot; required for academic proficiency in second language learning. The implications for school language study is readily apparent. If we want academically proficient second language speakers, those individuals will need to have access to the target language in numbers vastly greater than school can provide in its standard curriculum.