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Category: Vol. 4 : No. 2, Jun 2015
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Volume 4 (2); September 15, 2015

Research Paper

The Impact of Hypermedia on EFL Learners’ Oral Performance.

Jorjani M. and Abdolmanafi-Rokni S.J.

Int. J. Appl. Ling. Stud., 4(2): 24-30, 2015; pii:S232251221500004-4

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of hypermedia as a delivery tool on improving EFL students' speaking skill. The speaking improvement of students exposed to multimedia English lessons was compared with the speaking improvement of students not exposed to multimedia lessons. A total of thirty two students from two classes sharing a similar social and educational background approved by a background questionnaire and a language proficiency test participated in the study. Then sixteen students in each class at the pre-intermediate level of proficiency were randomly assigned into either experimental or control group. Next, the two classes were administered a speaking test. For a period of six weeks in twelve sessions the educational software Rosetta Stone was offered to the experimental group. After twelve sessions both groups were reexamined through a speaking test to examine the impact of software on users' functions and its effect on the speaking ability of the participants in the experimental group. The findings showed a significant increase in the learning outcomes of experimental group from pretest to posttest in which their scores were significantly higher than those of the control group.
Keywords: Rosetta Stone; Hypermedia; Speaking skill; EFL learners

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Research Paper

The Effect of Personality Factors on Learners' View about Translation.

Naghipoor M. and Abedini F.

Int. J. Appl. Ling. Stud., 4(2): 31-35, 2015; pii:S232251221500005-4

ABSTRACT

The present study investigated learners’ view about translation (use of mother tongue) and the effect of two personality factors, tolerance of ambiguity and risk taking, on translation. 140 EFL learners participated in this study. An Oxford placement test was administered to homogenize the learners. Test. They answered three questionnaires of ambiguity tolerance, risk-taking and translation belief. According to statistics, a Chi-square analysis showed that participants had a positive viewpoint about the use of translation. An independent sample t-test was used to determine the effect of risk taking on students’ translation viewpoint. The results revealed that risk taking affects negatively on translation belief. On the other hand, it seemed that risk-averse learners had positive translation belief .Unlikely, risk takers did not tend to use translation for language learning. Moreover, the t-test analysis of the effect ambiguity tolerance revealed that this personality factor had no effect on learner’s viewpoint about translation.
Keywords: Tolerance of Ambiguity, Translation Belief, Risk-Averse Learners, Risk-Takers

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Research Paper

Determination of Phonological Awareness Skills in Educable Children with Down’ Syndrom between Mental Ages Of 7 To 12 in Isfahan.

Shafiei B, Tavakol S., Ali Nia L. and Navabakhsh S.

Int. J. Appl. Ling. Stud., 4(2): 36-40, 2015; pii:S232251221500006-4

ABSTRACT

Learning Phonological Awareness skills play an important role in speech and language development and also education of children. These skills enable children to express their mental concepts more completely. Past studies have shown that children with Down’s syndrome have problems in learning phonological awareness skills. This study aims to determine the level of phonological awareness skills in children with Down’s syndrome. In this cross-sectional research, all Isfahanian children with Down’s syndrome have been examined with phonological awareness test. To examine, subjects were assessed by subtests and results were written in the checklists. Statistical analysis was done by using t-test and SPSS16 software. Although girls did better in this research, however there was no significant difference in phonological awareness skills between two sexes. The highest average of phonological awareness skills in both sexes between 12 considered categories, were in phoneme combination skills and the lowest in middle syllable awareness skill. Phonological awareness skills from easy to difficult in both sexes were first phoneme recognition, last phoneme recognition, awareness of last syllable, rhyme, congruence, deletion of the first phoneme and deletion of the middle phoneme respectively. Based on the results of this study, girls compared to boys did better in phonological awareness skills (however the differences were not significant). Furthermore, the results showed, similar to normal kids, the subject group also did not do the same in all phonological awareness skills and the skills had not been developed to the same extent. In other words, some skills were more difficult than others and needed more time to be developed.
Keywords: Down’s Syndrome, Phonological Awareness, Children, Phoneme, Educable

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