It is argued that tasks with different structures yield different performances in terms of accuracy, fluency and complexity. The present study is thus an attempt to investigate the impact of task structure on second language task performance. Thirty two upper-intermediate Iranian learners of English performed two narrative tasks (Structured vs. Unstructured) based on cartoon scripts. The perfor...

the ph.d. entrance examinations of islamic azad university in iran are administered annually to select the best applicants for ph.d. programs. in consideration of the important decisions, which are made on the basis of the results of these examinations, the present study was conducted to provide a qualitative evaluation of field-specific language subtests (flss) of four entrance examinations ad...

The best improvisational theatre actors can make any scene partner, of any skill level or ability, appear talented and proficient in the art form, and thus "make them shine". To challenge this improvisational paradigm, we built an artificial intelligence (AI) trained to perform live shows alongside human actors for human audiences. Over the course of 30 performances to a combined audience of al...

The art of performance tuning is, alas, still an art; there are few tools to help predict the effects of changes that are motivated by performance needs. In this work, we present dynamic dependency modeling techniques for predicting the effects of configuration changes. These techniques utilize a simple, exterior model of the system under test, and only require codifying the nature of dependenc...

although investigating the factors that influence test scores is important, a majority of stakeholders show a paucity of attention towards individual learner differences due to having large classes of l2 learners. this study sought to explore the possible effect of working memory and cognitive style on l2 learners’ metaphorical test performance. the study was conducted in 2 phases. the first ph...