Papers by Mahshad Tasnimi
Affective factors seem to play a crucial role in success or failure in second language acquisitio... more Affective factors seem to play a crucial role in success or failure in second language acquisition. Negative attitudes can reduce learners’ motivation and harm language learning, while positive attitudes can do the reverse. Discovering students ’ attitudes about language will help both teacher and student in teaching learning process. Anxiety is one of the affective factors which plays an important role in learning and teaching process. This article deals with the concept of anxiety, its measurement and its contribution to learning and teaching.
Competency-based language teaching (CBLT) is an application of the principles of competency-based... more Competency-based language teaching (CBLT) is an application of the principles of competency-based education. It concerns accountability, management and quantification. CBLT focuses on the competencies and outputs. If teaching competencies becomes an end in itself, stakeholders become the object rather than the subjects of the educational process. On the other hand, if competencies are seen as tools to enable learners to act for change in their lives, critical thinking will be promoted. After a brief history, this article introduces competency-based language teaching. Then it will be followed by how it will be evaluated. Finally the pros and cons of this kind of instruction are elaborated in details.
The emergence of connectionism represents a paradigm shift in science. Connectionism has its root... more The emergence of connectionism represents a paradigm shift in science. Connectionism has its root in cognitive and computational neuroscience. Likening the brain to a computer, connectionism tries to explain human mental abilities in terms of artificial neural networks. A neural network consists of large number of nodes/units joined together to form a network of interconnections. Knowledge is distributed among these interconnections. Therefore, learning is a by-product of processing. This article deals with the concept of connectionism, what it accounts for and what it does not account for. Furthermore, a comparison between traditional symbolic view and connectionist view is presented. Finally, different approaches to connectionism are discussed.
The emergence of connectionism represents a paradigm shift in science. Connectionism has its root... more The emergence of connectionism represents a paradigm shift in science. Connectionism has its root in cognitive and computational neuroscience. Likening the brain to a computer, connectionism tries to explain human mental abilities in terms of artificial neural networks. A neural network consists of large number of nodes/units joined together to form a network of interconnections. Knowledge is distributed among these interconnections. Therefore, learning is a by-product of processing. This article deals with the concept of connectionism, what it accounts for and what it does not account for. Furthermore, a comparison between traditional symbolic view and connectionist view is presented. Finally, different approaches to connectionism are discussed.
International Journal of English and Literature, 2017
Memory can be classified in different ways. In 1980, William James described two types of memory:... more Memory can be classified in different ways. In 1980, William James described two types of memory: primary and secondary. Primary memory refers to the “memory for events that have just happened” (Andrade & May, 2004, p. 59). Primary memory which is now referred to as short term memory (STM) is temporary and transient. On the other hand, secondary memory refers to the “memory that happened some time ago” (ibid.) secondary memory is permanent and long-lasting and it is now referred to as long-term memory (LTM) (Andrade & May, 2004).
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature
This study aimed to explore the effect of using Google concordancer and creating online crossword... more This study aimed to explore the effect of using Google concordancer and creating online crosswords on EFL learners' self-regulation in vocabulary learning. This study was conducted on two experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group received the intervention through using Google as a concordancer in vocabulary learning and the second experimental group learned vocabulary items through creating online crosswords, while in control group, the traditional procedure of vocabulary teaching was taken into consideration. The participants completed a questionnaire on self-regulation in vocabulary learning twice as pretest and posttest during the study. This questionnaire was developed by Tseng, Dornyei, and Schmitt in (2006) on self-regulation in L2 vocabulary learning (Appendix A). A one-way ANOVA was employed to examine the changes in participants' selfregulation over the course of the study. Finally, some statistical analysis was conducted. The results of statistical analysis indicated that the group who received the intervention through creating online crosswords had a significantly better performance in terms of self-regulation. The findings of the current study provided empirical evidence suggesting that through learning by discovery approach specially creating online crosswords, it might be possible to enhance self-regulation which is considered to be an important factor in the learning of English.
Journal of Pan Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 2009
Affective factors seem to play a crucial role in success or failure in second language acquisitio... more Affective factors seem to play a crucial role in success or failure in second language acquisition. Negative attitudes can reduce learners' motivation and harm language learning, while positive attitudes can do the reverse. Discovering students' attitudes about language will help both teacher and student in teaching learning process. Anxiety is one of the affective factors which plays an important role in learning and teaching process. This article deals with the concept of anxiety, its measurement and its contribution to learning and teaching.
Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2014
This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of self-regulation on EFL learners' reading c... more This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of self-regulation on EFL learners' reading comprehension. To fulfill the purpose of this study, 149 Iranian EFL language learners studying at Islamic Azad Universities of Qazvin and Tehran (North, and Science and Research branches) were selected from a total number of 200 based on their performance on TOEFL PBT test and randomly put into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received direct teaching along with task-based instruction on selfregulation in reading in ten sessions. The tasks/activities were designed based on self-regulation strategies proposed by Zimmerman (1989). The results showed the rejection of the null hypothesis, thus concluding that self-regulation has a significant effect on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. This investigation has some implications for language programs for ESP/EAP purposes in Iran.
Affective factors seem to play a crucial role in success or failure in second language acquisitio... more Affective factors seem to play a crucial role in success or failure in second language acquisition. Negative attitudes can reduce learners’ motivation and harm language learning, while positive attitudes can do the reverse. Discovering students’ attitudes about language will help both teacher and student in teaching learning process. Anxiety is one of the affective factors which plays an important role in learning and teaching process. This article deals with the concept of anxiety, its measurement and its contribution to learning and teaching.
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Papers by Mahshad Tasnimi