Saeed Mohammadi; Esmat Babaii
Abstract
This study investigates EFL teachers’ perceptions regarding Dynamic Assessment (hereafter DA) prior and subsequent to taking part in workshops and panel discussions. Twenty-five EFL teachers participated in a semi-structured interview, 10 of whom were selected through purposive sampling to take ...
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This study investigates EFL teachers’ perceptions regarding Dynamic Assessment (hereafter DA) prior and subsequent to taking part in workshops and panel discussions. Twenty-five EFL teachers participated in a semi-structured interview, 10 of whom were selected through purposive sampling to take part in a five-session workshop, which was held to familiarize them with the principles of DA. Following workshop training sessions, a panel discussion was run for 2 sessions and teachers shared their ideas and discussed their problems in applying DA in their classes regarding reading skill. Their classes were video-taped for further analysis and they were also asked to keep reflective journals regarding their practice. After these treatment sessions, a second semi- structured interview regarding EFL teachers’ perceptions about DA was run. According to the results of the discussion sessions and interviews, using them as the base of work, an observation checklist was created to assess the EFL teachers' classroom practices and see whether they correspond to their attitudes or not. The results of this study showed that EFL teachers found workshop training sessions both informative and practical. They mentioned panel discussion groups as a good platform to discuss their practice- related problems with their colleagues and writing reflective journals as an awareness raising act which help them improve their DA practices. Implications for teachers and teacher training courses are discussed.
Mohammad Nabi Karimi; Eskandar Samadi; Esmat Babaii
Abstract
The present study explored the effect of semantic priming in the resolution of ambiguous sentences containing Relative Clauses (RCs) preceded by a complex Noun Phrase (NP) by L1-Persian learners of L2 English. The type of semantic relationship examined was the one between the RC and one of the NPs in ...
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The present study explored the effect of semantic priming in the resolution of ambiguous sentences containing Relative Clauses (RCs) preceded by a complex Noun Phrase (NP) by L1-Persian learners of L2 English. The type of semantic relationship examined was the one between the RC and one of the NPs in the complex NP to find out whether semantic manipulation through priming one of the NPs to the RC can affect L2 learners’ attachment preference. The participants were 60 L1-Persian learners of L2 English with different proficiency levels. In a self-paced Paraphrase Decision Task using E-prime software, their reading times and attachment preferences while reading ambiguous sentences were examined. The low-proficiency participants’ off-line (RC attachment preferences) and on-line data (reading times) were compared with off-line and on-line data obtained from high-proficiency participants. The results revealed that in both groups, semantic priming affected participants’ attachment preferences. These findings are consistent with Constraint-based Models of sentence processing, which assume that several sources of information, including semantics, are used in sentence processing. The results also support predictions of the Spreading Activation Model. There were also significant differences between the two groups, low-proficiency participants fully transferred their L1 (Persian) processing strategies to their L2 (English). However, high-proficiency participants processed sentences similarly to native English speakers even though there were still traces of their L1 parsing preferences which is consistent with Shallow Structure Hypothesis.
