ERIC Number: EJ1117032
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0957-1736
EISSN: N/A
The Impact of Task Structure on the Use of Vague Expressions by EFL Learners
Parvaresh, Vahid; Ahmadian, Mohammad Javad
Language Learning Journal, v44 n4 p436-450 2016
The present study sets out to examine whether and how task structure affects the number and type of vague expressions used by a group of higher intermediate EFL learners. The participants were 50 Iranian EFL learners from 6 intact classes, all native speakers of Persian with limited opportunity to communicate with native speakers of English, and no experience in English-speaking countries. To elicit data, two picture description tasks were used. These picture-stories possessed the defining characteristics of structured and unstructured narrative tasks, respectively. Results revealed that (a) unstructured tasks were associated with the production of significantly more vague expressions and (b) the most notable differences between performances on the two task types concerned "vague nouns", "vague quantifiers", "vague deintensifiers" and "vague subjectivisers". The results of the study have implications for both teachers and teacher educators in that they may help identify the kinds of tasks which induce language learners to use vague expressions more frequently.
Descriptors: English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Foreign Countries, Illustrations, Language Usage, Semantics, Task Analysis, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Iran
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A