1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Davud Kuhi
Abstract
This paper assumes that developing strong models of academic discourse analysis would not by itself guarantee researchers’ access to the realities of academic communication and that any development in the theory of academic discourse analysis should also be informed and equipped with developments ...
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This paper assumes that developing strong models of academic discourse analysis would not by itself guarantee researchers’ access to the realities of academic communication and that any development in the theory of academic discourse analysis should also be informed and equipped with developments in wider applied linguistics research methodology. The current paper proposes that the departure point of this dialogue between academic discourse theory and research methodology should be the concept of “triangulation”. While in applied linguistics research context, the concept has been defined as a research strategy aiming at developing diverse dimensions to approach the phenomena under investigation, I have argued that triangulation should be redefined and further operationalized in light of the realities of academic discourses and the very demands and desires of academic discourse researchers. To do so, a set of options including genre-based triangulation, culture-based triangulation, discipline-based triangulation, language-based triangulation, mode-based triangulation, time-based triangulation, expertise-based triangulation, analyst-based triangulation, corpus-based triangulation, and audience-based triangulation has been proposed.
Bahram Behin
Volume 9, Issue 2 , October 2021, , Pages 1-2
Abstract
Dear JALDA ReaderThe job being done by the young and zealous members of the team behind The Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature can be regarded as a reflection of what happens generally in Iran in relation to English language. With a fire of enthusiasm burning inside young adults ...
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Dear JALDA ReaderThe job being done by the young and zealous members of the team behind The Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature can be regarded as a reflection of what happens generally in Iran in relation to English language. With a fire of enthusiasm burning inside young adults in Iran to reach out to the world in its colourful facets for several purposes, it is quite visible how there has been a rush to learn English in different walks of society. The enthusiasm taken to the academic level results in the determination to contribute to the field by any decent means available. Launching a new journal with goals resulting from the context of culture and the context of situation is a demanding endeavour that has proved to be a major means of contribution to the field and its context-oriented causes. Our Journal with the ups and downs it has experienced throughout its rather short life is now in a position that shows its potential to reach excellence, especially with reference to the great number of research articles that it receives both nationally and internationally from scholars in the fields of applied linguistics and applied literature. All this is actually the consequence of the hard work that the young team behind the Journal has already done. It should not be an exaggeration if I dare say that one could see degrees of “the agony and sweat of the human spirit” in my young colleagues working for the Journal; they really deserve a big round of applause, then!
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 ...
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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.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Henry G. Widdowson
Abstract
The basic assumption in applied linguistics is that the expert disciplinary study of linguistics can yield insights which can be applied to an understanding of how language is actually experienced, and so provide a principled basis for intervention by proposing ways of resolving the problems that people’s ...
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The basic assumption in applied linguistics is that the expert disciplinary study of linguistics can yield insights which can be applied to an understanding of how language is actually experienced, and so provide a principled basis for intervention by proposing ways of resolving the problems that people’s experience in using and learning language gives rise to. But the validity of this assumption depends on how is expertise in linguistics to be defined, and how far, as it has been conventionally practiced, can it claim to account for the reality of how individuals experience language? What, for example, does it tell us, and not tell us, about how users and learners think and feel about their own and other peoples’ language, and what effect their attitude has on their using and learning? These are crucial questions about the scope of linguistics and its applied linguistic relevance since they have an immediate and urgent bearing on the problematic issues that applied linguistics would claim to address of how communication is enacted across different lingua-cultural and ideological borders in a globalized world. Since this global communication is predominantly mediated by the expedient use of English as a lingua franca, it raises the applied linguistic question that this talk will be centrally concerned with of what pedagogic implications this has for how English is conventionally taught as a foreign language subject.
Bahram Behin
Abstract
The editor’s notes in our Journal have been so far a site for the clarification of the Journal’s policy and the task still continues. With an inclination towards solving our real world problems in language teaching (and literary studies, which I will discuss in the next issue of the Journal), ...
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The editor’s notes in our Journal have been so far a site for the clarification of the Journal’s policy and the task still continues. With an inclination towards solving our real world problems in language teaching (and literary studies, which I will discuss in the next issue of the Journal), we would like to take that the introduction of the concept of “life-world” to Social Sciences can be a ground-breaking movement to open up new horizons for researchers. I will further illustrate JALDA's position and policy here. The current issue of JALDA features an interview, seven research papers of national and international scope and a book review. The interview is with Professor Glenn Fulcher, the distinguished British applied linguist working in the field of language testing and assessment. The first paper by Behrooz Azabdaftari is a tribute to Professor Henry Widdowson on his visit to Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University in 2018. Cosmas Rai Amenorvi draws on the theory of cohesion to show how both linguistic and aesthetic effects are achieved in Malcolm X’s ‘The Ballot or the Bullet’. The paper by Sarvandy and Ekstam focuses on English as Lingua Franca with attention to Iranian context. The paper by Karimnia and Sabbaghi is a study of Ta’ziyeh and its discourse with an emphasis on how language varieties help frame a culturee’s perception of religion. Ameri's contibution is an example of applied literature. She applies New Jungian findings to the reading of Sweetness in the Belly. The paper by Abbasi and Khosrowshahi explores the role of experience in EFL teachers’ satisfaction of the in-service teacher education programs in Iran, and Ashrafi and Ajideh explore culture-related content in the advanced series of Iran Language Institute. And, finally, Jane Ekstam has reviewed Loving Literature: A Cultural History, by Deirde Shauna Lynch for us.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Behrooz Azabdaftari
Abstract
There are such great names in language studies as Noam Chomsky, Lev S. Vygotsky, Howard Gardener and Michael Halliday who are widely accredited with having introduced new concepts in linguistics and neighboring disciplines and to whom we remain deeply indebted. In this article which has been written ...
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There are such great names in language studies as Noam Chomsky, Lev S. Vygotsky, Howard Gardener and Michael Halliday who are widely accredited with having introduced new concepts in linguistics and neighboring disciplines and to whom we remain deeply indebted. In this article which has been written on the occasion of Professor Henry Widdowson's visit in April 2018 to Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University in Tabriz, Iran, professor Widdowson's thoughts and contributions to applied linguistics and language teaching are reviewed in passing. The author make this issue his point of departure and takes up some of the ground breaking ideas of Professor Widdowson and elaborates very briefly on the following notions: 1) English in Training and Education. 2) Applied Linguistics and Linguistics Applied. 3) Authenticity of Teaching Materials in ESP. 4) Present Situation versus Target Situation Analysis of Students’ Language Learning needs: The Language Audit 5) Linguistic principles and intuitive interpretation
Bahram Behin
Abstract
Our Journal's tendency towards the real world in applied linguistics and literary studies should have significant epistemological and methodological consequences in researching the fields. The interest in the real world makes the problems we may have in our everyday lives our 'points of departure' in ...
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Our Journal's tendency towards the real world in applied linguistics and literary studies should have significant epistemological and methodological consequences in researching the fields. The interest in the real world makes the problems we may have in our everyday lives our 'points of departure' in research. According to my experience of research in our universities throughout their history, researchers in both applied linguistics and literary studies have attributed great significance to ‘learning’ theories giant scholars have formulated and their main job has been to put the theories to use in the Iranian context for the purpose of teaching English language and literature. The assumption that researchers should confine themselves to theories, frameworks, methodologies and the use of instruments that are of positivistic nature is a dominant characteristic in the Iran context. The paradigm shift, as I understand it, is required firstly as a turning away from linguistics as a science and the unlearning of linguistic theories because no linguistic theory is comprehensive enough to provide us with a real world description of language; new ways of analyzing and understanding language are needed. According to this view, applied linguistics should not be confined to ‘language teaching.’ Its function should be ‘language teaching in the context of the real world,’ although, according to Rajagopalan (2004, p. 415), “There is still a long way to go and many stubborn resistances … to be overcome.”
Davud Kuhi
Abstract
Writing has an overarching significance in our lives. We experience this significance in our personal, professional and social activities. Much of who we are and who we wish to become in our social life, in the professional community we belong to and even in the privacy of our individual life is the ...
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Writing has an overarching significance in our lives. We experience this significance in our personal, professional and social activities. Much of who we are and who we wish to become in our social life, in the professional community we belong to and even in the privacy of our individual life is the outcome of what we write and how we write. We are often judged and evaluated by our control of it. The fact that we write for many reasons and purposes, that there are diverse contexts in which written texts are produced and consumed, and that those who wish to learn writing have diverse backgrounds and needs, all push the study of writing into wider frameworks of investigation. Teaching and Researching Writing should be seen as a response to the necessity of understanding these wider frameworks and meeting the needs of teachers and learners who belong to totally diverse contexts. As a brilliant reflection of many years of scholarly work of its writer, Ken Hyland, combined with insights from other prominent figures, the book primarily helps us gain glimpses of different social, cultural and institutional dimensions in which written communication operates.
4. Dynamics between Applied Studies on Language and Literature
Bahram Behin
Abstract
Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature in the sense that we would like to use them should result in academic activities that are social in their orientation. Academics are not isolated individuals equipped with scientific tools and working within laboratory like situations. Their close encounter ...
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Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature in the sense that we would like to use them should result in academic activities that are social in their orientation. Academics are not isolated individuals equipped with scientific tools and working within laboratory like situations. Their close encounter with the real world situations is a fundamental necessity. Reading theories and literary texts in the library is not undertaken for the sake of creating mentalities to judge what lies outside our reading and library. There should, instead, be an interactional process between what we read and what we experience in the world out there that seems to be unruly and messy in nature. This attitude seems to have consequences for us in our academic behaviour. One of them, for instance, should be our attempts to look for non-traditional forms and formations of research and practice. Employing mere quantitative research methods, what we have inherited in the name of ‘science’ from the past, we may end up in failures. ‘Science’ is no longer a sacred institution whose colossal columns are untouchable, especially for us in developing countries that seem to be lagging behind the fast moving states and institutions forming categories of insiders and outsiders for themselves, for instance. There have been so many glossy theories of language and literature that are regarded either as totally obsolete or impractical for many reasons today.
Dr. Bahram Behin
Abstract
EDITORIAL Dear JALDA reader, Our journal experiences transformations. In its title “Discourse Analysis” gives way to “Applied Literature.” The reason is that our Department offers undergraduate and graduate courses in both English Literature and English Language ...
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EDITORIAL Dear JALDA reader, Our journal experiences transformations. In its title “Discourse Analysis” gives way to “Applied Literature.” The reason is that our Department offers undergraduate and graduate courses in both English Literature and English Language Teaching and we believe that our Journal should cover both disciplines. We would also like to put emphasis on the “applied” aspect of the disciplines because we believe that within the context of what we have done so far in our Journal this is a meaningful step we take towards dealing more with the “real world” than before. We had a similar intention from the very beginning of our Journal, but, due to mostly theoretically-orientedness of Applied Linguistics and textually-orientedness of Discourse Analysis, we started to realize that we miss the lion's share of what is called the “real world.” Working within the mainstream findings in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Analysis eventually leads to what we have experienced so far: a contribution to the verification of findings we have received from the authorities in the disciplines. This sounds, within the context of today’s globalization, somehow problematic. Do we really look like one another? Do we have similar problems in language teaching and learning and in studying and understanding texts? Should we read literary texts mostly within the frameworks we have received from sources that are usually culturally far from us because they are “great” sources? Another problem with mainstream research in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Analysis is that the researcher working in these disciplines stands at the centre of research process and determines, on the basis of his theoretical standpoint, what is right and what is wrong and what should be done and what shouldn’t. Such an attitude has been criticised for some remarkable time especially by those who have an orientation towards the real world rather than scientific theories. In the traditional approach, the relationship between the researcher and the researched is that of subject and object, whereas, to our view, the relationship should be between subject and subject. We believe that research should take us into the unknown aspects of the real world so that we may use the teaching and learning of language and literature for effect-driven purposes in our particular societies instead of contributing to what is known as the mainstream flow of knowledge in its academic sense. The researches we would like to be undertaken should show the peculiarities of the researcher’s context of situation and challenge our already held concepts and presuppositions of what language and literature are and how they may be tackled for real world purposes. Our standpoint towards worldly phenomena is regarding them as precious and invaluable in themselves. We do not eliminate anything because we would not like to play God with things. Literature, both in its broadest sense referring to ordinary people’s understanding of it and in its narrowest sense referring to specific definitions of it, for instance, is of great significance to us because literature has been part of people’s lives from the early periods of the history of mankind. But the tendency in our Journal is to have literature applied to the solution of the problems we come across in our society. It does not make sense to us to read literature within the framework of different theories, for instance, simply because we are supposed to put on fashionable hats throughout of our career. A theory introduced as magnificent to us but without any sensible touch to our lives should not be a source of restriction for us. We may find solutions to our problems in other areas and places especially with reference to real life situations. The “real world” has priority to us. We are certainly taking our first steps in this regard, but we are hopeful that our enthusiasm and heartfelt wishes for finding ways towards understanding the complexity of the world around us would be our strong source of motivation and moral support. The contributions from colleagues and researchers from all over the world are our source to shed light to this wonderful world and to see its colourful aspects. Bahram Behin Founding Editor-in-chief Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamics and Advances (JALDA) 15 July 2018
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Mitra Pourmohammadi; Dr. Davud Kuhi
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to compare the PhD dissertations written by native and nonnative English writers in the field of Applied Linguistics with regard to the use of self-mentions. To this end, 40 Applied Linguistics PhD dissertations (20 written by native English writers and 20 by non-native ...
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The purpose of the present study was to compare the PhD dissertations written by native and nonnative English writers in the field of Applied Linguistics with regard to the use of self-mentions. To this end, 40 Applied Linguistics PhD dissertations (20 written by native English writers and 20 by non-native English writers), were selected randomly among academic texts written in 2007-2017. The present study analyzed only the introduction and discussion sections of these PhD dissertations. The results of the chi-square analyses revealed that native English writers used more self-mentions in the introduction and discussion sections of Applied Linguistics PhD dissertations than their non-native counterparts. In the light of the findings of the study, it was recommended that Iranian writers in general and PhD candidates in particular have to move away from positivist impersonalized writing presentation towards more socialist performance of knowledge claims and authors’ voice and stance.
3. Applied Literature
Dr. Abolfazl Ramazani
Abstract
Health Humanities written by Paul Crawford, Brian Brown, Charley Baker, Victoria Tischler, and Brian Adams was first published in 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan, UK. The book is a result of many years of experience of work in the field and comes at a right time after the successful organisation of some international ...
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Health Humanities written by Paul Crawford, Brian Brown, Charley Baker, Victoria Tischler, and Brian Adams was first published in 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan, UK. The book is a result of many years of experience of work in the field and comes at a right time after the successful organisation of some international conferences on health humanities by Professor Paul Crawford, et al. in the preceding years. Structurally, it includes the following chapters: 1) “Health Humanities”, 2) “Anthropology and the Study of Culture”, 3) “Applied Literature”, 4) “Narrative and Applied Linguistics”, 5) “Performing Arts and the Aesthetics of Health”, 6) “Visual Art and Transformation”, 7) “Practice Based Evidence: Delivering Humanities into Healthcare”, 8) “Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery”, and finally “Concluding Remarks”. The book also contains, amongst other things, three important entries: “List of Figures and Tables”, “References”, and an “Index”, which add to the attraction of the book and make it an authentic read. In the “Acknowledgements” section of the book, the authors thank many health-related organisations in the UK, specially the Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery consortium for practically helping them with their “Mutual Recovery”, a subject that has duly and frequently been dealt with in chapter eight.
Davud Kuhi; Parisa Tajahmad
Abstract
Writing academic texts by novice researchers requires a framework and support by learning how to cite the works of others. However, compared to the studies on other academic writings, studying citations by considering certainty markers has received little attention. The main purpose of this study was ...
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Writing academic texts by novice researchers requires a framework and support by learning how to cite the works of others. However, compared to the studies on other academic writings, studying citations by considering certainty markers has received little attention. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the shifts of certainty markers (hedges and boosters) in pre- and post-citation pieces of arguments in Applied Linguistic Textbooks. To this end, representative samples of about 50 Applied Linguistic Textbooks in 18 different topic areas were selected randomly from among 100 Textbooks and were analyzed on the basis of Hyland’s (2005) model. The researchers studied both direct/indirect and integral/non-integral citations and examined their pre- and post-citation parts in order to identify shifts of certainty that occurs in pre- and post-citation arguments. The analysis of the citations resulted in identification of nine different patterns. The study concludes with some implications for post-graduate students, novice researchers, academic writers and readers to equip themselves with discoursal properties required for writing academic textbooks.
Faramarz Pourmusa
Abstract
Writing academic texts by novice researchers requires a framework and support by learning how to cite the works of others. However, compared to the studies on other academic writings, studying citations by considering certainty markers has received little attention. The main purpose of this study was ...
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Writing academic texts by novice researchers requires a framework and support by learning how to cite the works of others. However, compared to the studies on other academic writings, studying citations by considering certainty markers has received little attention. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the shifts of certainty markers (hedges and boosters) in pre- and post-citation pieces of arguments in Applied Linguistic Textbooks. To this end, representative samples of about 50 Applied Linguistic Textbooks in 18 different topic areas were selected randomly from among 100 Textbooks and were analyzed on the basis of Hyland’s (2005) model. The researchers studied both direct/indirect and integral/non-integral citations and examined their pre- and post-citation parts in order to identify shifts of certainty that occurs in pre- and post-citation arguments. The analysis of the citations resulted in identification of nine different patterns. The study concludes with some implications for post-graduate students, novice researchers, academic writers and readers to equip themselves with discoursal properties required for writing academic textbooks.
