This study investigates the relationship between depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge and EFL learners' listening comprehension. It is designed to find out whether there is a meaningful relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension in general, and to determine which dimension of vocabulary knowledge is a better predictor of successful listening comprehension in particular. Data gathered through three tests including Vocabulary Knowledge Test (VLT), Word Associate Test (WAT), and standardized listening comprehension test, from 32 EFL learners were analyzed and the findings revealed that there is a high and positive relationship among the three variables and also between the independent variables. Future analysis indicated that though both VLT and WAT contribute to listening comprehension, VLT is a better predictor of successful listening comprehension performance.
One of the most controversial questions raised by classroom second language acquisition (SLA) researchers is whether and how to include grammar in second language (L2) classrooms. Focus on form (FonF) was proposed as an alternative for the two polarized views, i.e., focus on formS and focus on meaning. It has been claimed that FonF is the most effective way of drawing learners' attention to language forms in the context of meaning-centered language use; however, there is no consensus as to the degree to which it should be explicit. To this end, this paper tried to investigate the role of FonF instruction in Iranian EFL context in general and the role of implicit and explicit FonF techniques on their linguistic accuracy in particular. 45 EFL learners were randomly assigned to two experimental and one control group. The instruction, using dictogloss, was introduced and lasted for three weeks. Then the participants from the three groups took three posttests including structured interview, multiple choice, and grammaticality judgment. The findings indicated that the experimental groups 1 and 2 receiving FonF instruction outperformed the control group. Further analysis of the scores of the participants in the experimental groups demonstrated the outperformance of the experimental group receiving implicit FonF technique through clarification request and recast compared to the experimental group receiving post task explicit FonF.
Though pronunciation pedagogy went through drastic fluctuations until mid-1980s, since then the overall attitude towards its role and instructional prominence as a potent and essential communicative element has remained consistent. Developing functional intelligibility, communicability, increased self-confidence, the development of speech monitoring abilities and speech modification strategies for use beyond the classroom have been its the main goals. Nowadays, pronunciation pedagogy seems to be adopting a more humanistic orientation by taking into consideration some affective variables derived from psychology and neuro-linguistics programming (NLP). This paper emphasizes the need for teaching pronunciation to gain full communicative competence and the importance of incorporating the findings of other disciplines, such as psychology, NLP, technology as well as socio-psychological issues including identity, ego boundary or interpersonal relationships in pronunciation teaching.
The role of pronunciation has varied widely in different methods and approaches of language teaching. In Grammar Translation Method (GTM) and the cognitive learning it received virtually no role. In Audio Lingual Method (ALM), on the other hand, it had a pivotal role. In communication-oriented approaches and within the broad context of EFL/ESL teaching in which successful communication is emphasized, it has been argued that pronunciation pedagogy deserves neither fate. This paper provides a historical overview of pronunciation teaching from GTM to communicative language teaching (CLT) highlighting the fact that until CLT, pronunciation pedagogy witnessed some drastic fluctuations; nevertheless, from then on, most of the researchers and practitioners in the field have come to the conclusion that the most reasonable and logical goal for pronunciation pedagogy should be intelligibility and functional communicability rather than nativeness.
The current study investigated the differential effect of two types of oral feedback – graduated oral corrective feedback (GOCF) in accordance with sociocultural theory (SCT) and supplemented direct oral corrective feedback (SDOCF) in accordance with cognitive-interactionist theory (CIT) – on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners’ written errors. The study used a pretest-treatment-immediate posttest-delayed posttest design with three groups. Two types of tests were employed to measure the learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge of English articles. The results of the repeated measures mixed-design ANOVAs and post-hoc analyses demonstrated that while both types of feedback significantly improved both types of knowledge in the immediate posttest, a clear advantage was found for the GOCF in the long term. The findings indicate that oral feedback, especially the GOCF within SCT, could be an effective means of addressing learners’ written errors and improving their implicit knowledge.
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