Intermodal Transfer of Zero-EquivalentFL Forms from Writing Skill to Speaking Skill and Vice Versa in EFLIranian Learners

The experiment undertaken in this study focused on testing the hypothesis that the context or activity through which language learning takes place and specific FL forms that learners are expected to learn may be possible causes of variation in the learnerʹs performance. This study, thus, investigated the possible causes of variation in intermodal transfer, a process which is believed to be partly responsible for foreign language learning (FLL). An almost linguistically homogenous sample of sixty subjects was randomly selected out of 1500 newly accepted university students in Islamic Azad University-Shahrekord Branch. The subjects were chosen from a variety of majors such as Persian Literature, Sociology, History, Public Administration, Educational Administration, Preschool Education, Nursing, Civil Engineering, Geography, and General sciences. They were assigned to two groups, each receiving exposure to the English language forms in focus through a different context: Group A through conversational activities and group B through writing activities. The language elements studied were eight English forms non-existent in the learnersʹ L1 (Persian). The results supported the hypothesis that knowledge of FL forms not present in L1 learned through writing contexts/activities is more readily transferable to other contexts than the same knowledge learned through conversational contexts/activities. The possible causes of such variation in the learnersʹ performances were discussed along with implications of the findings for FLL studies and EFL pedagogical purposes.