چکیده:
Linguistic/cultural differences of learners’ native language with English as a foreign language، gender and English proficiency level are among those numerous variables which affect English learning and its quality in Iranian context. The present study was an attempt to illuminate the effects of these variables on performing integrative approach of general English tests (cloze test and recall task، in particular). Hence، participants who were 162 Persian/Arab English learners (students of Abadan Institute of Technology in Khozestan، a province in which Arabic and Persian ethnicities live together) of both genders and were at different levels of proficiency were categorized into two categories of 82 Persian and 80 Arab English learners، as the basic categories of the study. Then، subjects were exposed to the study’s instruments:clozed and recall tasks made out of culture-based texts. The obtained results of an independent samples t-tests implied that Persian English learners performed remarkably better than their Arab peers. This over-performance may be because of linguistic/cultural characteristics of Persian which is more analogous with English (structurally and phonologically speaking) compared with Arabic. With the aid of a three-way ANOVA، gender and language proficiency level were also found to be effective variables for successful performance of integrative tests. In better words، as students'' proficiency level decreases، cultural parameters play more significant roles in their recall task performances. It was also found that، subjects’ performances on cloze and recall tasks as two manifestations of integrative tests were highly correlated.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The Role of Ethnicity in Integrative Tests Performances of Male/ Female Iranian English Learners of Different Language Proficiency Levels A.
Inspired by the unavoidable roles of cross-cultural factors on learning a second or foreign language, the researchers tried to investigate the role of ethnocentricity (cultural schemata) in cloze and recall tasks performances of 162 Persian and Arab English learners at Abadan Institute of Technology (AIT), where one of the reserachers had worked as an English teacher for 3 semesters.
The present study was an attempt to explore the possible effect of cultural schemata —ethnicity or cultural/linguistic differences— in addition to students' gender and language proficiency level on performing integrative realizations of general English tests; cloze test and recall task.
Therefore, this study seeks answers to the following questions: • Is there any difference between the performance of Persian and Arab English learners —as two different ethnic groups— on cloze test and written recall task?
• Does language proficiency level play a significant role in cloze test/recall task performances of the study’s subjects?
1 The role of ethnicity (linguistic/cultural differences) The most reasonable way to concentrate on the effects of linguistic/ cultural differences of learners’ native language with English as a foreign language on cloze test and recall task performances of Persian and Arab English learners was to obtain the means of both categories’ subjects on two examination types and then compare them.