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Volume 2 (1); March 15, 2013

Research Paper

Language Production and Comprehension: The Effect of Pre-School Aged Siblings on Toddlers Language Development.

Malmeer E. and Assadi N.

Int. J. Appl. Ling. Stud., 2(1): 01-06, 2013; pii:S232251221300001-2

ABSTRACT

Despite previous works showing that mothers, fathers, and siblings provide input to their toddler, the role of siblings on specific changes that they may cause, remains obscure. Since most work in this area has concentrated on the input provided by parents, this study extended prior work by comparing how specifically parents and sibling could influence different aspects of language development in toddlers up to age 24 months. 20 children (1; 8) were videotaped interacting with their family members. Two groups of children were compared in this study: group A) toddlers who do not have a sibling, group B) toddlers who have a preschool- aged sibling (4:8). To see if there were a significant difference between the toddler's comprehension and production abilities, two separate t-tests were compared. Analysis of groups revealed that group A was superior on production but group B acted better in comprehension. These results are discussed in terms of quality and quantity of the input provided by family members.
Key words: Language Comprehension, Language Production, Input, Toddlers, First Language

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Research Paper

The relationship between critical thinking and performance of Iranian EFL learners on translation tests.

Boloori L and Naghipoor M.

Int. J. Appl. Ling. Stud., 2(1): 07-12, 2013; pii:S232251221300002-2

ABSTRACT

To investigate the relationship between critical thinking and translation performance of Iranian EFL learner, 100 seniors of English translation major at Islamic Azad University- Tonekabon Branch were presented. After running the proficiency test, 84 students were chosen as a homogenous group for this project. One questionnaire of critical thinking and one test for measuring their translation skill were administered to find out the relationship between critical thinking and translation ability of EFL learners. The participants were first given the Persian version of critical thinking questionnaire including 30 items. After the administering the questionnaire, a multiple choice translation exams including 50 items was given to the participants. Strong correlation was found between the two variables through using Pearson Product Moment Correlation. In addition, dividing the participants into two groups of high and low groups of critical thinking showed that there was a difference between high and low group and their performance on translation test. Analyzing the data through running T-test discovered that the higher the participants’ ability of critical thinking, the better their performance on translation tests. The findings of the present study can have theoretical and practical implications for improving EFL learners' ability of translation potential.
Key words: Critical Thinking, Critical Reading, Inferential Reading, Comprehension, Inference

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Research Paper

Dynamic Assessment of Grammar with Different Age Groups.

Zoghi M and Malmeer E.

Int. J. Appl. Ling. Stud., 2(1): 13-19, 2013; pii:S232251221300003-2

ABSTRACT

This study intended to explore the effect of an interactionalist model of dynamic assessment (DA) on Iranian EFL adult and teenage learners’ grammar performance. To this end, 80 students were selected based on the convenience sampling procedure and assigned into teenage (n= 40) and adult (n= 40) groups. An interactionalist model of DA was implemented in both teenage and adult groups. The data obtained from the pre-test and post-test scores were analyzed by a series of paired samples t –test and independent sample t- test. The results indicated a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the grammar test. It is concluded that the adult EFL learners benefits from DA more than the teenage EFL learners.
Key words: Dynamic assessment, Teenagers, Adults, Grammatical ability

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Research Paper

The Role of Instructing Substitution as a Kind of Grammatical Cohesion on its True Identification and Creation of Modal, Reporting and Conditional Contexts.

Hasannejad M.R., Assadi N., Mirzaei M.

Int. J. Appl. Ling. Stud., 2(1): 20-28, 2013; pii:S232251221300004-2

ABSTRACT

In an effort with a two-fold research question regarding the role of teaching substitution as a kind of grammatical cohesion on the true identification of confusing substitution elements with cohesive or noncohesive roles in different contexts and also the production of modal, reporting and conditional contexts through clausal substitution acquaintance, the following procedures were taken. First 120 male and female EFL students were selected from Iranshahr Azad University. Having administered the language proficiency test, researchers selected 80 students as intermediate subjects according to their TOEFL band scores. First, pre-tests of cohesion identification (substitution) and production of modal, reporting and conditional environments were administered to both control and experimental groups. Then, the experimental group was exposed to teaching of the above-said cohesive device. Finally, post-tests of substitution elements identification and modal, reporting and conditional contexts production through clausal substitution familiarity were administered. The results showed that cohesive device treatment helped students on the true identification of substitution elements. Another finding proved that EFL students may have no difficulty in learning certain rules or classification of rules and application of their clausal substitution knowledge in creating modal, reporting and conditional contexts. Our findings can have implications for the field of language learning and teaching by deepening our understanding of the nature of the cohesive devices used by Iranian intermediate EFL learners in the process of reading comprehension and also applying their knowledge of cohesive devices not only in reading skill but also in speaking and writing skills to have more fluent and accurate speakers, writers and successful readers.
Key words: Cohesion, Cohesive devices, Modal, Reporting, Conditional Contexts

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