Editorial
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 ...
Read More
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.
Research Article
Dr. Jafar Afshinfar; Awat Shokouhifar
Abstract
This study seeks to investigate the effect of explicit and implicit corrective feedback on the narrative writing of advanced Iranian EFL learners. In so doing, the study was conducted with 76 advanced EFL learners from 3 intact classes at an English language teaching institute in Iran. The sample was ...
Read More
This study seeks to investigate the effect of explicit and implicit corrective feedback on the narrative writing of advanced Iranian EFL learners. In so doing, the study was conducted with 76 advanced EFL learners from 3 intact classes at an English language teaching institute in Iran. The sample was selected from among 92 learners by means of Oxford Quick Placement Test. After the researchers administrated the placement test, the participants were assigned into two experimental groups and one control group randomly. Following this phase of the study, the participants in the experimental and control groups were invited to write their first composition as the pre-test of the study. Then one experimental group received explicit corrective feedback and the other experimental group was offered implicit corrective feedback as treatment. The control group, however, did not receive any treatment. Within a time lapse of two weeks, the same procedure was repeated for the second composition which served as the post-test of the study. The results of t-test and covariance revealed positive effects of giving written corrective feedback on the advanced EFL learners' writing. Furthermore, the results highlighted the superiority of giving explicit corrective feedback over the implicit one in written tasks.
Research Article
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Dr. Azizeh Chalak; Mahdokht Nilforoush
Abstract
This article aims to investigate and analyze the perceived English language needs of engineers who want to develop their job position through English Language in their workplaces such as public relations, technical and operational, engineering support of production, planning and development, financial, ...
Read More
This article aims to investigate and analyze the perceived English language needs of engineers who want to develop their job position through English Language in their workplaces such as public relations, technical and operational, engineering support of production, planning and development, financial, general accounting, and legal affairs. In today’s competitive world, the economy needs more people with higher level skills in the workplace. Taking into consideration the specializations mentioned above, the article focuses on the perceived needs of engineers concerning Business English, not general English. Due to the business and economic development of the last decades in Iran, English has rapidly become the language used all over the world. Developing an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course in their workplaces is another purpose of this study. Questionnaire, interviews and observations were used to gather information in this research. Engineers’ expectations, managers’ demands, economy’s needs ask for more reliable methods to provide a better learning in workplace situation. Finally, based on the findings obtained from this study, it can be concluded that workplace courses have lots of effect on the engineers’ job and development and by passing the time they ask for more variable ESP courses relating to their job.
Research Article
3. Applied Literature
Amir Hamed Dolatabadi Farahany; Dr. Mojgan Eyvazi; Dr. Mohsen Momen
Abstract
The present study is conducted to compare 'From 7 o`clock to 9:30' by Abbas Na-albandian and 'Erostratus' by Jean-Paul Sartre based on Bakhtin’s intertextual approach with an eye on Bakhtin’s notion of dialogic imagination. Bakhtin in his approach focuses on the text, rather than the author, ...
Read More
The present study is conducted to compare 'From 7 o`clock to 9:30' by Abbas Na-albandian and 'Erostratus' by Jean-Paul Sartre based on Bakhtin’s intertextual approach with an eye on Bakhtin’s notion of dialogic imagination. Bakhtin in his approach focuses on the text, rather than the author, and that is why the approach is so demanding at present time. Also his dialogism refers to the fact that the various languages which stratify any single language are in dialogue with one another. So that a work of art is in relationship with other works of art. The aim here is to see if there is this kind relationship between the mentioned works which are from two different cultures and languages as the major components of culture, namely Persian and French. The co-relational analysis of the short stories indicates a significant relationship between them in the realms of plot, setting, characteristics, theme, etc. Therefore, the applicability of Bakhtin approach is emphasized through the resulted similarities which do exist in the mentioned works.
Research Article
Dr. Ali Mohammad Fazilatfar; Hossein Kargar Behbahani
Abstract
One of the most important language skills affecting students' success in academic settings is reading comprehension and the ability to read fluently in a second language. Japanese EFL learners' less than satisfactory performance in standard English tests led Shinozuka, Mizusawa, and Shibata (2014) to ...
Read More
One of the most important language skills affecting students' success in academic settings is reading comprehension and the ability to read fluently in a second language. Japanese EFL learners' less than satisfactory performance in standard English tests led Shinozuka, Mizusawa, and Shibata (2014) to design the read-aloud method. This study investigated the effectiveness of this newly designed method on Iranian EFL Learners' reading comprehension. The aforementioned method with its high priority on reading aloud enjoy four main activities: chunked reading practice, read-aloud practice, cloze test, and concurrent read-aloud and summarization. Participants of this study, selected through convenience sampling, were 140 undergraduate students whose English reading comprehension was considered poor based on the pretest. Then, the subjects were assigned in two groups of control (N=40) and experimental (N=100). The subjects in experimental group received 8 teaching sessions, while the control group received no specific training. Using a pretest-posttest design we attempted to see if read-aloud method turns of to affect our subjects' reading ability level. Therefore, some T-tests were run. The results of the statistical analyses demarcated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in the posttest. The pedagogical implication of this study is that ESL/EFL instructors can implement the read-aloud method in their classes to promote their students' reading comprehension.
Research Article
Hossein Ghader; Dr. M. Rahim Bahlooli Niri
Abstract
AbstractThis study aimed at examining the effect of pictorial presentation of vocabulary on EFL students’ retention relying on Dual Coding Theory and Additivity Hypothesis, both of which emphasize the additive effect of images on recall. To that end, 63 students who were in grade three of high ...
Read More
AbstractThis study aimed at examining the effect of pictorial presentation of vocabulary on EFL students’ retention relying on Dual Coding Theory and Additivity Hypothesis, both of which emphasize the additive effect of images on recall. To that end, 63 students who were in grade three of high school served as the participants of the study. They were randomly divided into three groups of still picture experimental, motion picture experimental, and control groups. During the eight sessions of treatment, 40 new words were taught to the three groups. The experimental groups received the words visually, using software, and the control group was instructed in traditional way. The participants were tested for their memory of the target items twice: immediately at the end of the course as a final exam (post-test) to assess their short-term memory and three weeks after the final exam to test their long-term retention. Data analysis using a mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance (split-plot ANOVA/SPANOVA) and a post hoc Scheffé test demonstrated the positive effect of pictorial presentation of vocabulary on the learners’ retention of words. The results also revealed that teaching vocabulary using motion picture mode was more effective.
Research Article
Dr. Ameneh Zare; Farnaz Zare
Abstract
The Qur’an is the only holy book of Muslims all around the world. Each person with any religion and language is interested in comprehending and accepting the rules and regulations of their own belief. Translation of the Qur’an is only an attempt to present its meaning. One of the most challenges ...
Read More
The Qur’an is the only holy book of Muslims all around the world. Each person with any religion and language is interested in comprehending and accepting the rules and regulations of their own belief. Translation of the Qur’an is only an attempt to present its meaning. One of the most challenges in translation of the Qur’an is collocation. A collocation is a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. The present study concerns a comparative analysis of the collocations in the Holy Qur’an. This article examined the possibility of losing the original features during the translation. In order to find this, the researcher considered three Arabic-English translations. The translators are Muhsin Khan and Muhammad AlHilali (1999), Muhammad Pickthall (1930), and Abdullah YusufAli (1934). The framework is based on Vinay and Darbelenet Model of Translation (1985) to see which strategies were happened during the translation and is there any relationship between the translation texts or not. The result shows that some of the collocation translated different from one translator to other one. Moreover the translations of each translator are adapted to one of the different method of Vinay and Darbelenet Model of translation.
Book Review
3. Applied Literature
Javad Khorsandi
Abstract
Ahmed Saadawi’s third and last novel Frankenstein in Baghdad was originally published in Arabic in 2013 and has since been translated into several languages, including an English translation by Jonathan Wright in 2018. The novel, which won the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, is a heart-rending ...
Read More
Ahmed Saadawi’s third and last novel Frankenstein in Baghdad was originally published in Arabic in 2013 and has since been translated into several languages, including an English translation by Jonathan Wright in 2018. The novel, which won the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, is a heart-rending story of a country blighted by an unending cycle of war, violence, and misery. Saadawi’s novel captures the mood of post-war Iraq and provides the readers with one of the most vivid descriptions of mayhem and terror in Middle Eastern literature. The title of the novel is more misleading than clarifying. Apart from a couple of passing references and a superficial similarity in creating a patchwork monster inflicting terror and violence, Saadawi’s novel has almost nothing to do with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818).
