This paper presented two complex span tasks in Persian as measures of working memory capacity (WMC). Firstly, the construct of working memory (WM) and possible WM measures that could assess this construct efficiently were critically reviewed. Accordingly, as measures of domain-general components of WM, a reading span task and an operation span task which were documented to assess this construct...

As Schmidt (2008) states, deeper engagement with new vocabulary as induced by tasks clearly increases the chances of learning those words. This engagement is theoretically clarified by the involvement load hypothesis (ILH, Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001), based on which the involvement index of each task can be measured. The present study was designed to test ILH by evaluating the impact of 4 differ...

As Schmidt (2008) states, deeper engagement with new vocabulary as induced by tasks clearly increases the chances of learning those words. This engagement is theoretically clarified by the involvement load hypothesis (ILH, Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001), based on which the involvement index of each task can be measured. The present study was designed to test ILH by evaluating the impact of 4 differ...

Repeated Reading (re-read), which means to read a sentence twice to get a better understanding, has been applied to machine reading tasks. But there have not been rigorous evaluations showing its exact contribution to natural language processing. In this paper, we design four tasks, each representing a different class of NLP tasks: (1) part-of-speech tagging, (2) sentiment analysis, (3) semanti...

This study was an attempt to investigate whether output tasks, i.e., reconstruction and picturecuedwriting tasks, promote learners’ noticing of English passive structure compared to nonoutputtasks, i.e., reading comprehension and if so, which output task is more effective inenhancing learners’ noticing. In addition, this study aimed to investigate whether output tasksfacilitate learning of Engl...

One important issue that any material or test designer should bear in mind is to be careful about developing teaching and testing reading materials which would not be to the benefit of a group of readers or examinees and to the detriment of some others. One of the factors which may cause difference between the performances of English learners or test takers is the selection of reading tests wit...