ORIGINAL_ARTICLE
Lexicalization vs. Vocalization: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Emphasis in English and Persian
Language is a system of verbal elements that makes communication of meaningspossible in the manners the users intend by employing certain linguistic deviceswhich are partly language-specific. Once communicating cross-linguistically, thereis always a risk of negative transfer of techniques or processes from the firstlanguage (L1) to the foreign language (L2). The current study investigates the“emphasis” issue and how it is encoded and performed as a speech act in Persianand English. The investigation, based on a descriptive method, begins by verifyingoverstated and understated utterances in English and Persian individually and thenproceeds to evaluate the 2 bodies of data against each other. As observed in the caseof Iranian learners of English, the process of emphasizing through phonologicaldevices is heavily transferred. English mainly applies lexicalization, whereasvocalization is the preferred process in Persian. The tenets of this study may be ofinsight for theories of SLA. They also promise to ease English learning tasks byreducing students' negative transfer from their mother tongue.
https://rals.scu.ac.ir/article_10444_3bdc63a1fcb46df94f51206dc59f1fd1.pdf
2013-12-01
2
18
Linguistic Differences
Language Transfer
Emphasis
Phonological Devices
Lexicalization
Ahmad Reza
Eslami
eslami.ahmadreza@gmail.com
1
Yazd University
AUTHOR
Mohammad Javad
Rezai
mjrezai@yahoo.com
2
Yazd University
LEAD_AUTHOR
ORIGINAL_ARTICLE
An Investigation Into the Impact of Shortened Texting on Muslim Learners’ Correspondence Ability
High penetrability of wireless, mobile, portable, and handheld devices has resultedin education for all as the mobile’s challenge coincides with an unprecedentedgrowth in access to pedagogical materials technology, particularly in developingcountries (UNESCO Mobile Learning Week Report, 2011). The present study setout to discover how Muslim learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) areencouraged to think about and learn the Islamic instructions—as an integral part oftheir native culture—in TL by incorporating communicative skills through thepedagogically mediated application of cell-phone. The user groups of interest were218 Iranian second-year male and female students of translation studies at PayameNoor University, from age range of 21-24, homogenized as upper-intermediatethrough conducting Nelson English language proficiency test, level 400 A. Theywere spread randomly across 109 dyads to learn technology-enhanced materials in36 nonformal sessions. To equip the Muslim learners with lifelong linguistic andsocial knowledge for constructing conversational bridges for full participation incivic life at international level, abbreviated letter writing notes were already adaptedto the cell-phone screen to be accessed by the learners via the SMS application. Thefinal application was given to the participants for actual use and evaluation for aperiod of 1 academic semester. After the students had finished learning didacticmessages, interactive SMS quizzes were sent to evaluate their performance. Theanalysis suggested that significant gains occurred as a result of mobile-basedrepresentation of shortened Islamic contents in English which was congruent withthe learners’ favorable attitude towards embracing brevity for lifelong learning ofTL contents via SMS.
https://rals.scu.ac.ir/article_10468_12e0a0cecdd608239786afd7d9d67980.pdf
2013-04-01
19
41
Abbreviated Didactic Notes
Lifelong Learning
Muslim Learners
SMS
Zohre
Gooniband Shooshtari
zshooshtari@yahoo.com
1
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz
AUTHOR
Saeed
Khazaie
saeed.khazaie@gmail.com
2
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz
AUTHOR
Khodayar
Mehrabi
khodayarmehrabi@yahoo.com
3
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz
AUTHOR
ORIGINAL_ARTICLE
Willingness to Communicate in L2 English: Impact of Learner Variables
Due to the growing emphasis of modern language pedagogy on meaningfulcommunication, L2 willingness to communicate (WTC) has recently become animportant concept in second language learning and communication. The presentstudy investigated the effects of individual differences on Iranian EFLlearners' willingness to communicate. As many as 431 students who were learningEnglish as a foreign language in language centers served as the participants of thestudy. McCroskey's (1992) questionnaire was utilized to measure students'willingness to communicate. A series of independent-samples t-tests and one-wayANOVAs were run to provide answers to the research questions. The resultsindicated no significant difference among the participants in terms of gender, major,age, and personality types; however, significant difference was found with respect toother variables such as proficiency level, length of studying, being abroad, andcommunicating with foreigners. Therefore, the effects of Iranian EFL individualdifferences on their L2 WTC were partially confirmed. The importance of thepresent study lies in its theoretical contributions to the WTC research and thepedagogical implications for both second language teaching and learning.
https://rals.scu.ac.ir/article_10469_0e0018f944879f136f31c86f41036ed0.pdf
2013-04-01
42
61
Willingness to Communicate
EFL Context
Individual Differences
Second Language Learning
Minoo
Alemi
alemi@sharif.edu
1
Sharif University of Technology
AUTHOR
Zia
Tajeddin
zia_tajeddin@yahoo.com
2
Allameh Tabataba’i University
AUTHOR
Zahra
Mesbah
zahra.mesbah@yahoo.com
3
Sharif University of Technology
AUTHOR
ORIGINAL_ARTICLE
A Generative Analysis of the Acquisition of Negation by Iranian EFL Learners: A Typological Study
The present study was an attempt to investigate the acquisition of negationproperties by Persian monolingual and Kurdish-Persian bilingual learners of Englishacross different levels of language proficiency and within a generative framework.Generative models are generally concerned with issues such as universal grammar(UG), language transfer, and morphological variability in nonprimary languagedevelopment. Hence, an attempt was made to test the claims and predictions madeby a number of generative theories specifically FTFA, RDH, DA, MSIH, SSH, andMSBH. To do so, 180 Persian monolingual and Kurdish-Persian bilingual learnersof English participated in the study. Based on the Oxford Placement Test, they wereassigned to 3 levels of language proficiency. They, then, received a grammaticalityjudgment test and a translation task. The results revealed that there was, first, nosignificant difference between the performance of the monolingual and bilinguallearners at each level of language proficiency, whereas the difference wasstatistically significant across the levels of proficiency, and second, no singlegenerative theory can offer a comprehensive explanation about the whole process ofL2-L3 negation acquisition. Indeed, language development occurs in an incrementalmanner as predicted by MSBH, and the resetting of TL properties is possible withincreasing level of proficiency. The findings also confirmed that knowledge of anL2 does not play a significant role in the development of the interlanguagegrammars of Kurdish-Persian bilinguals, and increased L2/L3 exposure and use leadto less language transfer and consequently approximation to native-likeperformance. Each of these findings has been discussed in the framework of therelated theories tested in the study.
https://rals.scu.ac.ir/article_10470_1204b0aed2b176ec692d87dc0a79d27c.pdf
2013-04-01
62
87
Negation
FTFA
RDH
DA
MSIH
SSH
MSBH
Initial-State
Final/End-State
Universal Grammar (UG)
Reza
Khany
khani_reza@yahoo.com
1
Ilam University
AUTHOR
Abdonour
Bazyar
bazyar@yahoo.com
2
Ilam University,
AUTHOR
ORIGINAL_ARTICLE
Pragmatic Awareness of the Request Speech Act in English as an Additional Language: Monolinguals or
Bilinguals?
This study attempted to investigate the effect of bilingualism on pragmaticawareness and development among Iranian Turkish/Persian EFL learners. Data werecollected through a personal profile questionnaire with questions about theparticipants’ language background and a WDCT with 10 situations to determine theextent to which the bilinguals demonstrated their pragmatic awareness of requests.They were to read the situations and assess whether they realized the(in)appropriateness of the speech acts. For inappropriateness, they were also askedto explicate their selections and provide appropriate alternatives. Responses wereanalyzed according to 3 social factors of power, distance, and degree of impositionwith the assumption that the more references to these factors, the morepragmatically aware the participants. Alternatives were coded according to thecoding scheme of CCSARP. Results showed that none of the groups outperformedthe others in their perception of the (in)appropriate acts and in the realizationpatterns of request acts in trilingual education. This failure may be due to their lackof cultural awareness, literary skills, and insufficient L2/L3 pragmatic input.
https://rals.scu.ac.ir/article_10471_0e178d07e4d3a5cc223a3368e594f3bb.pdf
2013-04-01
88
110
Pragmatic Awareness
Bilingualism
Request Speech Act
WDCT
Masoud
Rahimi Domakani
rahimi@lit.sku.ac.ir
1
Shahrekord University
AUTHOR
Mahmood
Hashemian
m72h@hotmail.com
2
Shahrekord University
AUTHOR
Sedighe
Mansoori
mansoori_sedighe@yahoo.com
3
Shahrekord University
AUTHOR
ORIGINAL_ARTICLE
Assessing Assessment Literacy: Insights From a High-Stakes Test
This study constitutes an attempt to see what Language assessment literacy (LAL) isfor three groups of stakeholders, namely LAL test developers, LAL instructors, andLAL test-takers. The perceptions of the former group were derived from the contentanalysis of the latest version of the LAL test, and those of the latter 2 groups wereassessed through a survey designed by the researcher. Participants were 54 M.A.TEFL students sampled conveniently. Descriptive statistical analysis of the datarevealed that for test designers LAL is mainly a matter of knowledge and theorywith little importance accorded to skills and even less so to principles. Forinstructors and test-takers, LAL was perceived to be mainly a matter of skills.Moreover, test-takers perceived of LAL as the most challenging module of the testbecause of its dealing with statistics, its theoretical nature, and test-takers' lack ofhands-on experience with language tests.
https://rals.scu.ac.ir/article_10472_126bf2a5ee9fd111b5732a7b9895ab32.pdf
2013-04-01
111
131
Language Assessment Literacy
Language Testing
High-Stakes Tests
Kioumars
Razavipour
razavipur57@gmail.com
1
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz
AUTHOR
ORIGINAL_ARTICLE
Editing (Virayesh) as a Movement of Resistance During the Iran-Iraq War
The present study concerns editing of translations in Iran during the Iran-Iraq War,which in the official discourse of the country is known as the Sacred Defense. Itargues that editing, in its local sense, advocated a linguistic purism inspired by aredefined nationalism, which went hand in hand with identity politics andsnowballed into a movement of resistance.
https://rals.scu.ac.ir/article_10473_a38bd5068740cc791fe3a9840a1c9ab3.pdf
2013-04-01
132
141
Editing
Translation
resistance
Iran-Iraq War
Farzaneh
Farahzad
farzaneh.farahzad@gmail.com
1
Allameh Tabataba’i University
AUTHOR