Title of article :
A Syntax-based Approach to the Production of English Verbs’ Argument Structure by Iranian EFL Learners
Author/Authors :
Akbarnezhad , Shima Department of English Language Shiraz Branch - Islamic Azad University - Shiraz, Iran , Sadighi, Firooz Department of English Language Shiraz Branch - Islamic Azad University - Shiraz, Iran , Bagheri, Mohammad Sadegh Department of English Language Shiraz Branch - Islamic Azad University - Shiraz, Iran
Abstract :
LearningEnglishverbsandtheirsyntacticfeaturescan
act asthecoreofsentencescross-linguistically.EFLlearnersfacedif-
ficultiesintheproductionofEnglishverbs’argumentstructures.This
researchtriedtoinvestigateanddiagnosetheproblemsIranianEFL
learnersencounterinproducingEnglishverbargumentstructuressyn-
tactically.Seventy-fivestudentswhosemajorwasEnglishparticipated
in thissurvey.First,theresearcheradministeredanOxfordPlacement
Testtogetthreedifferentlevelsofproficiency,includingelementary,
lowerintermediate,andupper-intermediate.ThenaTranslationTest
wasconductedaftertheproficiencytesttoestimatetheparticipants’
productionofEnglishverbargumentstructures.Descriptivestatistics,
togetherwithOne-wayANOVA,wereappliedtoanalyzethedata.The resultsdemonstratedthatlearnerswithdifferentproficiencylevelspro-ducedEnglishverbs’argumentstructuredifferently,andalsotheyfacedseriousdifficultiesproblemsinproducingdi-transitiveverbs.ExplicitteachingofEnglishverbs’argumentstructureswiththeirsyntacticfea-tures,indifferentcontexts,andmoreexposuretolanguageinputcanhelpEFLlearnersimprovetheirknowledgeofargumentstructures
Keywords :
EFLlearners , levelofproficiency , pro-duction , syntacticfeatures , Englishverbs’argumentstructures
Journal title :
Journal of Studies in Learning and Teaching English
