Examining the reasons for the increasing number of Iranians learning German and creating of a first theoretical basis for that is the subject of this paper. In this regard, 370 Iranian learners of German from the German Language Institute in Tehran were questioned and their motivations were studied mainly based on the theory of "L2 Motivational Self System" (L2MSS). Investigating this research related to the psychological concept of "possible selves" and comparing it with the results of research conducted in the learning of English indicates that the motivation for learning German has a significant relationship with the components of the L2MSS, namely, L2 Ideal Self, L2 Ought-to Self, and L2 Learning Experiences. The achievement of this research can be effective in adopting foreign language policies in formal and informal educational areas in Iranian learning context.
The present study examines the influence of ambiguity tolerance on the performance of Iranian GFL-learners (Note 1) at level B1 in the processing of gap-filling-text tests. It is assumed that learners with more tolerance of ambiguity achieve better results in the reading comprehension or in the contextual guessing of the omitted words. 34 GFL learners at Level B1 in Iran Language Institute in Mashhad have completed a three-part pilot gap-filling test as well as the pilot questionnaire called SLTAS (Note 2) to assess their ambiguity tolerance. In order to examine the hypothesis and to answer the research question, the total score of the subjects who participated in the pilot and the main study were analyzed by SPSS program version 18.0. The quantitative-correlative analysis did not demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between the tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension. In conclusion, with regard to the multi-dimensionality of reading comprehension, and despite the divergent empirical evidence in research literature, it is still advisable to take into account the affective, cognitive, and extra-linguistic determinants of reading comprehension in further empirical studies from various aspects and to greater extents. This study provides suggestions for the recognition of the interaction between different affective, and cognitive influential factors in the multidimensional reading process, as well as a basis for the teachers’ and linguists’ methodology with respect to learners in terms of their individual differences while instructing reading comprehension in German as a foreign language.
The concept of text-oriented vocabulary exercises is based on Kühn's (2000) three-step model of vocabulary teaching-receptive, reflective and productive vocabulary exercises-which focuses on working with texts. Since the production is in principle more exhausting than the reception-as can be seen from the Levels of Processing Effect-one can assume that it comes to a deeper processing in the text production and consequently exerts a positive influence on the retention performance of the learners. The main purpose of this paper is to conduct an empirical study on Iranian GFL-learners (Note 1) to demonstrate whether text production has a positive impact on the short-term, medium-term and long-term retention of the GFL-learners who have learned the new words in foreign language based on the concept of text-oriented vocabulary exercises or not. In addition, this study also has the secondary object of demonstrating the possibility of GFL-Learner's sex as well as the age having any effect on the retention performance. The results have shown that the text production has a positive effect on the short-term and medium-term retention. It could also be shown that gender exerts an influence on the medium-term retention performance of female GFL-learners. In terms of age, the result was that text production has a positive impact on the retention performance of the 30 to 40-year-old GFL-learners, enabling them to better remember the textually learned words in the short, medium and long term.
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