3. Applied Literature
Amin Khanbazian; Hossein Sabouri
Abstract
As one of the outstanding works written in the late twentieth century, Paul Auster’sMoon Palace is the extension of the prominent discussion existing in his works,which concerns the issue of identity formation and the characters’ involvement in the expedition toward self-acknowledgment. Looking ...
Read More
As one of the outstanding works written in the late twentieth century, Paul Auster’sMoon Palace is the extension of the prominent discussion existing in his works,which concerns the issue of identity formation and the characters’ involvement in the expedition toward self-acknowledgment. Looking through the life of Marco Fogg as the main character of the novel, it has been desired to outline the existential points of view laid in the novel. Unlike the previously conducted studies, this paper is diverting the central focus of its analysis from the psychosocial perspectives introduced by James Marcia to the existential outlook by providing the notions of critical existential philosophers such as Heidegger and Sartre. Accordingly, the famous theory of identity formation that Marcia established has close parallels with the concepts that Heidegger and Sartre have discussed concerning the human beings who are considered beings-in-the-world, or, as it is called, “dasein.” Throughout this procedure, the main protagonist’s various identity formation phases have been investigated through existential concepts like “thrownness,” “nothingness,” and “bad faith.” And in the end, the outcome of such an analysis is tracking down the latent sides of existential concepts existing in the novel, which have not been the center of focus in previous studies.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Kazem Pouralvar
Abstract
The notion of expectancy grammar as a key to understanding the nature of psychologically real processes that underlie language use is introduced by Oller (1979). A central issue in this notion is that expectancy generating systems are constructed and modified in the course of language acquisition. Thus, ...
Read More
The notion of expectancy grammar as a key to understanding the nature of psychologically real processes that underlie language use is introduced by Oller (1979). A central issue in this notion is that expectancy generating systems are constructed and modified in the course of language acquisition. Thus, one of the characteristics of language proficiency is that it consists of such an expectancy generating system. Therefore, it is claimed that for a proposed measure to qualify as a language test, it must invoke the expectancy system or grammar of the examinee.This article aimed at finding the relationship between textuality of a text and its realization in expectancy grammar. To this end, texts with high and low lexical collocational density (LCD) as a means of reaching textuality in a text are given to participants in the form of cloze test. Texts with high and low lexical collocational density were selected to act as cloze tests and administered on EFL learners. An independant t-test was used to analyse the mean of the scores obtained in pairs of low and high LCD texts. The results showd that texts with high lexical collocational density enjoy higher degrees of readibility and are suitable for cloze tests. In other words, the group who took cloze tests with high lexical collocational density outpeformed the group whose cloze tests had been prepared on texts with low lexical collocational density.
3. Applied Literature
Ali Emamipour; Farideh Pourgiv
Abstract
It has been quite a while since research in different disciplines has become widely cross-fertilized. The cultural matrix of our era has made it possible for ideas and metaphors to move across disciplines. John Barth has been one of the most-celebrated cross-disciplinary fiction writers, who has been ...
Read More
It has been quite a while since research in different disciplines has become widely cross-fertilized. The cultural matrix of our era has made it possible for ideas and metaphors to move across disciplines. John Barth has been one of the most-celebrated cross-disciplinary fiction writers, who has been perceptive of and receptive to breakthroughs in other disciplines to reinvigorate fiction. Despite the fact that Barth’s literary career, particularly from Lost in the Funhouse (Funhouse), coincides with the coronation of Quantum Mechanics as the regime capable of addressing reality in a more precise way, the recognition of the influence of Quantum Mechanics on Funhouse has been conspicuously absent from the critical enterprise, and the bulk of research has viewed it in the light of Poststructuralism, whose application to contemporary fiction has been exhaustible by now. Establishing the framework of the Article based on some concepts for which the Copenhagen Interpretation and the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics are famous, the present study offers a new perspective to approach the idiosyncrasies of Ambrose in the series, thereby employing an unprecedented methodology to replenish a work which has been subjected to a barrage of metafictional readings.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Farnaz Sahebkheir
Abstract
In this study, the researcher chose three different vocabulary techniques (Visual Representation, Textual Enhancement, and Glossing) and compared them with traditional method of teaching vocabulary. 80 advanced EFL Learners were assigned as four intact groups (three experimental and one control group) ...
Read More
In this study, the researcher chose three different vocabulary techniques (Visual Representation, Textual Enhancement, and Glossing) and compared them with traditional method of teaching vocabulary. 80 advanced EFL Learners were assigned as four intact groups (three experimental and one control group) through using a proficiency test and a vocabulary test as a pre-test. In the visual group, students used flashcards; in the textual enhancement, every synonym and antonym were highlighted and numbered and in the glossing group new vocabularies were numbered and their explanations were provided in the margins or footnotes. Students in the control group learned vocabulary through traditional way by meaning explanation, translation, or providing synonyms and antonyms. All the other three groups had the same procedure as control group but besides these processes they had access to visual, textual, or glossing techniques, too. The results showed that in the posttest, all three experimental groups outperformed the control group. However, the highest improvement in both post-test and delayed post-test was for glossing group. As a whole, we can say improvement in vocabulary learning was respectively for glossing, then visual, and finally textual enhancement. Therefore, it can be concluded that using pictorial, textual cues and glossing enhance their interlanguage system.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Saeedeh Mohammadi
Abstract
Genre analysis as an area of great concern in recent decades, involves the observation of linguistic features used by a determined discourse community. The research article (RA) is one of the most widely researched genres in academic writing which is realized through some rhetorical moves and discursive ...
Read More
Genre analysis as an area of great concern in recent decades, involves the observation of linguistic features used by a determined discourse community. The research article (RA) is one of the most widely researched genres in academic writing which is realized through some rhetorical moves and discursive steps to achieve a communicative purpose. This study aimed at proposing a model of generic patterns competence applicable in writing RAs in different English for Academic Purposes (EAP) disciplines. In so doing, a “qualitative meta-synthesis” (Walsh &Downe, 2005) approach was adopted as the research method. A meta-synthesis exercise was framed and the currently available literature on various models of generic moves suggested for the different sections of RAs was investigated. 391 relevant abstracts and 354 full papers were selected and screened and a number of 26 studies were appraised for final inclusion. Afterwards, a reciprocal translation was conducted to generate the latent themes and concepts in the general model. More specifically, a thematic coding strategy was applied for synthesizing the selected qualitative evidence. Then, different obtained themes and categories were synthesized to extract the major dimensionsof the model of RA generic competence. Finally, four super themes of generic competences were emerged including: RA abstract generic competence, RA introduction generic competence, RA methodology generic competence, and RA discussion generic competence. The new model can be a common frame of reference to guide the EAP researchers in understanding and following the appropriate generic structuresin producing an acceptable body of academic discourse to be published in highly prestigious journals.
3. Applied Literature
Sanam Shahedali; Lale Massiha
Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to incorporate the three Lacanian orders in Søren Brier’s cybersemiotic theory in the context Lewis Carroll’s Alice texts. As an interdisciplinary framework that emphasizes the role of the observer and its symbolically-generated hieroglyph-like universe ...
Read More
The main objective of this paper is to incorporate the three Lacanian orders in Søren Brier’s cybersemiotic theory in the context Lewis Carroll’s Alice texts. As an interdisciplinary framework that emphasizes the role of the observer and its symbolically-generated hieroglyph-like universe of “signification sphere” in which any attempt at accessing the objective world of information seems nonsensical, cybersemiotic is an invaluable tool for re-visiting the three orders by which, according to Lacan, we develop our sense of self and the world. Certain elements such as dream-like states, impossible word plays, paradoxes, and nonsense in the Alice books, which follow the titular character into the fantastic realms of Wonderland and the Looking Glass World, can allow for registering the Real by disclosing the self-referential nature of language and debunking the seemingly integrated façade of an imaginary and metaphoric reality founded upon the Symbolic and the Imaginary. For an in-depth analysis of how a creatively self-reflexive handling of language can evoke a space where the three Lacanian orders emerge simultaneously as one collapses onto the other, a cybersemiotic formulation of nonsense in the Alice books is introduced as the linguistic moment in which signifier-in-isolation (the Real) and signifier-in-relation paradoxically appear on the same cognitive horizon, revealing the underlying dynamics of the signification process which involves an arbitrary development of differentiated signs rendered meaningful due to a tacit consensus agreed upon over the temporal axis.
2. Applied Linguistics (Inspirations from neighbor disciplines)
Amin Karimnia; Seyed Mohammad Hosseini Fard
Abstract
Works of poetry are characterized by specific elements (e.g. symbols, images, concepts) that help interpret and thematize such works. The principle of “holism” in hermeneutics is concerned with analyzing how part-whole relationships are established in a text and how they may give rise to ...
Read More
Works of poetry are characterized by specific elements (e.g. symbols, images, concepts) that help interpret and thematize such works. The principle of “holism” in hermeneutics is concerned with analyzing how part-whole relationships are established in a text and how they may give rise to a particular reading of it. A problem, however, is analytical frameworks / models are rarely used for hermeneutic textual analysis and most studies are very subjective / abstract in this area. This study explores the English translations of Rumi’s prelude to his masterpiece Masnavi to analyze how they represent the “mystical” reading of the work. The study draws on a hermeneutical model of poetry translation, which is regulated by two sub-components: cultural-linguistic complexity rate and hermeneutical complexity rate. To identify the characterizing elements, the study considers the keywords in the original and tries to analyze how they are rendered into English by focusing on holistic relationships between the sub-components of the model. The study then compares the choices and suggests which ones could thematically contribute to the mystical reading. Besides confirming the practicality of the model, the findings show that the mystical reading is scattered across the translations and no single one tries to reflect the mystical interpretation.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Maryam Ahmadi; Abbas Ali Zarei; Rajab Esfandiari
Abstract
Finding more effective ways of teaching second language idioms has been a long standing concern of many teaching practitioners and researchers. This study was an endeavorto explore the effects of three linguistic mnemonic devices (etymological elaboration, keyword method, and translation) on EFL learners’ ...
Read More
Finding more effective ways of teaching second language idioms has been a long standing concern of many teaching practitioners and researchers. This study was an endeavorto explore the effects of three linguistic mnemonic devices (etymological elaboration, keyword method, and translation) on EFL learners’ recognition and recall of English idioms. To achieve the purpose of the study, ninety male and female EFL learnersat intermediate level of language proficiency who were preparing themselves for IELTS were selected. They were in three groups of thirty members each. Each groupwas randomly assigned to one of the treatment conditions and was taught idioms using one of the above-mentioned linguistic mnemonic devices. The one-way ANOVA procedurewas used to analyze the data. The results showed statistically significant differences between these techniques, with the etymological elaboration method being the most effective of all, on both recognition and recall of idioms. The findings of the study can have implications for textbook designers, curriculum developers, teachers, and learners.
3. Applied Literature
Shirzad Tayefi
Abstract
Many experts believe that there are differences between female and male language (speech) and writing. In this article female and male language (speech) in novels, Shabhaye Tehran (Nights of Tehran) written by GhazalehAlizadeh and AzadaraneBayal (Mourners of Bayal) written by Gholam Hossein Saedi, have ...
Read More
Many experts believe that there are differences between female and male language (speech) and writing. In this article female and male language (speech) in novels, Shabhaye Tehran (Nights of Tehran) written by GhazalehAlizadeh and AzadaraneBayal (Mourners of Bayal) written by Gholam Hossein Saedi, have been compared according to Sociolinguistic Theories until the level of author's gender affecting on story language and dimension of author's success to create a proportional language to consubstantial and dissimilar characters is evaluated. For this purpose,female and male language (speech)in grammar was studied according to the below varies; words such as curse words, oath words, color words, and sentences, including modifiers and verifiers. Findings determine that the language has been affected by the author's gender and stereotypes of female language have been repeated with more frequency in these works. Furthermore, according to the mentioned modifiers, it was found that authors could create a proportional language with characters in many ways. In some cases,there is not a proportionality between language and gender,especially in a female character, mostly due to author's spirits and his witting that he has wanted to display women paranormal against the domination of patriarchal society.
3. Applied Literature
Mohammad Ghaffary; Melika Ramzi
Abstract
The issue of “freedom” has been one of the core concepts in the history of literature and philosophy since classical times. This concept considerably contributes to the ongoing discussions of Iris Murdoch’s The Unicorn (first published in 1963). Unlike most of the previous studies of ...
Read More
The issue of “freedom” has been one of the core concepts in the history of literature and philosophy since classical times. This concept considerably contributes to the ongoing discussions of Iris Murdoch’s The Unicorn (first published in 1963). Unlike most of the previous studies of the novel, whose central focus is on the transcendent, moral, or biographical readings of the text, the present study draws on Gilles Deleuze’s Poststructuralist philosophy to address the immanent aspect of freedom, as the main thematic concept in the novel, as well as such related notions as power, love, desire, and becoming to determine the degrees of freedom achieved by the major characters, Hannah Crean-Smith and Effingham Cooper. The main objective of the study, therefore, is to see whether or not the two main characters can ultimately find proper lines of flight. The findings suggest that although Hannah is encoded and territorialized in the Gaze castle, she ultimately turns into a body without organs (BwO). However, Effingham fails to become an active body in his interaction with Hannah. While Hannah undergoes an absolute positive deterritorialization through her death, Effingham obtains only a relative negative deterritorialization because returning to the “real” life constantly threatens a body’s force and renders an absolute form of freedom impossible.
3. Applied Literature
Hossein Sabouri; Ali Zare Zadeh; Abolfazl Ramazani; Roghayeh Lotfi Matanaq
Abstract
The aim of this paper, in Morrison’s fictional novel, God Help the Child (2015), is to examine the detrimental impact of the hostile and violent mistreatment of a light-skinned mother who restrains from nurturing her Black daughter. Nancy Chodorow’s (1978) Object Relations Theory helps us ...
Read More
The aim of this paper, in Morrison’s fictional novel, God Help the Child (2015), is to examine the detrimental impact of the hostile and violent mistreatment of a light-skinned mother who restrains from nurturing her Black daughter. Nancy Chodorow’s (1978) Object Relations Theory helps us determine how patterns of gendered-parenting and early-childhood development contribute to the reproduction of traditional sex roles. Her theory includes three basic “affects”, namely attachment, frustration, and rejection, in which the female identity is chiefly based on the inextricable attachment to the mother, and the status of women in culture is defined by the tie between the mother and daughter. These “affects” are universal emotions that are vital for infantile identity formation. Drawing upon her Psychoanalytic theory, the overarching argument of this paper is that the mother is the initial object for the infant to gratify its desires; however, from Freud’s (1926) standpoint, her breast, as the source of nurturance, is the first object. For our purposes, traditional theory of Freudian Oedipus Complex is not the primary concern of this paper and Chodorow’s (1978) contemporary Object Relations Theory is applied, for Psychoanalytic Feminism contributes to examining the ambivalent nature of motherhood. Our findings indicate that Chodorow elucidates the essence of motherhood in terms of the social constructions in lieu of biological ones. Given both Chodorow’s and Freud’s (1926) viewpoints, the inextricable maternal bond between Sweetness and Bride, the mother and daughter of the novel, is traumatically distorted once the mother deprives her infant of the maternal milk.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Ehsan Namaziandost; Tahereh Heydarnejad; Afsheen Rezai
Abstract
The mental health of teachers is an important issue in education. However, few studies have examined how self-efficacy (S-E), emotion regulation (ER), reflective teaching (RT), and mindfulness in teaching (MT) affect teachers' teaching style (TS). This study aimed to explore the correlation between S-E, ...
Read More
The mental health of teachers is an important issue in education. However, few studies have examined how self-efficacy (S-E), emotion regulation (ER), reflective teaching (RT), and mindfulness in teaching (MT) affect teachers' teaching style (TS). This study aimed to explore the correlation between S-E, ER, RT, and MT with TS in EFL teachers in Iran. The Teaching Style Inventory (TSI), the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), the Language Teacher Emotion Regulation Inventory (LTERI), the English Language Teacher Reflective Inventory (ELTRI), and the Mindfulness in Teaching Scale (MTS) were used to measure S-E, ER, RT, MT, and TS. The results showed that S-E, ER, RT, and MT were positively correlated with TS. The findings indicated that EFL teachers who had high S-E, high ER skills, high RT practices, and high MT awareness were able to use more effective TS strategies to facilitate students' learning. The study suggests that enhancing S-E, ER skills, RT practices, and MT awareness among EFL teachers can improve their TS preferences and outcomes. The study also provides some pedagogical implications for relevant stakeholders and opens up new avenues for further research.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Behjat Asa; Zohreh Seifoori; Nasrin Hadidi Tamjid
Abstract
Teacher training programs in EFL contexts pursue the goal of promoting teaching skills and critical dispositions in prospective and experienced teachers and their ability to reflect on and enhance their mediating roles to maximize learning outcomes. Yet, discrepancies in teachers’ roles during ...
Read More
Teacher training programs in EFL contexts pursue the goal of promoting teaching skills and critical dispositions in prospective and experienced teachers and their ability to reflect on and enhance their mediating roles to maximize learning outcomes. Yet, discrepancies in teachers’ roles during and after the programs are not uncommon and accentuate the need to assess outcomes. This quasi-experimental study aimedto provide research-based data on the outcomes of a 60-hour reflective task-supported (RTS) teacher training course, comprising theoretical, observational, and practicum modules, in terms of immediate and delayed changes in the mediating roles performed by 37 pre-service and 40 in-service Iranian male and female teachers. The findings obtained from the structured observation of the participants’ teaching demonstrations at the onset and the end of the study and during the first working semester were analyzed statistically through One-way repeated measures ANOVAs and indicated significant improvements in the mediating roles in both groups from the first to the second observation immediately after the training and from the immediate to the delayed observation only in the pre-service group. The findings underscore vitality of in pre-service and in-service training programs and accommodating reflective teaching and observational tasks in enhancing teaching roles.
2. Applied Linguistics (Inspirations from neighbor disciplines)
Seyed Foad Ebrahimi; Abdollah Mohsenzadeh
Abstract
This study intends to investigate the realizations and functional patterns of shell nouns in Applied Linguistics research articles. To this end, fifty research articles in the field of Applied Linguistic were selected from Journal of English for Academic Purposes and journal of English for Specific ...
Read More
This study intends to investigate the realizations and functional patterns of shell nouns in Applied Linguistics research articles. To this end, fifty research articles in the field of Applied Linguistic were selected from Journal of English for Academic Purposes and journal of English for Specific Purposes published by Elsevier. The articles were analyzed for the realizations of shell nouns based on the list suggested by Hinkel (2004). As to the functional patterns, Schmid’s (2000) classification of functional patterns of shell nouns was also adopted. Findings reported that some shell nouns are used more frequently while some were put aside. Findings also reported that writers of research articles in the field of Applied Linguistics used functional patterns suggested by Schmid (2000). Findings of this study could have implications by raising the awareness of writers of Applied Linguistics research articles, especially in EFL contexts, concerning the use of shell nouns and functional patterns in which shell nouns are used.
3. Applied Literature
Mehri Nour Mohamad Nezhad Baghayi; Abolfazl Ramazani; Sara Saei Dibavar
Abstract
“I CAN’T HELP READING!” is the common comment uttered by Detective Fiction readers who lose control over themselves as they begin reading a crime novel. The genre is a crystal clear formulaic structure which abounds with repetition: following a crime, an investigation is initiated by ...
Read More
“I CAN’T HELP READING!” is the common comment uttered by Detective Fiction readers who lose control over themselves as they begin reading a crime novel. The genre is a crystal clear formulaic structure which abounds with repetition: following a crime, an investigation is initiated by a detective to capture the criminal. Still, its clichéd nature does not lessen the universality of Detective Fiction. How could a story replete with puzzles and vague incidents be enticing? More importantly, why would the reader avoid discarding a book which sketches horrible deeds and inhuman interests of the criminal? What is the powerful element of Detective Fiction which places it among popular literature? This paper intends to answer these crucial questions by focusing on “conjecture,” a term introduced by Umberto Eco as the key feature of Detective Fiction’s appeal. To this end, an article by William F. Brewer and Edward H. Lichtenstein entitled, “Stories Are to Entertain: A Structural-Affect Theory of Stories” (1982) is targeted to shed light on the claim of conjecture as a way to knowledge by elaborating on three analytical components—surprise, suspense, and curiosity—of a story which make it strikingly attractive.
3. Applied Literature
Nazila Herischian; Seyed Majid Alavi Shooshtari; Naser Motallebzadeh
Abstract
The transitional period of the 1970s Britain being fictionalized in Margaret Drabble’s novel, The Ice Age (1977), provides the ground for theoretical discussion of the present paper that is based on the insights of Giorgio Agamben. It will inspect the way Drabble interprets socio-political issues ...
Read More
The transitional period of the 1970s Britain being fictionalized in Margaret Drabble’s novel, The Ice Age (1977), provides the ground for theoretical discussion of the present paper that is based on the insights of Giorgio Agamben. It will inspect the way Drabble interprets socio-political issues dominant in the 1970s and the way these issues affect her outlook. In this paper, considering the figure of an excluded existence in The Ice Age, Agamben’s biopolitical insights are examined to see how they may contribute to understanding of the dark side of sovereignty and the potentiality to transform democracies into totalitarian states. Taking the precariousness of the emotional, political and, ontological faculties of “love”, “homo sacer”, and “bare life” allocated to human being by sovereignty, it offers a different view of Drabble’s subjects on love and socio-political problems, maintaining that Agamben’s account of these issues supplies an underlying structure of the form-of-life. The paper also, through the striking features of Agamben’s discourse, approaches the concept of bare life and knits it to the concepts of instrumentalism, labor, slavery, and life, and fundamentally presents the awareness of self in political view. The characters examine some potentialities that may help them to break away from the prevailing deadlocks of the era. It is eventually shown that these practices, which according to Agamben may lead to a form-of-life that is called a happy life, conclude in the exclusion and spiritual void of the individuals.
2. Applied Linguistics (Inspirations from neighbor disciplines)
Farnaz Sahebkheir; Marjan Vosoughie
Abstract
In this article, researchers set out to discover the metadiscourse markers in research articles written by both native and non-native English speakers. To this end, a total number of twenty research articles published by Iranian and native English speakers in highly reputed journals on Arts and Humanities ...
Read More
In this article, researchers set out to discover the metadiscourse markers in research articles written by both native and non-native English speakers. To this end, a total number of twenty research articles published by Iranian and native English speakers in highly reputed journals on Arts and Humanities domains were randomly selected from major databases including Science Direct, Noormagz, and Magiran. Through Hylands’ Metadiscoursal model (2005), appraisals were accomplished on two main metadiscoursal aspects including interactive vs. interactional resources. The results revealed that interactive resources had the highest proportion in comparison with interactional resources with transitions being in the top list in both native and non-native articles considering different parts of the articles from abstract up to the conclusion part. From among interactional resources, in articles written by native English speakers, attitude markers and for the non-native ones, engagement markers had the least rates. In addition, Iranian scholars had used some markers e.g. ‘attitude markers’, and ‘hedges’ more than native English speakers. It can be included that students should be informed about a balanced use of the frequency and the percentage of different metadiscourse markers in English as a part of teaching writing or grammar in their research writing modules.
3. Applied Literature
Fereshteh Hadisi; Firouzeh Ameri
Abstract
The history of feminism and gender studies is fraught with constant struggles to find applicable definitions for sex, gender, and sexuality, and understand their relationships and differences. This paper attempts to go through various theories in this regard, tracing their variations and evolutions through ...
Read More
The history of feminism and gender studies is fraught with constant struggles to find applicable definitions for sex, gender, and sexuality, and understand their relationships and differences. This paper attempts to go through various theories in this regard, tracing their variations and evolutions through time, with a particular focus on gender elimination and discrimination. Some important issues explored in this research include experimentation with language, scientific investigations, and sociological research in the hope of defining and combating gender. Moreover, some manifestation of gender-neutrality patterns in literary works throughout ages and among nations have been represented in various degrees. The survey at hand, drawing on Foucault and Butler’s theories on power and gender performativity, asserts the relative independence of sex, sexuality, and gender from each other as well as the nonessential role of them in the game of discrimination, relegating this role instead to power relations and personal perceptions. Literature, with its vast imaginative capacities and persuasive force, has been introduced as the site where all these intellectual endeavors of various fields about gender have converged, creating metaphors for a possible discrimination-free world, and effecting inevitable changes in the perceptions of their readers.
3. Applied Literature
Ahad Mehrvand; Tayyebeh Rastegar Naderi
Abstract
Using Du Bois’s “Double Consciousness” and Fanon’s “Colonized Intellectual”, we contend that Borges’s essay “The Nothingness of Personality” can be deemed postcolonial. Our study turns to the postcolonial world of Latin America, with a special focus ...
Read More
Using Du Bois’s “Double Consciousness” and Fanon’s “Colonized Intellectual”, we contend that Borges’s essay “The Nothingness of Personality” can be deemed postcolonial. Our study turns to the postcolonial world of Latin America, with a special focus on Buenos Aires, addressing the alienation, hybridity, “two-ness”, and the othered state of Borges as an immigrant to Latin America after the World War I. “Double Consciousness” is arguably central to the analysis of Borges’s sense of duality in a newly adapted culture with the dilemma whether to behave in accordance with his previously adopted cultural identity, or with a new self in a new culture. Many studies have signified Borges’s attempt to establish the foundation of true Argentinean literature and a revival of cultural heritageک however, there ceases to be a significant study to encompass that Borges is like a “colonized intellectual” who talked back to the center through using the colonizer’s ideology.
4. Dynamics between Applied Studies on Language and Literature
Saber Khooei-Oskooei; Saeideh Ahangari; Zohreh Seifoori
Abstract
Many individuals fail to perform the responsibilities devolved to them within the expected time or at least do them near the deadline. The so-called procrastination in accomplishment of academic tasks has often been considered a frustrating phenomenon which commonly results in undesirable outcomes. However, ...
Read More
Many individuals fail to perform the responsibilities devolved to them within the expected time or at least do them near the deadline. The so-called procrastination in accomplishment of academic tasks has often been considered a frustrating phenomenon which commonly results in undesirable outcomes. However, some students believe that near-deadline performance leads to better results. Focusing on EFL learners, the researchers in this study followed the classical Grounded Theory Approach and investigated whether procrastination always has destructive effects on their performance and behavior or it can be applied as a strategy to gain better outcomes. To do so, they interviewed 43 EFL learners at intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency with prior experience of procrastination and, taking a constant comparative method, analyzed the collected data through three stages of coding (i.e., open, selective, and theoretical). The results indicated that although most respondents did not reject the destructive consequences of procrastination on their language learning, several EFL learners pointed to constructive consequences of procrastination in their learning. Moreover, some strategies for adjusting the destructive effects of procrastination and even for transforming them to constructive consequences emerged from the data. In this way, the present study led to the development of the grounded theory of language learning procrastination. This theory covered two themes of Consequences, including Constructive Language Learning Procrastination and Destructive Language Learning Procrastination, and Overcoming Strategies, including Internal and External Strategies. The resultant theory can open a new horizon to deal with EFL learners’ dilatory behaviors.
3. Applied Literature
Maryam Azadanipour; Naser Maleki; Mohammad-Javad Hajjari
Abstract
The 21st-century literature has experienced a shift of ideas reflected in metamodernism, introduced by Vermeulen and Akker in 2010. Although metamodernism is a critical approach in its naissance, it is observable in a large body of the 21st-century literature through certain narrative and thematic features ...
Read More
The 21st-century literature has experienced a shift of ideas reflected in metamodernism, introduced by Vermeulen and Akker in 2010. Although metamodernism is a critical approach in its naissance, it is observable in a large body of the 21st-century literature through certain narrative and thematic features which have proven to move in line with contemporary socio-cultural issues. Although metamodernism plays with and modifies specific elements of modernism and postmodernism, it is exclusive to the artworks of the last two decades in which certain terminologies such as the “infinite Real,” an aversion of the “Real” in former philosophical and psychological disciplines, suggest that truth and reality are infinite and that the past and the future are connected through a plastic connection. A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) by Jennifer Egan makes a good example of the metamodernist novel regarding the author’s network of characters in their approaches toward the reality of their lives as it is constantly redefined in association with their past. In this light, the novel is to thematically embed the concept of the “infinite Real” in the first decade of the third millennium.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Sanaz Sabermoghaddam Roudsari; Behrooz Azabdaftari; Zohreh Seifoori
Abstract
A controversial issue in language teaching is the extent to which engaging learners in the learning process may enhance various aspects of learners’ writing. The current study set out to examine the impact of employing evaluation rubrics as self-assessment devices on advanced EFL learners’ ...
Read More
A controversial issue in language teaching is the extent to which engaging learners in the learning process may enhance various aspects of learners’ writing. The current study set out to examine the impact of employing evaluation rubrics as self-assessment devices on advanced EFL learners’ writing features. The current study probed the interactive effect of criteria-referenced self-assessment and task type on the accuracy, lexical resources, and coherence. The participants included 60 advanced EFL learners distributed into two experimental groups (30 male and female learners each). The instruments were two writing tasks as pre-test and post-test, assessed based on IDP rubrics evaluating lexical resources, task response, grammatical range and accuracy, and cohesion and coherence. Two-way ANCOVA was administered to analyze the data. The findings revealed significantly more accurate and coherent writing of the criteria-referenced self-assessment group compared to the teacher-assessment group with no significant difference in lexical resources. Moreover, the findings indicated that the participants performed significantly better on shared tasks compared to independent tasks. However, task and assessment types were found to have no significant interactive effect on the writing features in question. The findings emphasize the practical benefits of criteria-referenced self-assessment and shared tasks in promoting Iranian advanced EFL learners’ writing accuracy and coherence. The implications will be discussed.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Mona Hosseini
Abstract
The book ‘Developing expertise through experience’consists of twenty chapters written by language educators. Alan Maley has edited the book. The writers of the chapters have written their stories and experiences about learning English and being an Educator with regard to the notion of ‘sense ...
Read More
The book ‘Developing expertise through experience’consists of twenty chapters written by language educators. Alan Maley has edited the book. The writers of the chapters have written their stories and experiences about learning English and being an Educator with regard to the notion of ‘sense of plausibility’ defined by Prabhu. Prabhu explains that plausibility in pedagogy is teachers’ intuition about learning arising from her own experience of teaching. The book is a major effort to share experiences between professionals working in different parts of the world. Therefore, the purpose is not to reach an agreement between many individuals but rather an enlarging, sharpening or enriching of every individual’s personal perception.In the first chapter of the book, Robert Bellarmine elaborates on the understanding of the ‘teacher’s sense of plausibility’. He explains that it is a personal theory of learning and teaching and its elements are not only beliefs and values but also concepts, principles, rules of thumb, truths and metaphors.
3. Applied Literature
Hossein Sabouri
Abstract
Identity is seen as a cultural and social construct, which indicates how we have been embodied and how we might represent ourselves. The knowledge that identities are the outputs of discourses is a familiar characteristic of some societal concepts. Gender, as an identity or a sense of our identity we ...
Read More
Identity is seen as a cultural and social construct, which indicates how we have been embodied and how we might represent ourselves. The knowledge that identities are the outputs of discourses is a familiar characteristic of some societal concepts. Gender, as an identity or a sense of our identity we build for ourselves, rather than something we are born with, is a constructed cultural category and is based on power relations and social norms that are part of a social system. Through gender as well as cultural studies, this paper will curiously look at the motion of mobility of self (identity) as it has been constructed in culture. The researcher also wants to note that the discursive practices such as the normal beliefs, social systems, and substantial behaviors of a cultural, religious, or social group view identity not as a kind of recognition with a group having common characteristics but as a construction among hidden cultural, political, and ideological intentions. Therefore, it is said that identity is in process and can be shaped by culture, media, and public opinion.
3. Applied Literature
Masoumeh Baei; Behzad Pourgharib; Abdolbaghi Rezaei Talarposhti
Abstract
The endeavor to establish reconciliation between the opposing demands of two cultural communities lies at the heart of some literary works associated with postcolonial literature. This theme, which is also central to the novels of Bharati Mukherjee, especially The Tree Bride, forms the plot of the novel ...
Read More
The endeavor to establish reconciliation between the opposing demands of two cultural communities lies at the heart of some literary works associated with postcolonial literature. This theme, which is also central to the novels of Bharati Mukherjee, especially The Tree Bride, forms the plot of the novel and serves as an axis around which the characters are developed. The present article adopts the theories of Homi. K. Bhabha to expound upon the gap that distances the oriental and the occidental cultures from one another and renders fragmented the identity of the postcolonial individual. Bhabha’s notions of the uncanny and the hybrid identity are two central concepts that can serve as keys to explaining the postcolonial encounter. They can significantly contribute to the discussion of the novel as they can prepare the ground for the investigation of how anti-colonial resistance becomes possible through the third space that is created through hybridity and the uncanny. In The Tree Bride, the protagonist finds herself between two cultures that attempt to draw her into their own orbits. The protagonist’s mimicry of the target culture is an ironic one, since it consists of acceptance and rejection at the same time. In other words, while Tara Chatterjee mimics the norms and criteria of the target culture toward which she strives, she is influenced by her ancestral culture. The paper argues that such uncanny condition can be detrimental to the individual and plunge her into a deep identity crisis.
