Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Developing a Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Test for Iranian EFL Learners: The Case of the Four Speech Acts of Apology, Request, Refusal and Thanks Developing a Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Test for Iranian EFL Learners: The Case of the Four Speech Acts of Apology, Request, Refusal and Thanks 1 34 7064 10.29252/LRR.13.4.1 FA Ali Arabmofrad Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran Fatemeh Mehdiabadi PhD Candidate in Applied Linguistics, School of Education, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia Journal Article Based on the hypothesis that not only linguistics competence must be considered during the test development, but also pragmatics competence should be evaluated, the present study was conducted to develop a scale to assess learners’ pragmatic proficiency. To this end, this study developed the pragmatics test of multiple-choice discourse completion task (MDCT) in the case of four primitive speech acts of request, thanks, apology, and refusal for Iranian EFL learners. In the first phase, 155 Iranian university students were asked to write the situations at university, home or in society, in which they apologize, thank, request something and refuse an offer or invitation. In the second phase, to ensure the naturalness of the situations, another group of students were asked to rate the selected situations based on the frequency of occurrence of these situations in their everyday life. In the third phase, the tests were reviewed by several native speakers and TEFL colleagues. Finally, the items MDCT were developed by the researchers and in the final step, two pilot tests were conducted. The findings indicated that the scale was reliable, valid and appropriate to measure Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic knowledge. 1. Introduction Before enlightening the importance of developing the measurement of Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP) competence, the main focus was on different aspects of linguistic competence such as syntax, vocabulary, and cohesion (Liu, 2004). However, with the advent of pragmatics teaching and ILP, which are mainly focused on the development of linguistic action competence by nonnative speakers, the requirement in making the traditional assessment compatible with the new way of teaching has become more demanding. However, there is a wide gap between the teaching and testing measures to evaluate the pragmatic knowledge of students. Therefore, over the last decades, evaluating pragmatic competence of leaners by developing reliable and valid measures has drawn attention of many pragmatists (Hudson, Detmer & Brown, 1995). In recent years, a plethora of studies have attempted to develop pragmatic tests from different perspectives for EFL learners to evaluate the ILP competence. An example is the study carried out by Liu (2007) who developed a pragmatic test for Chinese EFL students to evaluate their pragmatic knowledge in the case of speech act of apology. Birjandi and Rezaei (2010) designated a Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Test (MDCT) to measure Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic competence for two speech acts of apology and request in educational setting through the same phases as employed by Jianda. Salehi and Isavi (2013) also developed a pragmatics test for Iranian EFL learners in terms of request and apology in academic contexts in Iran, United states, England and Suadi Arabia. However, in spite of a large number of speech acts, their studies solely focused on two speech acts, namely apology and request. Further, they suffer from several major drawbacks during the development of the test, such as the lack of measuring reliability and validity of the developed pragmatic test which may differ among various cultures. Since there seems to be just one study conducted on developing pragmatic measurement for Iranian EFL learners and teachers, it is apparent that more attention should be paid to and more comprehensive studies should be conducted (Alemi & Khanlarzadeh, 2016). Therefore, the present study seeks to remedy the previous study deficiencies by using statistical procedures and also considering four major speech acts of thanks, request, refusal, and apology. More importantly, the present study attempts to develop a well-known pragmatic assessment of MDCT for Iranian EFL learners. While learners are asked to choose the best option in MDCT, it gauges the participants’ awareness of the speech acts. 2. Methodology Participants A total number of 158 participants took part in the present study. There were 11 English native speakers, two university lecturers and 145 EFL university students with an intermediate level of English aged 19-22. They participated in five different steps of the test development process (Table 1). The selection of all participants was based on convenience sampling. Table 1. Number of Participants in Each Step of the Test Development Process Steps Non-native Native university students University lecturers 1. Exemplar generation 40 -- -- 2. Likelihood investigation 30 -- -- 3.Metapragmatic Assessment -- 2 2 4. Scenario generation and MDCT development 30 -- 9 5. Pilot study I 25 -- -- 6. Pilot study II 20 -- -- Sum 145 2 11 The Development of Testing Instruments The testing instruments consisted of a 32-item Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Task (to measure the awareness of speech acts). Following Birjandi and Rezaei (2010) and Liu (2007), the researchers developed the test items through a process of exemplar generation and likelihood investigation, metapragmatic assessment, and piloting. The following is an overview of the process of test development: Exemplar generation In order to know the most frequent situations in which the participants of the study were more likely to use the selected speech acts for this study, 40 TEFL students of Islamic Azad University were asked to write either in Persian or English at least five most probably occurring situations at university, home or in society in which they apologize, thank, ask (request something) and refusal. The purpose of this stage was to find the situational topics which approximate authentic situations the students encounter in their real life. A qualitative analysis of the situations showed that many of them were overlapping and 60 situations (15 situations for each speech act) were selected. In the following examples, some apologies produced by the students are provided: I always apologize for getting home late. I always apologize for interrupting my new friend. Likelihood investigation To test the naturalness of situations, 30 more students from the same pool were asked to rate the 60 selected situations from 1 to 5 on the basis of the frequency of occurrence and naturalness of these situations in their everyday life. Based on their ratings, 32 scenarios getting the highest mean scores were selected. The minimum number an item needed to get to be selected was 120 out of a maximum of 150 (80%). Metapragmatic assessment Following Takimoto (2007) and Liu (2007), the 52 selected situations were reviewed and analyzed according to situational features to balance the situations and promote content validity. This involved assessing the imposition (the burden put on the hearer), power relationship (equal, unequal) and social distance (+/- social distance). This was done to include situations with different metapragmatic features. Thirty-two situations (eight situations for each speech act) were selected to be employed in MDCT. After the metapragmatic assessment, the researcher developed MDCT situations by providing the situational background in detail. Scenario generation and MDCT development The 32 selected situations were given to 30 Iranian intermediate EFL learners and also six native speakers of English. The linguistically inaccurate and socially inappropriate responses given by non-native participants were used as distractors and the native speaker’s responses were used as correct options for the MDCT items. Following Hudson et al. (1992; 1995) and Liu (2007), the number of choices for each item was decided to be three. Then, to ensure that the native speakers of English would choose the assigned keys, the test was administered to three native American English speakers. It was found that in most cases all of them chose the keys assigned. Pilot study I The pilot study involved 25 freshman male and female university students, aged 18-20, studying TEFL at the Islamic Azad University of Gorgan, a northern city in Iran. They were required to answer the 32-item MDCT in 45 minutes. Rating MDCT For rating the MDCT, each correct response was given 1 and the incorrect ones received 0. As mentioned above, to be sure about the correct responses assigned by the researcher, ten native speakers of English were asked to answer the MDCT items. Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimates turned out to be .6 for pretest and posttest. The process of revising items The MDCT's reliability index of .6 suggested that there might be some problems regarding the testing method, the students, testing environment, and some other factors. Therefore, an attempt was made to find the causes of the problem and obviate them. To improve the reliability of MDCT, situations were reviewed and elaborated more in detail and the following three statistics were gathered for each item: 1) Item difficulty, 2) distractor analysis, 3) Corrected Item-Total Correlation. On the basis of findings from the first pilot study the following decisions and revisions were applied in the second pilot and the main study: Pilot Study II Based on the results of the first pilot study, some changes were made in the MDCT test items. Having applied the changes, the researcher conducted a second pilot study. It was to check the reliability index of the revised MDCT tests. The participants were 20 freshman TEFL students at Islamic Azad University of Gorgan. Based on the Oxford Quick Placement Test, the participants’ level was either lower-intermediate or upper-intermediate. They were required to answer the questions in 60 minutes. The reliability of the MDCT rubric was calculated at .81 (standardized item alpha). Discussions and Conclusion The present study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding to the role of functional aspect of language in learning language which unfortunately mainly focuses on the grammar side of language in Iran. The study was an attempt to develop a MDCT to measure the pragmatic knowledge of Iranian EFL learners. The study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding to the role of functional aspect of language in learning language which unfortunately mainly focuses on the grammar side of language in Iran. However, as far as the result of the test was appropriate in Iranian context, it is not obvious if it is equally works out in other context as well. Consequently a number of future studies developing the same measurements in different contexts are apparent. Besides, a further study could assess whether these tests are applicable to other speech acts in other cultures or not. Based on the hypothesis that not only linguistics competence must be considered during the test development, but also pragmatics competence should be evaluated, the present study was conducted to develop a scale to assess learners’ pragmatic proficiency. To this end, this study developed the pragmatics test of multiple-choice discourse completion task (MDCT) in the case of four primitive speech acts of request, thanks, apology, and refusal for Iranian EFL learners. In the first phase, 155 Iranian university students were asked to write the situations at university, home or in society, in which they apologize, thank, request something and refuse an offer or invitation. In the second phase, to ensure the naturalness of the situations, another group of students were asked to rate the selected situations based on the frequency of occurrence of these situations in their everyday life. In the third phase, the tests were reviewed by several native speakers and TEFL colleagues. Finally, the items MDCT were developed by the researchers and in the final step, two pilot tests were conducted. The findings indicated that the scale was reliable, valid and appropriate to measure Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic knowledge. 1. Introduction Before enlightening the importance of developing the measurement of Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP) competence, the main focus was on different aspects of linguistic competence such as syntax, vocabulary, and cohesion (Liu, 2004). However, with the advent of pragmatics teaching and ILP, which are mainly focused on the development of linguistic action competence by nonnative speakers, the requirement in making the traditional assessment compatible with the new way of teaching has become more demanding. However, there is a wide gap between the teaching and testing measures to evaluate the pragmatic knowledge of students. Therefore, over the last decades, evaluating pragmatic competence of leaners by developing reliable and valid measures has drawn attention of many pragmatists (Hudson, Detmer & Brown, 1995). In recent years, a plethora of studies have attempted to develop pragmatic tests from different perspectives for EFL learners to evaluate the ILP competence. An example is the study carried out by Liu (2007) who developed a pragmatic test for Chinese EFL students to evaluate their pragmatic knowledge in the case of speech act of apology. Birjandi and Rezaei (2010) designated a Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Test (MDCT) to measure Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic competence for two speech acts of apology and request in educational setting through the same phases as employed by Jianda. Salehi and Isavi (2013) also developed a pragmatics test for Iranian EFL learners in terms of request and apology in academic contexts in Iran, United states, England and Suadi Arabia. However, in spite of a large number of speech acts, their studies solely focused on two speech acts, namely apology and request. Further, they suffer from several major drawbacks during the development of the test, such as the lack of measuring reliability and validity of the developed pragmatic test which may differ among various cultures. Since there seems to be just one study conducted on developing pragmatic measurement for Iranian EFL learners and teachers, it is apparent that more attention should be paid to and more comprehensive studies should be conducted (Alemi & Khanlarzadeh, 2016). Therefore, the present study seeks to remedy the previous study deficiencies by using statistical procedures and also considering four major speech acts of thanks, request, refusal, and apology. More importantly, the present study attempts to develop a well-known pragmatic assessment of MDCT for Iranian EFL learners. While learners are asked to choose the best option in MDCT, it gauges the participants’ awareness of the speech acts. 2. Methodology Participants A total number of 158 participants took part in the present study. There were 11 English native speakers, two university lecturers and 145 EFL university students with an intermediate level of English aged 19-22. They participated in five different steps of the test development process (Table 1). The selection of all participants was based on convenience sampling. Table 1. Number of Participants in Each Step of the Test Development Process Steps Non-native Native university students University lecturers 1. Exemplar generation 40 -- -- 2. Likelihood investigation 30 -- -- 3.Metapragmatic Assessment -- 2 2 4. Scenario generation and MDCT development 30 -- 9 5. Pilot study I 25 -- -- 6. Pilot study II 20 -- -- Sum 145 2 11 The Development of Testing Instruments The testing instruments consisted of a 32-item Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Task (to measure the awareness of speech acts). Following Birjandi and Rezaei (2010) and Liu (2007), the researchers developed the test items through a process of exemplar generation and likelihood investigation, metapragmatic assessment, and piloting. The following is an overview of the process of test development: Exemplar generation In order to know the most frequent situations in which the participants of the study were more likely to use the selected speech acts for this study, 40 TEFL students of Islamic Azad University were asked to write either in Persian or English at least five most probably occurring situations at university, home or in society in which they apologize, thank, ask (request something) and refusal. The purpose of this stage was to find the situational topics which approximate authentic situations the students encounter in their real life. A qualitative analysis of the situations showed that many of them were overlapping and 60 situations (15 situations for each speech act) were selected. In the following examples, some apologies produced by the students are provided: I always apologize for getting home late. I always apologize for interrupting my new friend. Likelihood investigation To test the naturalness of situations, 30 more students from the same pool were asked to rate the 60 selected situations from 1 to 5 on the basis of the frequency of occurrence and naturalness of these situations in their everyday life. Based on their ratings, 32 scenarios getting the highest mean scores were selected. The minimum number an item needed to get to be selected was 120 out of a maximum of 150 (80%). Metapragmatic assessment Following Takimoto (2007) and Liu (2007), the 52 selected situations were reviewed and analyzed according to situational features to balance the situations and promote content validity. This involved assessing the imposition (the burden put on the hearer), power relationship (equal, unequal) and social distance (+/- social distance). This was done to include situations with different metapragmatic features. Thirty-two situations (eight situations for each speech act) were selected to be employed in MDCT. After the metapragmatic assessment, the researcher developed MDCT situations by providing the situational background in detail. Scenario generation and MDCT development The 32 selected situations were given to 30 Iranian intermediate EFL learners and also six native speakers of English. The linguistically inaccurate and socially inappropriate responses given by non-native participants were used as distractors and the native speaker’s responses were used as correct options for the MDCT items. Following Hudson et al. (1992; 1995) and Liu (2007), the number of choices for each item was decided to be three. Then, to ensure that the native speakers of English would choose the assigned keys, the test was administered to three native American English speakers. It was found that in most cases all of them chose the keys assigned. Pilot study I The pilot study involved 25 freshman male and female university students, aged 18-20, studying TEFL at the Islamic Azad University of Gorgan, a northern city in Iran. They were required to answer the 32-item MDCT in 45 minutes. Rating MDCT For rating the MDCT, each correct response was given 1 and the incorrect ones received 0. As mentioned above, to be sure about the correct responses assigned by the researcher, ten native speakers of English were asked to answer the MDCT items. Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimates turned out to be .6 for pretest and posttest. The process of revising items The MDCT's reliability index of .6 suggested that there might be some problems regarding the testing method, the students, testing environment, and some other factors. Therefore, an attempt was made to find the causes of the problem and obviate them. To improve the reliability of MDCT, situations were reviewed and elaborated more in detail and the following three statistics were gathered for each item: 1) Item difficulty, 2) distractor analysis, 3) Corrected Item-Total Correlation. On the basis of findings from the first pilot study the following decisions and revisions were applied in the second pilot and the main study: Pilot Study II Based on the results of the first pilot study, some changes were made in the MDCT test items. Having applied the changes, the researcher conducted a second pilot study. It was to check the reliability index of the revised MDCT tests. The participants were 20 freshman TEFL students at Islamic Azad University of Gorgan. Based on the Oxford Quick Placement Test, the participants’ level was either lower-intermediate or upper-intermediate. They were required to answer the questions in 60 minutes. The reliability of the MDCT rubric was calculated at .81 (standardized item alpha). Discussions and Conclusion The present study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding to the role of functional aspect of language in learning language which unfortunately mainly focuses on the grammar side of language in Iran. The study was an attempt to develop a MDCT to measure the pragmatic knowledge of Iranian EFL learners. The study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding to the role of functional aspect of language in learning language which unfortunately mainly focuses on the grammar side of language in Iran. However, as far as the result of the test was appropriate in Iranian context, it is not obvious if it is equally works out in other context as well. Consequently a number of future studies developing the same measurements in different contexts are apparent. Besides, a further study could assess whether these tests are applicable to other speech acts in other cultures or not.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7064_76d7c0780ceb8fbf964c102ebc16d75f.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Investigating the Status of Pragmatic Competence in the Field of French Language Teaching in Iran Investigating the Status of Pragmatic Competence in the Field of French Language Teaching in Iran 35 72 7065 10.29252/LRR.13.4.2 FA Seyedeh Yasamin Sajjadi PhD in French Language Training, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Roya Letafati Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; MahmoudReza Gashmardi Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0001-6621-507X Parivash Safa Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-9688-1038 Journal Article Pragmatic competence is the ability to use language properly in the social context. In order to gain this competence, the learner must align his / her linguistic and social knowledge with different forms and pragmatic strategies of the language and be able to use all the components of his / her communication skills in an integrated situation. In this article, the position of developing Pragmatic competence in the field of French language teaching in Iran is investigated. The purpose of this study, in addition to defining the pragmatic competence in the field of language teaching, is to investigate the use and development of this skill by Iranian French teachers. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared to collect information and distributed among fifty Iranian teachers. Random sampling method was used to select the sample size. The research method is descriptive-survey and the research tool includes a questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated to be 0.90 using Cronbach's alpha test. Data analysis using sample t-test, correlation test and independent t-test shows that although the development of this skill increases with age and experience of teachers, the use of activities related to its development has little place in the French language class and this Contrary to the positive opinion of teachers to cultivate this aspect of language communication skills. Therefore, it is suggested that in future research, solutions be introduced to Iranian teachers of French so that they can adapt their teaching performance to the needs of language learners and make their language learners skilled in what is called semantic skills 1. Introduction Language and culture are two inseparable entities. and the language makes dialogue between cultures possible. If it is possible to acquire a certain cultural competence without resorting to the language of a people, it is impossible to learn a language independently of its culture. We can, for example, familiarize ourselves with Japanese culture by studying the art and civilization of this country, without learning the Japanese language, but we cannot communicate properly in Japanese without acquiring some cultural competence in that language. In Iran, where there is a mixed education context and a exolingual in relation to the French language, literature is a space conducive to making learners aware of the cultural dimensions and social skills of the foreign language, which are essential for a effective communication with French-speaking interlocutors. In this article we collected information from Iranian teachers of French as a foreign language through a questionnaire to find out how well they practice the pragmatic competence of their learners. The results showed that while the time devoted to the development of the pragmatic competence of the learners increases with the age and the experience of the teachers, the implementation of the activities to develop the pragmatic competence in the classes of FLE does not is not well integrated, despite the favorable opinion of the teachers to work on this aspect of the competence to communicate linguistically. This study provides FFL teachers in Iranian institutional settings with information that would help them adapt their lesson practices to the needs of learners and thus train competent social actors at the level of pragmatic competence. Research Question(s) To what extent is the development of semantic skills of French language learners considered in Iran? How can this skill be developed among Iranian language learners? 2. Literature Review Leach (1983) divides semantics into two parts: semantics - sociological and semantics linguistics. After Leach, many people came up with more details about these two branches; In particular, Thomas (1983) enumerates the semantic failures resulting from each of the two branches in foreign language teaching. He says language speakers should have specific rules and conventions to allow them to understand each other's purpose in communication at certain times. In Iran, researchers in the field of language teaching have shown interest in studying this issue. Hashemian (2012) in an article examining the intercultural differences of semantic rules in performing the verbal act of rejecting the request between Persian-speakers and English-speakers and has come to the conclusion that unlike Persian speakers who were ahead of English-speakers in the use of indirect solutions , English speakers mostly use strategies that are related to direct rejection. In order to better understand the role of semantics in the field of language teaching, which is referred to semantic skills, it is necessary to review the important theories that have been proposed over time to define semantics in order to understand the place of semantics and semantic skills in a common framework. It should be noted that this article is a description of the same principles presented in the common European framework of semantic skills. 2.1. Index pragmatic: from situation to speech The index pragmatic studies the role of all the elements that exist in the production situation of the utterance, and it is not enough to suffice only with the linguistic meaning and structure of the sentence or utterance. 2.2. From speech to situation: pragmatic integrated with the theory of utterances (spoken verbs) The effect or result of an action indirectly affects the situation and the situation is completely dependent on it. The third component affects speakers and forces them to perform actions (eg, movement, fear, laughter, or sadness). Thus, the action in the third component describes the consequences of the second component. 2.3. Fundamental pragmatic This science is based on the studies of Grace, Gozder, Levinson, Sperber and Wilson. The funfamental pragmatic hypothesis is that verbal communication is often implicit and mandatory, and therefore it is only with semantic references that the coded message of a statement can be fully interpreted. 2.4. Official position: Common European Framework of Reference for Languages The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages enumerates the skills of "discourse", "function" and "schema creation" within the context of semantic skills. Semantic skill is the knowledge that the user / learner has in the following principles: A. How to organize, construct and adapt messages to the situation (discourse ability); B. How to use messages to perform communication functions (functional capability); C. How to split messages according to interactive and hyperactive schemas (ability to create schemas) 3. Methodology In the present study, in order to find the answer to the question of how much attention is paid to the development of semantic skills of language learners in Iran, based on the case study method, we developed a questionnaire addressed to French language teachers. The questionnaire has four sections, the first of which contains questions about gender, age, level of education and teaching experience, and the next three sections include questions about the three main components of semantic skills, respectively. SPSS software (version 23) was used to analyze the data and one-sample independent t-test and correlation test were used to analyze them. The reliability of the questionnaire was also confirmed using Cronbach's test. In the questionnaire, for each question, a range of five options is considered to fit the scale of data for analysis with SPSS23. 4. Results According to the analysis of the research findings, it seems that the development of pragmatic skills in French language classes in Iran is not focused as it should be. However, the instructors participating in this study stated that developing this skill, which is one of the components of language communication skills, is very important, and learning and nurturing it in any group of language learners with high and low language skills is very important, and the ability improves the learner in understanding and producing various speech actions. However, in practice, participants were reluctant to use methods to develop this skill. This may be the result of teachers' unfamiliarity with how to develop semantic skills. One of the findings of the research is that giving importance to the development of's cognitive skills of language learners has no significant relationship with the gender and level of education of the teacher; However, the older the teacher's teaching profession, the more he / she pays attention to the development of learners' semantic skills, and therefore a meaningful and direct relationship between these variables prevails. The results of this study indicate a gap in the development of semantic skills; Hence, it is suggested to teachers to include the development of semantic skills in their teaching and learning programs in order to improve the semantic knowledge of learners in general and their ability related to verbal actions in particular Pragmatic competence is the ability to use language properly in the social context. In order to gain this competence, the learner must align his / her linguistic and social knowledge with different forms and pragmatic strategies of the language and be able to use all the components of his / her communication skills in an integrated situation. In this article, the position of developing Pragmatic competence in the field of French language teaching in Iran is investigated. The purpose of this study, in addition to defining the pragmatic competence in the field of language teaching, is to investigate the use and development of this skill by Iranian French teachers. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared to collect information and distributed among fifty Iranian teachers. Random sampling method was used to select the sample size. The research method is descriptive-survey and the research tool includes a questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated to be 0.90 using Cronbach's alpha test. Data analysis using sample t-test, correlation test and independent t-test shows that although the development of this skill increases with age and experience of teachers, the use of activities related to its development has little place in the French language class and this Contrary to the positive opinion of teachers to cultivate this aspect of language communication skills. Therefore, it is suggested that in future research, solutions be introduced to Iranian teachers of French so that they can adapt their teaching performance to the needs of language learners and make their language learners skilled in what is called semantic skills 1. Introduction Language and culture are two inseparable entities. and the language makes dialogue between cultures possible. If it is possible to acquire a certain cultural competence without resorting to the language of a people, it is impossible to learn a language independently of its culture. We can, for example, familiarize ourselves with Japanese culture by studying the art and civilization of this country, without learning the Japanese language, but we cannot communicate properly in Japanese without acquiring some cultural competence in that language. In Iran, where there is a mixed education context and a exolingual in relation to the French language, literature is a space conducive to making learners aware of the cultural dimensions and social skills of the foreign language, which are essential for a effective communication with French-speaking interlocutors. In this article we collected information from Iranian teachers of French as a foreign language through a questionnaire to find out how well they practice the pragmatic competence of their learners. The results showed that while the time devoted to the development of the pragmatic competence of the learners increases with the age and the experience of the teachers, the implementation of the activities to develop the pragmatic competence in the classes of FLE does not is not well integrated, despite the favorable opinion of the teachers to work on this aspect of the competence to communicate linguistically. This study provides FFL teachers in Iranian institutional settings with information that would help them adapt their lesson practices to the needs of learners and thus train competent social actors at the level of pragmatic competence. Research Question(s) To what extent is the development of semantic skills of French language learners considered in Iran? How can this skill be developed among Iranian language learners? 2. Literature Review Leach (1983) divides semantics into two parts: semantics - sociological and semantics linguistics. After Leach, many people came up with more details about these two branches; In particular, Thomas (1983) enumerates the semantic failures resulting from each of the two branches in foreign language teaching. He says language speakers should have specific rules and conventions to allow them to understand each other's purpose in communication at certain times. In Iran, researchers in the field of language teaching have shown interest in studying this issue. Hashemian (2012) in an article examining the intercultural differences of semantic rules in performing the verbal act of rejecting the request between Persian-speakers and English-speakers and has come to the conclusion that unlike Persian speakers who were ahead of English-speakers in the use of indirect solutions , English speakers mostly use strategies that are related to direct rejection. In order to better understand the role of semantics in the field of language teaching, which is referred to semantic skills, it is necessary to review the important theories that have been proposed over time to define semantics in order to understand the place of semantics and semantic skills in a common framework. It should be noted that this article is a description of the same principles presented in the common European framework of semantic skills. 2.1. Index pragmatic: from situation to speech The index pragmatic studies the role of all the elements that exist in the production situation of the utterance, and it is not enough to suffice only with the linguistic meaning and structure of the sentence or utterance. 2.2. From speech to situation: pragmatic integrated with the theory of utterances (spoken verbs) The effect or result of an action indirectly affects the situation and the situation is completely dependent on it. The third component affects speakers and forces them to perform actions (eg, movement, fear, laughter, or sadness). Thus, the action in the third component describes the consequences of the second component. 2.3. Fundamental pragmatic This science is based on the studies of Grace, Gozder, Levinson, Sperber and Wilson. The funfamental pragmatic hypothesis is that verbal communication is often implicit and mandatory, and therefore it is only with semantic references that the coded message of a statement can be fully interpreted. 2.4. Official position: Common European Framework of Reference for Languages The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages enumerates the skills of "discourse", "function" and "schema creation" within the context of semantic skills. Semantic skill is the knowledge that the user / learner has in the following principles: A. How to organize, construct and adapt messages to the situation (discourse ability); B. How to use messages to perform communication functions (functional capability); C. How to split messages according to interactive and hyperactive schemas (ability to create schemas) 3. Methodology In the present study, in order to find the answer to the question of how much attention is paid to the development of semantic skills of language learners in Iran, based on the case study method, we developed a questionnaire addressed to French language teachers. The questionnaire has four sections, the first of which contains questions about gender, age, level of education and teaching experience, and the next three sections include questions about the three main components of semantic skills, respectively. SPSS software (version 23) was used to analyze the data and one-sample independent t-test and correlation test were used to analyze them. The reliability of the questionnaire was also confirmed using Cronbach's test. In the questionnaire, for each question, a range of five options is considered to fit the scale of data for analysis with SPSS23. 4. Results According to the analysis of the research findings, it seems that the development of pragmatic skills in French language classes in Iran is not focused as it should be. However, the instructors participating in this study stated that developing this skill, which is one of the components of language communication skills, is very important, and learning and nurturing it in any group of language learners with high and low language skills is very important, and the ability improves the learner in understanding and producing various speech actions. However, in practice, participants were reluctant to use methods to develop this skill. This may be the result of teachers' unfamiliarity with how to develop semantic skills. One of the findings of the research is that giving importance to the development of's cognitive skills of language learners has no significant relationship with the gender and level of education of the teacher; However, the older the teacher's teaching profession, the more he / she pays attention to the development of learners' semantic skills, and therefore a meaningful and direct relationship between these variables prevails. The results of this study indicate a gap in the development of semantic skills; Hence, it is suggested to teachers to include the development of semantic skills in their teaching and learning programs in order to improve the semantic knowledge of learners in general and their ability related to verbal actions in particular

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7065_88340338e0a0cdc54350c05cf056dca8.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Examining the Use and Value of Formative Assessment Strategies Among Persian Language Teachers of Non-Persian Speakers in Multicultural Classes Examining the Use and Value of Formative Assessment Strategies Among Persian Language Teachers of Non-Persian Speakers in Multicultural Classes 73 119 7066 10.29252/LRR.13.4.3 FA Masoomeh Estaji Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran; 0000-0002-8014-9491 Faranak Eslami Ph.D.Candidate in Persian language teaching to non-Persian speakers, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article Formative assessment has an important role in controlling the quality of teachers’ methodology in multicultural classes. Although many research studies have been conducted in the domain of formative assessment and the strategies used by English teachers, there is a dearth of research on teachers involved in Persian language instruction to non-Persian speakers. The present study aimed to recognize the most fruitful and invaluable formative assessment strategies used in the multicultural context of teaching Persian language classes and examine the relationship between the value and uses of formative assessment strategies and the teaching level of Persian language teachers. To this end, three Persian language teachers of the basic, intermediate, and advanced levels in the Persian language teaching center of Allameh Tabataba’i University were asked to answer the formative assessment strategies questionnaire (Jett, 2009). To gain more reliable results, other data collection methods based on class observation checklist (Jett, 2009; Stevens, 2012) and semi-structured interviews were used. To analyze the quantitative data, Pearson correlation (using SPSS version 25) was run. Descriptive statitics and content analysis were also applied for analyzing the interview data. Based on the results, self and peer assessment were found the mostly used strategy. The most invaluable strategy was also reported to be both self and peer assessment and involving language learners in their own learning. Although according to course observations the teachers’ practices were variant, there was a significant correlation between the teaching level and degree of use and value of formative assessment strategies. The findings of this study have implications for Persian language teachers and teacher educators in that they can raise their knowledge and awareness of classroom-based assessment through the use of effective formative assessment strategies in multicultural classes. 1. Introduction One of the essential features of any educational system is assessment to investigate needs, determine goals and strategies and measure performances (Sadler, 1998). Usually, teachers use two kinds of assessment to measure class activities for learning: Formative assessment and summative assessment. Summative assessment, which lays a seal of approval on learning and usually takes place at the end of an educational program, compares the amount of knowledge or skills of students with specific standards and criteria (States et al., 2018). Formative assessment, however, has attracted attention of many educational researchers over recent years. Black and Wiliam (1998) provides a clear-cut definition on formative assessment as “all those activities undertaken by teachers-and by their students in assessing themselves- that provide information to be used as feedback, to modify teaching and learning activities. Such assessment becomes formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet student needs” (p. 140). William and Thompson (2008) offered a conceptual framework based on the definition, provided by Black and Williams (1998, p. 8), which presented five fundamental strategies for formative assessment. The framework introduces an instructor to have the role of designing and establishing an effective environment for learning and the language learners in such environment are responsible for their and their peers’ learning. Nowadays, due to extensive physical and virtual exchanges and internationalization of education, especially in the field of language teaching, classrooms are held in multicultural contexts, deserving special strategies for formative assessment. Regarding expansion of Persian language teaching and growth in number of those learning Persian language all over the world, teachers in the centers to teach Persian language to speakers of other languages, experience multicultural contexts thanks to presence of language learners, who represent different nationalities and cultures in a single classroom. Therefore, regarding importance of using formative assessment strategies in the classes for teaching Persian language to speakers of other languages, that are multi-cultural in nature, and also regarding considerable gap in the literature, the writers of this research, relying on the conceptual framework William and Thompson (2008) regarding formative assessment strategies, tried to address three questions as follows: 1. Which formative assessment strategy is the most usable in the multicultural classrooms from the viewpoint of the teachers of Persian language in three elementary, intermediate and advanced levels? 2. Which formative assessment strategy is the most valuable in the multicultural classes from the viewpoint of the teachers of Persian language in three elementary, intermediate and advanced levels? 3. To what extent is there any relationship between the use and value of the formative assessment strategies and the educational level of the teachers? 2. Literature Review There has been many research on the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, applied by teachers of English language and of schools and other educational centers; however, there has been handful of such research on teachers of Persian language to speakers of other languages, who are present in class and represent different cultures. Yadegarzadeh (2005) in a study focused on the extent of teachers’ awareness of the strategies of formative assessment and the degree of their application in classroom. Estaji and Fasihi (2016) in research investigated the relationship between the use of formative assessment strategies and self-efficacy of the male and female teachers in the English language teaching centers in Tehran and also the effect of their gender and experience. Jett’s (2009) two-phase research concerned the perception of the elementary school teachers in a region in Louisville (in the state of Kentucky) on the most valuable and usable strategies of formative assessment. Setevens’ (2012) research aimed to investigate perception of teachers on cultural responsiveness, formative assessment and the inquiry-based teaching of math and science for American native students in a school in Montana state. To study the perceptions of teachers on formative assessment, Hue and Kennedy (2015) dealt with the perception and view of the native teachers of Hong Kong on formative assessment. In a study, conducted in the Philippines recently, Cagasan et al. (2020) tried to offer a framework to investigate the pattern of teachers’ formative assessment function in class, using the class observation instrument. 3. Methodology To conduct this research, three teachers of the Centre for Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages of Allameh Tabataba’i University, participated in this study teaching in three elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Two of the teachers were female and one male, who were introduced by the Education Department Director, with respect to their educational level and the multi-cultural context of the classroom. The two elementary and intermediate teachers were female, while the advanced level teacher was male. All the three teachers were young (aged 26 on average) and were novice regarding their background of teaching Persian to speakers of other languages. However, all the three teachers enjoyed enough knowledge and skill to teach in the specified levels. Three sources were used to collect data for this study: The Questionnaire of Use and Value of Formative Assessment Strategies of Jett (2009) (for the quantitative part); interview with instructors (for the qualitative part) and class observations by using the checklist of Stevens (2012) and checklist of Jett (2009) (for the qualitative part). The SPSS software version 25 was used for analysis of the quantitative data and for Pearson correlation test, while descriptive indexes and content analysis were used for investigation of the interview data. 4. Results This research was conducted to investigate the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, that are applied by teachers of the Persian language to speakers of other languages in three elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels in the multi-cultural contexts. Three sources were used to collect data for this study: Questionnaire, interview, and class observations. Research findings showed that the three instructors of the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels believed that the self/peer assessment strategy was the most prevalent and the most valuable strategy, that is used for formative assessment in multicultural contexts. Analysis of the data also confirmed the correlation between the use and value of the strategy of setting work of language learners as a model (for other peers), offering feedback, and the self/peer assessment. Furthermore, the results of this study showed a significant correlation between the educational levels of the instructors and the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, and the use and value of the formative assessment strategies grow alongside promotion in the educational level. Content analysis of the interview data showed that in the instructors’ point of view, the self/peer assessment, contribution of the language learners into their own learning, and presentation of feedback were hierarchically the most effective class strategies. Based on the class observation checklist data (1), the highest degree of support was provided to the elementary level and the least one to the advanced level. In terms of enforcement of the formative assessment strategies in the multi-cultural classes and with respect to the checklist, feedback reserved the highest number of frequencies, while the specification of the learning goals gained the least frequency in the list. Results of this research also showed that the instructors were aware of the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, but they were not fully in agreement on operationalizing the strategy. However, their ability to create and establish a supportive and fair environment, which is requisite for such assessments, should not be underestimated. Formative assessment has an important role in controlling the quality of teachers’ methodology in multicultural classes. Although many research studies have been conducted in the domain of formative assessment and the strategies used by English teachers, there is a dearth of research on teachers involved in Persian language instruction to non-Persian speakers. The present study aimed to recognize the most fruitful and invaluable formative assessment strategies used in the multicultural context of teaching Persian language classes and examine the relationship between the value and uses of formative assessment strategies and the teaching level of Persian language teachers. To this end, three Persian language teachers of the basic, intermediate, and advanced levels in the Persian language teaching center of Allameh Tabataba’i University were asked to answer the formative assessment strategies questionnaire (Jett, 2009). To gain more reliable results, other data collection methods based on class observation checklist (Jett, 2009; Stevens, 2012) and semi-structured interviews were used. To analyze the quantitative data, Pearson correlation (using SPSS version 25) was run. Descriptive statitics and content analysis were also applied for analyzing the interview data. Based on the results, self and peer assessment were found the mostly used strategy. The most invaluable strategy was also reported to be both self and peer assessment and involving language learners in their own learning. Although according to course observations the teachers’ practices were variant, there was a significant correlation between the teaching level and degree of use and value of formative assessment strategies. The findings of this study have implications for Persian language teachers and teacher educators in that they can raise their knowledge and awareness of classroom-based assessment through the use of effective formative assessment strategies in multicultural classes. 1. Introduction One of the essential features of any educational system is assessment to investigate needs, determine goals and strategies and measure performances (Sadler, 1998). Usually, teachers use two kinds of assessment to measure class activities for learning: Formative assessment and summative assessment. Summative assessment, which lays a seal of approval on learning and usually takes place at the end of an educational program, compares the amount of knowledge or skills of students with specific standards and criteria (States et al., 2018). Formative assessment, however, has attracted attention of many educational researchers over recent years. Black and Wiliam (1998) provides a clear-cut definition on formative assessment as “all those activities undertaken by teachers-and by their students in assessing themselves- that provide information to be used as feedback, to modify teaching and learning activities. Such assessment becomes formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet student needs” (p. 140). William and Thompson (2008) offered a conceptual framework based on the definition, provided by Black and Williams (1998, p. 8), which presented five fundamental strategies for formative assessment. The framework introduces an instructor to have the role of designing and establishing an effective environment for learning and the language learners in such environment are responsible for their and their peers’ learning. Nowadays, due to extensive physical and virtual exchanges and internationalization of education, especially in the field of language teaching, classrooms are held in multicultural contexts, deserving special strategies for formative assessment. Regarding expansion of Persian language teaching and growth in number of those learning Persian language all over the world, teachers in the centers to teach Persian language to speakers of other languages, experience multicultural contexts thanks to presence of language learners, who represent different nationalities and cultures in a single classroom. Therefore, regarding importance of using formative assessment strategies in the classes for teaching Persian language to speakers of other languages, that are multi-cultural in nature, and also regarding considerable gap in the literature, the writers of this research, relying on the conceptual framework William and Thompson (2008) regarding formative assessment strategies, tried to address three questions as follows: 1. Which formative assessment strategy is the most usable in the multicultural classrooms from the viewpoint of the teachers of Persian language in three elementary, intermediate and advanced levels? 2. Which formative assessment strategy is the most valuable in the multicultural classes from the viewpoint of the teachers of Persian language in three elementary, intermediate and advanced levels? 3. To what extent is there any relationship between the use and value of the formative assessment strategies and the educational level of the teachers? 2. Literature Review There has been many research on the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, applied by teachers of English language and of schools and other educational centers; however, there has been handful of such research on teachers of Persian language to speakers of other languages, who are present in class and represent different cultures. Yadegarzadeh (2005) in a study focused on the extent of teachers’ awareness of the strategies of formative assessment and the degree of their application in classroom. Estaji and Fasihi (2016) in research investigated the relationship between the use of formative assessment strategies and self-efficacy of the male and female teachers in the English language teaching centers in Tehran and also the effect of their gender and experience. Jett’s (2009) two-phase research concerned the perception of the elementary school teachers in a region in Louisville (in the state of Kentucky) on the most valuable and usable strategies of formative assessment. Setevens’ (2012) research aimed to investigate perception of teachers on cultural responsiveness, formative assessment and the inquiry-based teaching of math and science for American native students in a school in Montana state. To study the perceptions of teachers on formative assessment, Hue and Kennedy (2015) dealt with the perception and view of the native teachers of Hong Kong on formative assessment. In a study, conducted in the Philippines recently, Cagasan et al. (2020) tried to offer a framework to investigate the pattern of teachers’ formative assessment function in class, using the class observation instrument. 3. Methodology To conduct this research, three teachers of the Centre for Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages of Allameh Tabataba’i University, participated in this study teaching in three elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Two of the teachers were female and one male, who were introduced by the Education Department Director, with respect to their educational level and the multi-cultural context of the classroom. The two elementary and intermediate teachers were female, while the advanced level teacher was male. All the three teachers were young (aged 26 on average) and were novice regarding their background of teaching Persian to speakers of other languages. However, all the three teachers enjoyed enough knowledge and skill to teach in the specified levels. Three sources were used to collect data for this study: The Questionnaire of Use and Value of Formative Assessment Strategies of Jett (2009) (for the quantitative part); interview with instructors (for the qualitative part) and class observations by using the checklist of Stevens (2012) and checklist of Jett (2009) (for the qualitative part). The SPSS software version 25 was used for analysis of the quantitative data and for Pearson correlation test, while descriptive indexes and content analysis were used for investigation of the interview data. 4. Results This research was conducted to investigate the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, that are applied by teachers of the Persian language to speakers of other languages in three elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels in the multi-cultural contexts. Three sources were used to collect data for this study: Questionnaire, interview, and class observations. Research findings showed that the three instructors of the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels believed that the self/peer assessment strategy was the most prevalent and the most valuable strategy, that is used for formative assessment in multicultural contexts. Analysis of the data also confirmed the correlation between the use and value of the strategy of setting work of language learners as a model (for other peers), offering feedback, and the self/peer assessment. Furthermore, the results of this study showed a significant correlation between the educational levels of the instructors and the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, and the use and value of the formative assessment strategies grow alongside promotion in the educational level. Content analysis of the interview data showed that in the instructors’ point of view, the self/peer assessment, contribution of the language learners into their own learning, and presentation of feedback were hierarchically the most effective class strategies. Based on the class observation checklist data (1), the highest degree of support was provided to the elementary level and the least one to the advanced level. In terms of enforcement of the formative assessment strategies in the multi-cultural classes and with respect to the checklist, feedback reserved the highest number of frequencies, while the specification of the learning goals gained the least frequency in the list. Results of this research also showed that the instructors were aware of the use and value of the formative assessment strategies, but they were not fully in agreement on operationalizing the strategy. However, their ability to create and establish a supportive and fair environment, which is requisite for such assessments, should not be underestimated.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7066_57e5cb96e22546001f1d6520ff11d9ba.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Analysis of Linguistic Structures in Creating Jokes in Russian and Persian Analysis of Linguistic Structures in Creating Jokes in Russian and Persian 121 152 7067 10.29252/LRR.13.4.4 FA V. Rezvani Assistant Professor, Department of Russian Language, Faculty of Literature, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article In this paper, with the approach of discourse analysis from two structural and thematic perspectives, we try to classify the structures of jokes in Persian and Russian language based on the views of Robert Liu by dividing it into two categories: linguistic and non-linguistic, and on Karasik’s theory based on the classification of semantic and semiotics analysis by inductive method. The purpose of this study is to identify the language tools for jokes production based on linguistic and semantic structures in both Russian and Persian, due to the differences in the lexical structure of Russian as a Fusional language and Persian as a Agglutinative language. The present aims to test the hypothesis of the existence of language diversity of Russian joke production tools and the effect of cultural and value components in the production of non-linguistic jokes. At the end of this study, grammatical jokes were identified with a variety of instrumental languages and in the non-linguistic category of gender, ethnic and political examples. The frequency of linguistic examples in two languages is significantly lower than the non-linguistic category, and gender and political examples have a clear maximum against other semantic subsets of jokes. The genre of humor in various forms such as fables and short stories has criticized and challenged the categories of life in its various political, economic, cultural, social and religious domains. This research has been done with the content and thematic analysis approach of satires based on the approach of discourse analysis from two structural and thematic perspectives, the body of jokes in Persian and Russian languages based on the views of Robert Liu1 is divided into two categories: linguistic and non-linguistic and Karasik theory. The purpose of this study is to identify the language of jokes production tools due to the differences in the lexical structure of Russian as an Fusional language and Persian as the combination of Fusional, Agglutinative and at syntactic level both are known as Analytical language. The research hypothesis is based on the existence of language diversity of Russian joke production tools with the maximum ratio against Persian language for the reasons mentioned earlier in the linguistic classification and the effect of cultural and value components in the production of non-linguistic jokes. There are many different functions of humor, among which they can be attributed to entertainment, education, promotion of moral values, criticism and demanding reform in various issues The question arises, according to the structure of each language, which tool is common and which is specific? What is the maximum and minimum of each of them in these two languages? what are the similarities and differences between the function of humor in Iran and Russia? What is the frequency of humor considered by each of the two societies and in which category of humor. By analyzing samples of the field, it seems that humor is a tool to control power and endurance in a soft way and at a higher level to show the consciousness, creativity and culture of human societies. Scientific study of this issue can help in cultural, political and accurate translation of various texts, especially social texts. In this research, a confrontational-qualitative research method based on body analysis of more than 260 samples of jokes in Russian and 200 Persian jokes collected from cyberspace has been used. The selection of jokes, especially linguistic jokes in both languages, was very limited, and the Russian language selection reference site: http://new.gramota.ru/biblio/gostinaya/lingvisticheskie-anekdoty, and other sites for other keywords in this query was used. In Persian, from the sites: https://www.barkhat.news, https://namnak.com, https://www.pinterest.com, https://www.beytoote.com, it was possible to use both. Because in both Russian and Persian sections, the mentioned sites are organizationally controlled sites and they avoid including out-of-the-ordinary content. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that by analyzing the linguistic structures, the semantic range of words in the morphology and syntax sections is determined and it helps translators and language learners in understanding abstract semantics. Linguistic satires mock the rules of language and do not notice a particular person or social event, so they are far removed from social functions and provide more entertainment, and have had a similar pattern in Russian and Persian from the past to the present in: ***معلم: ناقل یعنی چی؟ آقا اجازه : ناقل یعنی کسی که، به سادگی قل نمیخورد و کلا با غلت زدن رابطه خوبی ندارد. Teacher: What does carrier mean? Student: A carrier is someone who does not giggle easily and does not have a good relationship with rolling at all. *** Если бы русские любили работать, они не назвали бы включатель, выключателем. (If the Russians liked to work, they would not call a switch, a switch) Russian humor refers to the prefix [Вы-], which means outside, and such meanings in combination with verbs of movement and the other verbs, in contrast to the prefix [В-], which means beginning, entering. Social stereotypes are generally a standardized image of phenomena with various emotional aspects. These stereotypes are very resistant to change and the transition to new beliefs and a democratic society. ***خانم از شوهرش می پرسه: موقع ازدواج چه کسی منو به تو معرفی کرد؟ - شوهر: چه میدونم دشمن زیاده. *** The lady asks her husband: Who introduced me to you when for marrage? Husband: I don’t know a there is lot of enemies. ***Гаишник останавливает машину, за рулём блондинка. — Почему вы не включили свет в туннеле? — Я из Ростова, откуда я знаю, где у вас тут в туннеле свет включается?! *** The traffic cop stops the car, the blonde is driving. - Why didn't you turn on the light in the tunnel? - I'm from Rostov, how do I know where the light turns on in your tunnel ?! This literary genre has undergone changes today. The purpose of recent productions is not to improve the situation compared to the past, but behind it is destruction, humiliation, devaluation, which is very bitter and biting. By examining the collected samples, the most frequently extracted axes can be selected in the following way: 1- Devaluation of the family institution and breaking educational taboos for young people. 2- Referring to gender inferiority; 3- The emergence of ethnic stereotypes; 4- Emergence of political stereotypes. At the end of the study of humorous figures, the language of grammatical tools (linguistic) and in the non-linguistic category, the categories of sexuality, ethnicity and politics were identified in two languages. The frequency of linguistic examples is significantly lower in both languages than the non-linguistic category, and gendered and political examples have a clear maximum compared to other semantic subsets of jokes. According to the hypothesis of this research, it is appropriate for social decision makers to be aware of some of the negative effects of such satires that are unstoppable. In this paper, with the approach of discourse analysis from two structural and thematic perspectives, we try to classify the structures of jokes in Persian and Russian language based on the views of Robert Liu by dividing it into two categories: linguistic and non-linguistic, and on Karasik’s theory based on the classification of semantic and semiotics analysis by inductive method. The purpose of this study is to identify the language tools for jokes production based on linguistic and semantic structures in both Russian and Persian, due to the differences in the lexical structure of Russian as a Fusional language and Persian as a Agglutinative language. The present aims to test the hypothesis of the existence of language diversity of Russian joke production tools and the effect of cultural and value components in the production of non-linguistic jokes. At the end of this study, grammatical jokes were identified with a variety of instrumental languages and in the non-linguistic category of gender, ethnic and political examples. The frequency of linguistic examples in two languages is significantly lower than the non-linguistic category, and gender and political examples have a clear maximum against other semantic subsets of jokes. The genre of humor in various forms such as fables and short stories has criticized and challenged the categories of life in its various political, economic, cultural, social and religious domains. This research has been done with the content and thematic analysis approach of satires based on the approach of discourse analysis from two structural and thematic perspectives, the body of jokes in Persian and Russian languages based on the views of Robert Liu1 is divided into two categories: linguistic and non-linguistic and Karasik theory. The purpose of this study is to identify the language of jokes production tools due to the differences in the lexical structure of Russian as an Fusional language and Persian as the combination of Fusional, Agglutinative and at syntactic level both are known as Analytical language. The research hypothesis is based on the existence of language diversity of Russian joke production tools with the maximum ratio against Persian language for the reasons mentioned earlier in the linguistic classification and the effect of cultural and value components in the production of non-linguistic jokes. There are many different functions of humor, among which they can be attributed to entertainment, education, promotion of moral values, criticism and demanding reform in various issues The question arises, according to the structure of each language, which tool is common and which is specific? What is the maximum and minimum of each of them in these two languages? what are the similarities and differences between the function of humor in Iran and Russia? What is the frequency of humor considered by each of the two societies and in which category of humor. By analyzing samples of the field, it seems that humor is a tool to control power and endurance in a soft way and at a higher level to show the consciousness, creativity and culture of human societies. Scientific study of this issue can help in cultural, political and accurate translation of various texts, especially social texts. In this research, a confrontational-qualitative research method based on body analysis of more than 260 samples of jokes in Russian and 200 Persian jokes collected from cyberspace has been used. The selection of jokes, especially linguistic jokes in both languages, was very limited, and the Russian language selection reference site: http://new.gramota.ru/biblio/gostinaya/lingvisticheskie-anekdoty, and other sites for other keywords in this query was used. In Persian, from the sites: https://www.barkhat.news, https://namnak.com, https://www.pinterest.com, https://www.beytoote.com, it was possible to use both. Because in both Russian and Persian sections, the mentioned sites are organizationally controlled sites and they avoid including out-of-the-ordinary content. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that by analyzing the linguistic structures, the semantic range of words in the morphology and syntax sections is determined and it helps translators and language learners in understanding abstract semantics. Linguistic satires mock the rules of language and do not notice a particular person or social event, so they are far removed from social functions and provide more entertainment, and have had a similar pattern in Russian and Persian from the past to the present in: ***معلم: ناقل یعنی چی؟ آقا اجازه : ناقل یعنی کسی که، به سادگی قل نمیخورد و کلا با غلت زدن رابطه خوبی ندارد. Teacher: What does carrier mean? Student: A carrier is someone who does not giggle easily and does not have a good relationship with rolling at all. *** Если бы русские любили работать, они не назвали бы включатель, выключателем. (If the Russians liked to work, they would not call a switch, a switch) Russian humor refers to the prefix [Вы-], which means outside, and such meanings in combination with verbs of movement and the other verbs, in contrast to the prefix [В-], which means beginning, entering. Social stereotypes are generally a standardized image of phenomena with various emotional aspects. These stereotypes are very resistant to change and the transition to new beliefs and a democratic society. ***خانم از شوهرش می پرسه: موقع ازدواج چه کسی منو به تو معرفی کرد؟ - شوهر: چه میدونم دشمن زیاده. *** The lady asks her husband: Who introduced me to you when for marrage? Husband: I don’t know a there is lot of enemies. ***Гаишник останавливает машину, за рулём блондинка. — Почему вы не включили свет в туннеле? — Я из Ростова, откуда я знаю, где у вас тут в туннеле свет включается?! *** The traffic cop stops the car, the blonde is driving. - Why didn't you turn on the light in the tunnel? - I'm from Rostov, how do I know where the light turns on in your tunnel ?! This literary genre has undergone changes today. The purpose of recent productions is not to improve the situation compared to the past, but behind it is destruction, humiliation, devaluation, which is very bitter and biting. By examining the collected samples, the most frequently extracted axes can be selected in the following way: 1- Devaluation of the family institution and breaking educational taboos for young people. 2- Referring to gender inferiority; 3- The emergence of ethnic stereotypes; 4- Emergence of political stereotypes. At the end of the study of humorous figures, the language of grammatical tools (linguistic) and in the non-linguistic category, the categories of sexuality, ethnicity and politics were identified in two languages. The frequency of linguistic examples is significantly lower in both languages than the non-linguistic category, and gendered and political examples have a clear maximum compared to other semantic subsets of jokes. According to the hypothesis of this research, it is appropriate for social decision makers to be aware of some of the negative effects of such satires that are unstoppable.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7067_1109f8734e117143a570a8bf9f8c47b2.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 The Analysis of the Ideology of Western Domestication and Foreignization of Government in Modern Iranian Fiction Based on Critical Discourse Analysis: (Case Study: Ibrahim Beg's Travel Diary) The Analysis of the Ideology of Western Domestication and Foreignization of Government in Modern Iranian Fiction Based on Critical Discourse Analysis: (Case Study: Ibrahim Beg's Travel Diary) 153 183 7068 10.29252/LRR.13.4.5 FA Ailin Firoozian Pouresfahani Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Damghan University, Damghan, Iran 0000-0001-5208-7580 Reza Ghanbari Abdolmaleki Assistant Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Damghan University, Damghan, Iran 0000-0002-5308-0775 Journal Article The socio-critical novel of Ibrahim Beg’s travelogue is a work in which the author criticizes his own society and its political and religious constitutions through Western domestication. In this discourse, the confrontation between Iran and the West is an attempt to bridge the gap between Us and Them by reversing their roles and reflecting Us more bizarre than Them.This paper tries to answer two basic questions by identifying the discourse methods and strategies of ideological representation in this novel: (a)How do discourse strategies convey the author's ideology? (b)How is the reversal of the discourse, which is the result of the process of Western domestication, manifested? The aim of this descriptive-analytical article is to investigate the representation of the West in this novel from the perspective of Van Dijk ideological square. The salient achievement of the research is that the image of the West in the Maragheh discourse, as a modernist intellectual author, does not depict the stereotypical image that may exist in Iranians’ mind about this phenomenon. In his discourse, he generally applies polarization strategy to accentuated the West positives as Us and highlighted the Iranian government negatives as Them. For describing Us, the author uses ideological strategies such as comparison, implicit, dramatization and irony in order to reflect the spirit of freedom, loyalty and hard diligent in the text. For representing Them, he applies the strategies such as actor description, hyperbole, and number game to demonstrate the characteristics of greed, tyranny, regression, and deception to his audience. 1. Introduction If our conception of the West in the history of political and cultural developments in Iran has been stereotypically based on the "outsider", this historical conception has changed in the discourse of Iranian writers since the early twentieth century. After facing the advances of Western civilization, some of these writers, in a discourse turn, represented Europe and America in their minds and languages, no longer as "outsiders", but as "insiders". By doing so, they wanted to blame their governments for the problems and mismanagement, as an "outsider" group. Based on what has been said, the main issue of the present study is to express how this discourse rotation is manifested in the story of Ibrahim Beyg's travelogue. Hence, the authors have tried to explain the quality of this new discourse by using Van Dijk's ideological strategies. To examine this issue, the following questions are first posed: 1.How is the author's ideology represented in this work? 2. What is the author's ideological discourse towards the West as one of the pre-revolutionary intellectuals? 3. Does the image of the West in his discourse represent a stereotypical and special image that exists in the minds of Iranians of Westerners? 4. In relation to the image of the West, how is the political system of the time represented in Iran, and how does this representation serve the author's ideology? In connection with the above questions, two hypotheses have been formed: 1.The author's discourse in this work prescribes a kind of complete homogeneity with the West. 2. In his discourse, the author seeks to strike at the Iranian government as an outsider. 2. Literature Review There are many articles, treatises and books that have used Van Dyke's theoretical foundations to analyze non-literary texts, and most of them are in the field of political and media texts. Here are some of them: Azad (2008), Khalouzadeh et al. (2012), Khajeh and Khan Mohammad (2009), Eris (2013), Ghiasian et al. (2014), Aghagolzadeh and Firoozian Pourasfahani (2016), Rezaeipour and Ahmadi (2016) ), Niazi et al. (2015) and Firoozian Pourasfahani et al. (2015). Due to the limited pages of the article and the importance of data analysis, we will suffice to introduce the same number of researches and refrain from further explanation about them. It is worth mentioning that in recent years, there are articles in which modern Iranian poetry has been analyzed using the Van Dijk model. These articles include the following: Critical Discourse Analysis of the Story of “Rostam and Shaqad” based on Van Dijk’s Ideological Square, Hamedi, Z. & Zarghani, M. (2014). Interconnection of nature descriptions and society situation in Mehdi Akhavaan Sales̕ s poetry by looking at critical discourse analysis, Mirahmadi, M. & Tajalli, A. (2017). Analysis of Implicit Critical Discourse and Ideology with Emphasis on the Poetry of Ahmad Shamloo Based on the Theories of Ferklaf and Van Dijk, Jahandide, S. (2016). This result was obtained by examining the content of studies related to Van Dijk's theory: So far, no research has been done on the subject of the present study, ie the critical discourse analysis of the Iranian socio-political novel based on the ideological square model. Therefore, the present study addressed this issue and problem in order to compensate for the gap and deficiency in this type of research. 3. Methodology In this research, the data collection method is library and the research method is descriptive-analytical. After studying the background of the issue and the subject of the research, the authors, by referring to the text of the story, extracted its discourse-oriented sentences, in which 26 speeches were identified. In the next step, the collected discourses, which contained discourse-oriented constructs, were analyzed based on Van Dijk's ideological square. After qualitative analysis, using quantitative frequency analysis, the frequency percentage of each discourse strategy was presented. 4. Discussion The dual structure of the present discourse is elaborated by a comparison between the West and Iran based on "insider / outsider" polarization. The author, stating that the people of the West (insiders) with the help of the press and government criticism, have been able to eliminate corruption in their countries, considers the problem of the authoritarian Iranian society in the lack of transparency and intolerance of political rulers (outsiders). In general, using the strategy of polarization, the actors present in the discourse are divided into two poles, "insider" and "outsider", and it is on the basis of this polarization that the author's ideology is embodied. Examining the studied discourse, a total of 52 "polarizations" were found that form the semantic structure of the story. Using the strategy of "ambiguity", which is one of the strategies considered by Van Dijk in the category of meaning, the author has diminished the identity of the Qajar rulers in his discourse. In this discourse, actors are generally described in relation to their job, social status, and physical characteristics. Another common example in the author's discourse is the description of religious leaders in relation to their jobs. The author shows his non-religious ideology in speech 9, describing the job and characteristics of "Mullah Mohammad Ali". In his discourse, the author sometimes uses metaphors such as "treasure" and the like to make something more valuable or even more objective, such as Iran's natural mines and capitals. In connection with these metaphors, the author presents his ideology, which is generally a critique of the government in Iran. The author sometimes depicts the behavior of negative actors inhumanely through the use of derogatory metaphors. Metaphor in this author's discourse is not a decorative element, but a means of expressing ideology. In total, metaphor with 39 repetitions in this discourse is one of the most frequent strategies in this study. For describing us (the west), the author uses ideological strategies such as polarization, comparison, implicit, dramatization and irony in order to reflect the spirit of freedom, loyalty and hard diligent in the text. Besides, for representing them (Iranian government), he applies the strategies such as actor description, hyperbole, and number game to demonstrate the characteristics of greed, tyranny, regression, and deception to his audience. 5. Conclusion In this study, the issue of ideological strategies based on Ebrahim Beyg's travelogue was considered to show the author's method of positive representation of the West and negative description of the Iranian government. Based on Van Dijk's theory, the present text was examined and it was found that in it, the author, using polarization between two groups of insiders (West) and outsiders (Iranian government), paid attention to the general strategy of producing ideological discourse. Strategies such as polarization, comparison, implication, and dramatization were used to positively represent the "insider" group. And strategies such as actor description, Hyperbole, and number game have been used to describe the "outsider" group in the present discourse. Based on Van Dijk's ideological square, it was observed that the author emphasizes the strengths of the Westerners (insider group) and does not mention any negative features for them (except in relation to the colonial case). On the other hand, it highlights the weaknesses of the "outsider" group (the rulers of Iran) and lightly represents their positive characteristics The socio-critical novel of Ibrahim Beg’s travelogue is a work in which the author criticizes his own society and its political and religious constitutions through Western domestication. In this discourse, the confrontation between Iran and the West is an attempt to bridge the gap between Us and Them by reversing their roles and reflecting Us more bizarre than Them.This paper tries to answer two basic questions by identifying the discourse methods and strategies of ideological representation in this novel: (a)How do discourse strategies convey the author's ideology? (b)How is the reversal of the discourse, which is the result of the process of Western domestication, manifested? The aim of this descriptive-analytical article is to investigate the representation of the West in this novel from the perspective of Van Dijk ideological square. The salient achievement of the research is that the image of the West in the Maragheh discourse, as a modernist intellectual author, does not depict the stereotypical image that may exist in Iranians’ mind about this phenomenon. In his discourse, he generally applies polarization strategy to accentuated the West positives as Us and highlighted the Iranian government negatives as Them. For describing Us, the author uses ideological strategies such as comparison, implicit, dramatization and irony in order to reflect the spirit of freedom, loyalty and hard diligent in the text. For representing Them, he applies the strategies such as actor description, hyperbole, and number game to demonstrate the characteristics of greed, tyranny, regression, and deception to his audience. 1. Introduction If our conception of the West in the history of political and cultural developments in Iran has been stereotypically based on the "outsider", this historical conception has changed in the discourse of Iranian writers since the early twentieth century. After facing the advances of Western civilization, some of these writers, in a discourse turn, represented Europe and America in their minds and languages, no longer as "outsiders", but as "insiders". By doing so, they wanted to blame their governments for the problems and mismanagement, as an "outsider" group. Based on what has been said, the main issue of the present study is to express how this discourse rotation is manifested in the story of Ibrahim Beyg's travelogue. Hence, the authors have tried to explain the quality of this new discourse by using Van Dijk's ideological strategies. To examine this issue, the following questions are first posed: 1.How is the author's ideology represented in this work? 2. What is the author's ideological discourse towards the West as one of the pre-revolutionary intellectuals? 3. Does the image of the West in his discourse represent a stereotypical and special image that exists in the minds of Iranians of Westerners? 4. In relation to the image of the West, how is the political system of the time represented in Iran, and how does this representation serve the author's ideology? In connection with the above questions, two hypotheses have been formed: 1.The author's discourse in this work prescribes a kind of complete homogeneity with the West. 2. In his discourse, the author seeks to strike at the Iranian government as an outsider. 2. Literature Review There are many articles, treatises and books that have used Van Dyke's theoretical foundations to analyze non-literary texts, and most of them are in the field of political and media texts. Here are some of them: Azad (2008), Khalouzadeh et al. (2012), Khajeh and Khan Mohammad (2009), Eris (2013), Ghiasian et al. (2014), Aghagolzadeh and Firoozian Pourasfahani (2016), Rezaeipour and Ahmadi (2016) ), Niazi et al. (2015) and Firoozian Pourasfahani et al. (2015). Due to the limited pages of the article and the importance of data analysis, we will suffice to introduce the same number of researches and refrain from further explanation about them. It is worth mentioning that in recent years, there are articles in which modern Iranian poetry has been analyzed using the Van Dijk model. These articles include the following: Critical Discourse Analysis of the Story of “Rostam and Shaqad” based on Van Dijk’s Ideological Square, Hamedi, Z. & Zarghani, M. (2014). Interconnection of nature descriptions and society situation in Mehdi Akhavaan Sales̕ s poetry by looking at critical discourse analysis, Mirahmadi, M. & Tajalli, A. (2017). Analysis of Implicit Critical Discourse and Ideology with Emphasis on the Poetry of Ahmad Shamloo Based on the Theories of Ferklaf and Van Dijk, Jahandide, S. (2016). This result was obtained by examining the content of studies related to Van Dijk's theory: So far, no research has been done on the subject of the present study, ie the critical discourse analysis of the Iranian socio-political novel based on the ideological square model. Therefore, the present study addressed this issue and problem in order to compensate for the gap and deficiency in this type of research. 3. Methodology In this research, the data collection method is library and the research method is descriptive-analytical. After studying the background of the issue and the subject of the research, the authors, by referring to the text of the story, extracted its discourse-oriented sentences, in which 26 speeches were identified. In the next step, the collected discourses, which contained discourse-oriented constructs, were analyzed based on Van Dijk's ideological square. After qualitative analysis, using quantitative frequency analysis, the frequency percentage of each discourse strategy was presented. 4. Discussion The dual structure of the present discourse is elaborated by a comparison between the West and Iran based on "insider / outsider" polarization. The author, stating that the people of the West (insiders) with the help of the press and government criticism, have been able to eliminate corruption in their countries, considers the problem of the authoritarian Iranian society in the lack of transparency and intolerance of political rulers (outsiders). In general, using the strategy of polarization, the actors present in the discourse are divided into two poles, "insider" and "outsider", and it is on the basis of this polarization that the author's ideology is embodied. Examining the studied discourse, a total of 52 "polarizations" were found that form the semantic structure of the story. Using the strategy of "ambiguity", which is one of the strategies considered by Van Dijk in the category of meaning, the author has diminished the identity of the Qajar rulers in his discourse. In this discourse, actors are generally described in relation to their job, social status, and physical characteristics. Another common example in the author's discourse is the description of religious leaders in relation to their jobs. The author shows his non-religious ideology in speech 9, describing the job and characteristics of "Mullah Mohammad Ali". In his discourse, the author sometimes uses metaphors such as "treasure" and the like to make something more valuable or even more objective, such as Iran's natural mines and capitals. In connection with these metaphors, the author presents his ideology, which is generally a critique of the government in Iran. The author sometimes depicts the behavior of negative actors inhumanely through the use of derogatory metaphors. Metaphor in this author's discourse is not a decorative element, but a means of expressing ideology. In total, metaphor with 39 repetitions in this discourse is one of the most frequent strategies in this study. For describing us (the west), the author uses ideological strategies such as polarization, comparison, implicit, dramatization and irony in order to reflect the spirit of freedom, loyalty and hard diligent in the text. Besides, for representing them (Iranian government), he applies the strategies such as actor description, hyperbole, and number game to demonstrate the characteristics of greed, tyranny, regression, and deception to his audience. 5. Conclusion In this study, the issue of ideological strategies based on Ebrahim Beyg's travelogue was considered to show the author's method of positive representation of the West and negative description of the Iranian government. Based on Van Dijk's theory, the present text was examined and it was found that in it, the author, using polarization between two groups of insiders (West) and outsiders (Iranian government), paid attention to the general strategy of producing ideological discourse. Strategies such as polarization, comparison, implication, and dramatization were used to positively represent the "insider" group. And strategies such as actor description, Hyperbole, and number game have been used to describe the "outsider" group in the present discourse. Based on Van Dijk's ideological square, it was observed that the author emphasizes the strengths of the Westerners (insider group) and does not mention any negative features for them (except in relation to the colonial case). On the other hand, it highlights the weaknesses of the "outsider" group (the rulers of Iran) and lightly represents their positive characteristics

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7068_abc99d6b9938aa86d1f30f8ee0fd169f.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 A Contributory Study into the (Non)Effect of Augmented Reality Game-Mediated Learning on Studentsâ Comprehension and Performance in English for Nursing Purposes A Contributory Study into the (Non)Effect of Augmented Reality Game-Mediated Learning on Studentsâ Comprehension and Performance in English for Nursing Purposes 185 219 7069 10.29252/LRR.13.4.6 FA Saeed Khazaie Health Information Technology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran 0000-0001-8003-8858 Ali Derakhshan Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran 0000-0002-6639-9339 Maryam Kianpour Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran 0000-0002-2894-4260 Journal Article Simulation in the new generations of games has paved the way for employing flipped classes. Given the significance of learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP), this complementarity study with a full-factorial design using Augmented Reality- (AR)-mediated English for Nursing Purposes (ENP) classrooms was administered in the fall semester of the academic years 2019-2020. This way, 240 (from among 249) male (n=89) and female (n=151) students from Medical University of Isfahan were selected and randomly divided into Commercially-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) sets with interdisciplinary and disciplinary circles to learn ENP listening and reading comprehension in homogeneous and heterogeneous make-up. The data were collected through a questionnaire, continuous assessment, journaling, real-world assessment, and an interview. The gathered data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially through repeated measures ANOVA, which, in turn revealed that AR-mediated ENP Learning (AAEL) led into students' comprehension and outperformance in both instructional-learning and professional contexts. Along these lines, practicing ENP reading and listening via self-made AR-assisted activities in interdisciplinary circles with heterogeneous make-up facilitated students’ progress and performance. Accordingly, it can be argued that educational stakeholders have been inspired by and shaped the EdTech-assisted scenarios. The findings can be tapped into for developing new language curricula in higher education. 1. Introduction With the extensive use of mobile technology in higher education studies, namely mobile learning or m-learning, diversified language learning applications (apps) based on m-learning are emerging in the instructional-learning settings. Among these new apps, the belonging together of the various sights of the augmented reality games through simulation allows the students to move toward understanding of the world. The main goal of this complementarity study with self-explanatory sequential mixed-methods was to explore the practicality of augmented reality game-mediated modules for supporting and easing the learning process of English receptive skills in medical higher education. In addition, this study explored the perceived learning outcomes of augmented reality game-mediated modules in English for nursing purposes classrooms of medical universities. Research Question(s) The main research question of this study can be formulated as follows: To what extent do the augmented reality game-mediated tasks facilitate students’ English for nursing purposes skills learning? 2. Literature Review The theoretical framework of this study follows the cognitive load theory for game-mediated learning (Taşçı & Titrek, 2020) that underlines the interactivity of practice for learning through the simulated chapters of the new generations of games. 3. Methodology The participants were selected from among the male (N = 89) and female (N = 151) students (N = 240) through random sampling using the design of experiments. They were students of nursing, operating room, and midwifery who took the obligatory two-credit courses of English for nursing purposes in the academic years 2020-2021 at the Isfahan University of medical sciences. To assess the participants’ English proficiency levels, they took part in a test of Ministry Health Language Examination (MHLE). In this way, they were randomly divided into two groups of ready-made and self-generated augmented reality games to practice and learn the reading and listening skills of English for nursing purposes in the disciplinary and interdisciplinary bands. While in the disciplinary bands the participants from the same academic discipline practiced the content materials, in the interdisciplinary bands the participants from different academic disciplines practiced the materials. In so doing, initially, the participants’ attitudes towards mobile-game-based learning was solocited.18 online instruction sessions were carried out through Adobe Connect. Meanwhile, the participants’ reading and listening skills were assessed continuously from 0-20 scores. In tandem, the researchers wrote the journals during the course. Six weeks after the very final sessions of the course, the participants’ professional receptive skills were assessed in the healthcare fields. Finally, to solicit the participants’ views regarding learning English for nursing purposes skills through the medium of the augmented reality game-mediated tasks in the disciplinary and interdisciplinary bands, an interview session was conducted. The gathered data from the assessment of the participants during the course were analyzed through the mixed effect models. The researchers’ journals and the participants’ responses to the interview questions were conventionally content analyzed through MAXQDA 2020. 4. Results The results revealed that augmented reality game-mediated English for nursing purposes learning led into students’ comprehension and outperformance in both instructional-learning and professional settings. The analysis of qualitative data indicated that the participants applied different strategies during the study. Most frequently cited were cognitive and support strategies with addressing the (academic and professional) need (e.g., adopting proactive role, vicarious learning). Practicing English for nursing purposes reading and listening skills via self-generated augmented reality game-mediated tasks in interdisciplinary bands facilitated students’ progress and performance. Accordingly, it can be argued that educational stakeholders have been inspired by and shaped the educational technology-mediated scenarios. The findings can be tapped into for developing new language curricula in medical higher education. Another important finding was that easy addressing the needs was linked to the facilitative effects of peers' supports. Helping each other to address the comprehension needs, and particularly patients' needs, may therefore be beneficial. Fostering a supportive social and psychological instructional-learning context was perceived by students as important for facilitating comprehension. Simulation in the new generations of games has paved the way for employing flipped classes. Given the significance of learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP), this complementarity study with a full-factorial design using Augmented Reality- (AR)-mediated English for Nursing Purposes (ENP) classrooms was administered in the fall semester of the academic years 2019-2020. This way, 240 (from among 249) male (n=89) and female (n=151) students from Medical University of Isfahan were selected and randomly divided into Commercially-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) sets with interdisciplinary and disciplinary circles to learn ENP listening and reading comprehension in homogeneous and heterogeneous make-up. The data were collected through a questionnaire, continuous assessment, journaling, real-world assessment, and an interview. The gathered data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially through repeated measures ANOVA, which, in turn revealed that AR-mediated ENP Learning (AAEL) led into students' comprehension and outperformance in both instructional-learning and professional contexts. Along these lines, practicing ENP reading and listening via self-made AR-assisted activities in interdisciplinary circles with heterogeneous make-up facilitated students’ progress and performance. Accordingly, it can be argued that educational stakeholders have been inspired by and shaped the EdTech-assisted scenarios. The findings can be tapped into for developing new language curricula in higher education. 1. Introduction With the extensive use of mobile technology in higher education studies, namely mobile learning or m-learning, diversified language learning applications (apps) based on m-learning are emerging in the instructional-learning settings. Among these new apps, the belonging together of the various sights of the augmented reality games through simulation allows the students to move toward understanding of the world. The main goal of this complementarity study with self-explanatory sequential mixed-methods was to explore the practicality of augmented reality game-mediated modules for supporting and easing the learning process of English receptive skills in medical higher education. In addition, this study explored the perceived learning outcomes of augmented reality game-mediated modules in English for nursing purposes classrooms of medical universities. Research Question(s) The main research question of this study can be formulated as follows: To what extent do the augmented reality game-mediated tasks facilitate students’ English for nursing purposes skills learning? 2. Literature Review The theoretical framework of this study follows the cognitive load theory for game-mediated learning (Taşçı & Titrek, 2020) that underlines the interactivity of practice for learning through the simulated chapters of the new generations of games. 3. Methodology The participants were selected from among the male (N = 89) and female (N = 151) students (N = 240) through random sampling using the design of experiments. They were students of nursing, operating room, and midwifery who took the obligatory two-credit courses of English for nursing purposes in the academic years 2020-2021 at the Isfahan University of medical sciences. To assess the participants’ English proficiency levels, they took part in a test of Ministry Health Language Examination (MHLE). In this way, they were randomly divided into two groups of ready-made and self-generated augmented reality games to practice and learn the reading and listening skills of English for nursing purposes in the disciplinary and interdisciplinary bands. While in the disciplinary bands the participants from the same academic discipline practiced the content materials, in the interdisciplinary bands the participants from different academic disciplines practiced the materials. In so doing, initially, the participants’ attitudes towards mobile-game-based learning was solocited.18 online instruction sessions were carried out through Adobe Connect. Meanwhile, the participants’ reading and listening skills were assessed continuously from 0-20 scores. In tandem, the researchers wrote the journals during the course. Six weeks after the very final sessions of the course, the participants’ professional receptive skills were assessed in the healthcare fields. Finally, to solicit the participants’ views regarding learning English for nursing purposes skills through the medium of the augmented reality game-mediated tasks in the disciplinary and interdisciplinary bands, an interview session was conducted. The gathered data from the assessment of the participants during the course were analyzed through the mixed effect models. The researchers’ journals and the participants’ responses to the interview questions were conventionally content analyzed through MAXQDA 2020. 4. Results The results revealed that augmented reality game-mediated English for nursing purposes learning led into students’ comprehension and outperformance in both instructional-learning and professional settings. The analysis of qualitative data indicated that the participants applied different strategies during the study. Most frequently cited were cognitive and support strategies with addressing the (academic and professional) need (e.g., adopting proactive role, vicarious learning). Practicing English for nursing purposes reading and listening skills via self-generated augmented reality game-mediated tasks in interdisciplinary bands facilitated students’ progress and performance. Accordingly, it can be argued that educational stakeholders have been inspired by and shaped the educational technology-mediated scenarios. The findings can be tapped into for developing new language curricula in medical higher education. Another important finding was that easy addressing the needs was linked to the facilitative effects of peers' supports. Helping each other to address the comprehension needs, and particularly patients' needs, may therefore be beneficial. Fostering a supportive social and psychological instructional-learning context was perceived by students as important for facilitating comprehension.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7069_83187550749e6b8024a097630f9d4722.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Studying the Relationship between Text and Picture of Arabic textbooks in the in Junior High School (Based on the Theory of Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott) Studying the Relationship between Text and Picture of Arabic textbooks in the in Junior High School (Based on the Theory of Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott) 221 255 7070 10.29252/LRR.13.4.7 FA Fatemeh Irandost PhD Candidate in Arabic language and literature, Kashan University, Kashan, Iran 0000-0001-6321-0740 Ali Bashiri Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Kashan University, Kashan, Iran Journal Article The increasing knowledge and the changes in the lifestyle of today’s complicated world have made the optimal efficiency of the educational system to rely on understanding the basic principles of learning and proper design of textbooks. As the first educational language of human is pictorial and the importance of pictures in transferring the concepts is emphasized, this study investigates the relationship between text and picture of Arabic textbooks in the junior high school based on the theory of Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott by explaining the status of books from this perspective is the main issue of the present study. The research method is descriptive and of the content analysis type. The population and sample match and are all of the content of this grade’s Arabic book (text and pictures of this section) in 1399-1400(2021-2022). A review based on Nikolajeva and Carol Scott theory about different relations between text and pictures (symmetry, completion, expanding/incremental, confrontational, multi-narrative)is used as an analysis tool; and descriptive statistics (frequency and frequency percentage)and inferential statistics(Chi-square test) are used for data analysis.The study shows that there are the symmetry, completion, expanding/incremental relations in the Arabic books and the symmetry relation has the highest frequency. So different dynamic relationships between text and pictures are not considered in the content of mentioned text book and these new books need to be revised in the field of text-image relationship. 1. Introduction The increasing knowledge and the changes in the lifestyle of today’s complicated world have made the optimal efficiency of the educational system to rely on understanding the basic principles of learning and proper design of textbooks. As the first educational language of human is pictorial and the importance of pictures in transferring the concepts is emphasized, this study investigates the relationship between text and picture of Arabic textbooks in the in junior high school based on the theory of Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott. 2. Theoretical foundations Nikolajeva and Carol Scott are among those who paid attention to the dynamism of the relationship between the text and the picture. They believed that in pictorial books, there is a relationship between two separate sets of photo symbols (pictures) and conventional symbols (words) and the tension between these two functions leads to endless probabilities of their interaction. During their studies, they differentiate among different types of books and represent them on the continuum, based on their texts and pictures as well as their relationship. Pictorial books without pictures Text and picture together Books without pictures In the group of books which are in the middle of the continuum, the relationship between text and picture is divided to five types which are: Table 1. Different types of relationship between text and picture based on Maria Nikolajeva and Carol Scott’s Theory Type of the relationship Explanation Pictorial-symmetrical 1 In this structure, the words narrate the story which can be seen in the picture; although the words cannot explain all the details of the picture. Pictorial- complementary 2 If an issue is not stated in the text or the text cannot explain it, it completes its picture and vice versa. This relationship is established when the gaps between text and picture are small. Pictorial- expanding/increasing 3 This kind of picture includes all of the concepts of the text and additionally, it expresses a more expanded story with the same theme expands it. Pictorial- contrastive 4 Narrating text is different from that of the picture. In this structure, the audience can be challenged using a lot of methods so that the audience can take part in story creation using different interpretations. Making contrast in audience by presenting two levels of hidden complex and simple meaning, contrast in style, contrast in type and quality, contrast in characterization, contrast in place and time, contrast in attitude which certainly is not limited to point of view and can include ideology too, contrast in ultra-historical nature through which the concepts can be explained that cannot be explained through pictures; the concepts such as quadrilateral circle. Pictorial- multi-narrative/ adjacent 5 In this type, two or more dissimilar narrations, are next to each other. According to Nikolajeva and Scott, contrast in being next to each other exists in this type. (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2000: 1-28; Nikolajeva and Scott, 2006: 225-238; Hesampour et, al. 1393: 29) In their research and studies, Nikolajeva and Scott studied the presented hypothetical continuum comprehensively and regarded different types of books (pictorial without text, text together with picture, without picture) as well as different relationships between text and picture and on the other hand, their studies are among the latest studies in this field; therefor, the present research is based on the components and the definitions of these two theorists. 3. Methodology The methodology used in this study is content analysis method which is regarded as one of the scientific research methodologies as well as the subset of descriptive methodology (Dehlan, 2015: 396). 4. Linguistic corpus and research content unit The three-volume collection of junior high school Arabic text book (the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades) in the academic year of 1399-1400 is the studied linguistic corpus. The objective of the present research is to investigate the relationship between the text and the picture, so the texts and their related pictures are investigated in the mentioned books. Since two units of record and context attract the researchers’ attention, the text of each lesson as well as its considered picture is regarded as the “record” unit and the junior high school Arabic text books as the “context” unit. In the present research, the sample size equals the statistical population size. 5. Research data collection method and instruments The instrument of this research is a content analysis form based on the presented components and definitions by Miria Nikolajeva and Carol Scott. During investigation of each lesson of the text book, the researchers noticed that the pictures haven’t been numbered; so first of all they numbered the pictures for reference facility. The text and the picture of some lessons were on two separate pages, it means that the text was on a page and its related picture was on the opposite page; so according to Nikolajeva and Scott’s functional expressions, they have been called “double range” and the samples in which the text and the picture were in the same page were called “single range” (Nikolajeva and Carol Scott, 2006: 3; Hesampour et, al. 1393: 32-33). After conducting the initial studies and encoding, the research data were presented to one of the experts in the field of teaching Arabic and their accuracy as well as their analytic competence were confirmed.in order to assess the reliability of data, about twenty percent of the content investigated by two authors were classified and encoded and after that 84 percent of the resulted correlation and its reliability were confirmed; this coefficient illustrates their reliability and the comprehensiveness. To achieve more reliable results, in addition to descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage), chi-square test was administered for data inferential analysis. 6. Results The findings illustrate that in the studied areas, the symmetrical relationship is the highest frequent relationship and the attention paid to this kind of relationship is increasing in each grade. The text book authors ignored the contrastive as well as the multi-narrative relationships and an insignificant percentage has been devoted to increasing as well as complementary ones. According to the results of chi-square test, all of the junior high school Arabic text books are homogeneous and are in the same situation regarding the type of relationship. The text book authors weren’t creative and energetic in spatial arrangements as well as in compounding pictures. They haven’t used complicated and various relationships in illustrations. The increasing knowledge and the changes in the lifestyle of today’s complicated world have made the optimal efficiency of the educational system to rely on understanding the basic principles of learning and proper design of textbooks. As the first educational language of human is pictorial and the importance of pictures in transferring the concepts is emphasized, this study investigates the relationship between text and picture of Arabic textbooks in the junior high school based on the theory of Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott by explaining the status of books from this perspective is the main issue of the present study. The research method is descriptive and of the content analysis type. The population and sample match and are all of the content of this grade’s Arabic book (text and pictures of this section) in 1399-1400(2021-2022). A review based on Nikolajeva and Carol Scott theory about different relations between text and pictures (symmetry, completion, expanding/incremental, confrontational, multi-narrative)is used as an analysis tool; and descriptive statistics (frequency and frequency percentage)and inferential statistics(Chi-square test) are used for data analysis.The study shows that there are the symmetry, completion, expanding/incremental relations in the Arabic books and the symmetry relation has the highest frequency. So different dynamic relationships between text and pictures are not considered in the content of mentioned text book and these new books need to be revised in the field of text-image relationship. 1. Introduction The increasing knowledge and the changes in the lifestyle of today’s complicated world have made the optimal efficiency of the educational system to rely on understanding the basic principles of learning and proper design of textbooks. As the first educational language of human is pictorial and the importance of pictures in transferring the concepts is emphasized, this study investigates the relationship between text and picture of Arabic textbooks in the in junior high school based on the theory of Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott. 2. Theoretical foundations Nikolajeva and Carol Scott are among those who paid attention to the dynamism of the relationship between the text and the picture. They believed that in pictorial books, there is a relationship between two separate sets of photo symbols (pictures) and conventional symbols (words) and the tension between these two functions leads to endless probabilities of their interaction. During their studies, they differentiate among different types of books and represent them on the continuum, based on their texts and pictures as well as their relationship. Pictorial books without pictures Text and picture together Books without pictures In the group of books which are in the middle of the continuum, the relationship between text and picture is divided to five types which are: Table 1. Different types of relationship between text and picture based on Maria Nikolajeva and Carol Scott’s Theory Type of the relationship Explanation Pictorial-symmetrical 1 In this structure, the words narrate the story which can be seen in the picture; although the words cannot explain all the details of the picture. Pictorial- complementary 2 If an issue is not stated in the text or the text cannot explain it, it completes its picture and vice versa. This relationship is established when the gaps between text and picture are small. Pictorial- expanding/increasing 3 This kind of picture includes all of the concepts of the text and additionally, it expresses a more expanded story with the same theme expands it. Pictorial- contrastive 4 Narrating text is different from that of the picture. In this structure, the audience can be challenged using a lot of methods so that the audience can take part in story creation using different interpretations. Making contrast in audience by presenting two levels of hidden complex and simple meaning, contrast in style, contrast in type and quality, contrast in characterization, contrast in place and time, contrast in attitude which certainly is not limited to point of view and can include ideology too, contrast in ultra-historical nature through which the concepts can be explained that cannot be explained through pictures; the concepts such as quadrilateral circle. Pictorial- multi-narrative/ adjacent 5 In this type, two or more dissimilar narrations, are next to each other. According to Nikolajeva and Scott, contrast in being next to each other exists in this type. (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2000: 1-28; Nikolajeva and Scott, 2006: 225-238; Hesampour et, al. 1393: 29) In their research and studies, Nikolajeva and Scott studied the presented hypothetical continuum comprehensively and regarded different types of books (pictorial without text, text together with picture, without picture) as well as different relationships between text and picture and on the other hand, their studies are among the latest studies in this field; therefor, the present research is based on the components and the definitions of these two theorists. 3. Methodology The methodology used in this study is content analysis method which is regarded as one of the scientific research methodologies as well as the subset of descriptive methodology (Dehlan, 2015: 396). 4. Linguistic corpus and research content unit The three-volume collection of junior high school Arabic text book (the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades) in the academic year of 1399-1400 is the studied linguistic corpus. The objective of the present research is to investigate the relationship between the text and the picture, so the texts and their related pictures are investigated in the mentioned books. Since two units of record and context attract the researchers’ attention, the text of each lesson as well as its considered picture is regarded as the “record” unit and the junior high school Arabic text books as the “context” unit. In the present research, the sample size equals the statistical population size. 5. Research data collection method and instruments The instrument of this research is a content analysis form based on the presented components and definitions by Miria Nikolajeva and Carol Scott. During investigation of each lesson of the text book, the researchers noticed that the pictures haven’t been numbered; so first of all they numbered the pictures for reference facility. The text and the picture of some lessons were on two separate pages, it means that the text was on a page and its related picture was on the opposite page; so according to Nikolajeva and Scott’s functional expressions, they have been called “double range” and the samples in which the text and the picture were in the same page were called “single range” (Nikolajeva and Carol Scott, 2006: 3; Hesampour et, al. 1393: 32-33). After conducting the initial studies and encoding, the research data were presented to one of the experts in the field of teaching Arabic and their accuracy as well as their analytic competence were confirmed.in order to assess the reliability of data, about twenty percent of the content investigated by two authors were classified and encoded and after that 84 percent of the resulted correlation and its reliability were confirmed; this coefficient illustrates their reliability and the comprehensiveness. To achieve more reliable results, in addition to descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage), chi-square test was administered for data inferential analysis. 6. Results The findings illustrate that in the studied areas, the symmetrical relationship is the highest frequent relationship and the attention paid to this kind of relationship is increasing in each grade. The text book authors ignored the contrastive as well as the multi-narrative relationships and an insignificant percentage has been devoted to increasing as well as complementary ones. According to the results of chi-square test, all of the junior high school Arabic text books are homogeneous and are in the same situation regarding the type of relationship. The text book authors weren’t creative and energetic in spatial arrangements as well as in compounding pictures. They haven’t used complicated and various relationships in illustrations.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7070_08f0efebb1c51aada9430a089a2050cc.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 An Investigation On the Socio-Semantic components and the amount of mystification of Bankâs Facility Contracts Regarding the Forensic Linguistics Approach and The Cognitive Dimension of Discourse An Investigation On the Socio-Semantic components and the amount of mystification of Bankâs Facility Contracts Regarding the Forensic Linguistics Approach and The Cognitive Dimension of Discourse 257 282 7071 10.29252/LRR.13.4.8 FA P. Hatami PhD Candidate in Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan , Iran 0000-0001-9310-6258 Ferdows Aghagolzadeh Professor of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Tarbiat Modares University. Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-8917-6429 Behzad Rahbar Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Litreture and Language, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-9275-8251 M.R. Orooji Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran 0000-0003-0445-8169 Journal Article This study is to investigate forensic discourse analysis of the facility contracts like Murabaha, Jaaleh, civil participation and installment sale.The aim of this research is to probe the forensic discourse analysis of the aforementioned texts in the field of forensic linguistics by considering the Van Leeuwen ’s 1996. To do that, the quantity, quality and the mystification of each contract ’s text was probed to discover the factors which ruin the clarity of those texts. The qualitative method of discourse analysis was used to explore the hypothesis of this research. The discoursal elements in the Van Leeuwen ’s (1996) were extracted and the mystification of each contract and different manipulations in each article of contracts were analyzed by using version 21 of SPSS software. The frequency and the percentage of their occurrence was found. The result shows that significant explicit, implicit elements and mystifications in all contracts were seen. The least frequency of explicit elements in the text of Jaaleh by the frequency of 20and the most number of mystification can be observed in the mentioned text by 81.3 percent. The manipulation based on threat was seen 11 times in Murrabeh, Jaaleh. It can be concluded that based on the occurrence of the implicit elements and mystification of all texts of the facility contracts, using implicit elements should be avoided.Consequently, the ambiguity and the mystification will be reduced. The result of the present study helps the banks’ legal experts to write the contracts more apprehensible with less ambiguity. 1. Introduction Since all the facility contracts are assumed as legal documents, lack of clarity in their texts lead to serious challenges in terms of perception for the two sides of the contract; subsequently it will be a crucial concern for the bank facilities’ applicants. The significant of the present study is rooted in the afore-mentioned concept and its necessity is the revival of the rights of the bank as the donator of the facility and the customer as its receiver. Therefore, in doing so, the researcher tried to investigate discourse analysis of these facility contracts in the area of forensic linguistics by studying the socio-semantic components and their manipulations. This study is designed based on Van Leeuwen’s theoretical framework on socio-semantic components (1996) and also the different manipulations of the facility contract texts. The researcher tried to find the suitable answer for these research questions: Is there any difference between the frequency of explicit elements in facility contract texts of Tejarat Bank? Is there any difference between the frequency of implicit elements in facility contract texts of Tejarat Bank? Is there any difference between the frequency of mystification elements in facility contract texts of Tejarat Bank? Is there any difference between the frequency of manipulation elements in facility contract texts of Tejarat Bank? 2. Literature Review Theoretical framework applied in this research is Van Leewen socio-semantic components and manipulation of the texts. Also, the studies of the Iranian and foreigner researchers in the areas of forensic linguistics and forensic discourse analysis were reviewed here as Shuy (2001), Shuy (2010). Olsson (2009), Coulthard(2000), Aghagolzadeh(2005), Aghagolzadeh and Farazandehpour (2016), Taghipour (2015) and Habibi (1995). 3. Methodology In order to find the answers of the research questions, the researcher used the descriptive-analytic method of research. The related data of this study was driven from the most used facility contracts of Tejarat Bank which are: Jallleh, Murabaha, Civil Participation , and Installment Sale The aim of this study is an investigation of the arrangement of socio-semantic components and manipulations of banking facility contracts. So, the socio-semantic components of Van Leeuven model and manipulation of the paragraphs of each facility contract was found and by using the 21st version of SPSS, their frequency and the percentage were analyzed. Also, by using the socio-semantic components, the mystification of the facility contracts was estimated. The results of the above mentioned analyses were shown in different tables. In the next step, the socio-semantic elements and the mystification of the facility contracts were compared to find which facility contract has the most density of implicit components and subsequently has the most mystification in its text. So, by revising these contracts and omitting the implicit elements, we would be able to increase their clarity. 4. Results The first two research questions were investigating the difference between the frequency of the implicit and explicit socio-semantic components in the texts of the banking facilities contracts. The results had been proven that the frequency of the implicit components in the text of Jaaleh contract is more than the other contracts. So, the first and second research hypothesis had been had been proven. The third research question was the comparison between the mystification of the facility contracts. Also, the facility contract of Jaaleh had the most number of implicit components so its mystification was more than the other contracts. Therefore, by probing those analysis, we can conclude that we should reduce the number of implicit components to reduce the mystification of the contracts as it may cause the creation of unclarity and it may cause legal problems for the customers of the bank. Finally, it is concluded that the threatening manipulation could be observed in all the contracts; however, encouraging manipulation could be observed only in text of Morabehe contract. It means that in banking system of Iran, we assume only threatening as the only tool. So, the fourth hypothesis was proven, too. This study is to investigate forensic discourse analysis of the facility contracts like Murabaha, Jaaleh, civil participation and installment sale.The aim of this research is to probe the forensic discourse analysis of the aforementioned texts in the field of forensic linguistics by considering the Van Leeuwen ’s 1996. To do that, the quantity, quality and the mystification of each contract ’s text was probed to discover the factors which ruin the clarity of those texts. The qualitative method of discourse analysis was used to explore the hypothesis of this research. The discoursal elements in the Van Leeuwen ’s (1996) were extracted and the mystification of each contract and different manipulations in each article of contracts were analyzed by using version 21 of SPSS software. The frequency and the percentage of their occurrence was found. The result shows that significant explicit, implicit elements and mystifications in all contracts were seen. The least frequency of explicit elements in the text of Jaaleh by the frequency of 20and the most number of mystification can be observed in the mentioned text by 81.3 percent. The manipulation based on threat was seen 11 times in Murrabeh, Jaaleh. It can be concluded that based on the occurrence of the implicit elements and mystification of all texts of the facility contracts, using implicit elements should be avoided.Consequently, the ambiguity and the mystification will be reduced. The result of the present study helps the banks’ legal experts to write the contracts more apprehensible with less ambiguity. 1. Introduction Since all the facility contracts are assumed as legal documents, lack of clarity in their texts lead to serious challenges in terms of perception for the two sides of the contract; subsequently it will be a crucial concern for the bank facilities’ applicants. The significant of the present study is rooted in the afore-mentioned concept and its necessity is the revival of the rights of the bank as the donator of the facility and the customer as its receiver. Therefore, in doing so, the researcher tried to investigate discourse analysis of these facility contracts in the area of forensic linguistics by studying the socio-semantic components and their manipulations. This study is designed based on Van Leeuwen’s theoretical framework on socio-semantic components (1996) and also the different manipulations of the facility contract texts. The researcher tried to find the suitable answer for these research questions: Is there any difference between the frequency of explicit elements in facility contract texts of Tejarat Bank? Is there any difference between the frequency of implicit elements in facility contract texts of Tejarat Bank? Is there any difference between the frequency of mystification elements in facility contract texts of Tejarat Bank? Is there any difference between the frequency of manipulation elements in facility contract texts of Tejarat Bank? 2. Literature Review Theoretical framework applied in this research is Van Leewen socio-semantic components and manipulation of the texts. Also, the studies of the Iranian and foreigner researchers in the areas of forensic linguistics and forensic discourse analysis were reviewed here as Shuy (2001), Shuy (2010). Olsson (2009), Coulthard(2000), Aghagolzadeh(2005), Aghagolzadeh and Farazandehpour (2016), Taghipour (2015) and Habibi (1995). 3. Methodology In order to find the answers of the research questions, the researcher used the descriptive-analytic method of research. The related data of this study was driven from the most used facility contracts of Tejarat Bank which are: Jallleh, Murabaha, Civil Participation , and Installment Sale The aim of this study is an investigation of the arrangement of socio-semantic components and manipulations of banking facility contracts. So, the socio-semantic components of Van Leeuven model and manipulation of the paragraphs of each facility contract was found and by using the 21st version of SPSS, their frequency and the percentage were analyzed. Also, by using the socio-semantic components, the mystification of the facility contracts was estimated. The results of the above mentioned analyses were shown in different tables. In the next step, the socio-semantic elements and the mystification of the facility contracts were compared to find which facility contract has the most density of implicit components and subsequently has the most mystification in its text. So, by revising these contracts and omitting the implicit elements, we would be able to increase their clarity. 4. Results The first two research questions were investigating the difference between the frequency of the implicit and explicit socio-semantic components in the texts of the banking facilities contracts. The results had been proven that the frequency of the implicit components in the text of Jaaleh contract is more than the other contracts. So, the first and second research hypothesis had been had been proven. The third research question was the comparison between the mystification of the facility contracts. Also, the facility contract of Jaaleh had the most number of implicit components so its mystification was more than the other contracts. Therefore, by probing those analysis, we can conclude that we should reduce the number of implicit components to reduce the mystification of the contracts as it may cause the creation of unclarity and it may cause legal problems for the customers of the bank. Finally, it is concluded that the threatening manipulation could be observed in all the contracts; however, encouraging manipulation could be observed only in text of Morabehe contract. It means that in banking system of Iran, we assume only threatening as the only tool. So, the fourth hypothesis was proven, too.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7071_059d9e01176ab2f0892fe2215835bf19.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Identity, Character, and the Reader: A Cognitive Approach in Reading of Remainder by Tom McCarthy (2005) Identity, Character, and the Reader: A Cognitive Approach in Reading of Remainder by Tom McCarthy (2005) 283 316 7072 10.29252/LRR.13.4.9 FA Mahdi Qasemi Shandiz .A. Student of English Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran Zohreh Taebi Noghondari Assistant Professor of English Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran Roghayeh Farsi Assistant Professor of English Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, University of Neyshabur, Neyshabur, Iran Journal Article The present article uses a cognitive approach to fiction and proposes a new and integrated model that examines the metaphorical concept of identity and shows how it is mapped and perceived by the character and reader in Tom McCarthy's novel Remainder (2005). It draws on Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphor (1980) and the contextual frame theory developed by Peter Stockwell (2002). First, the mega-metaphor in the story is extracted; then its correspondence with the micro-metaphors in the text of the narrative, and the character's view from that point in different contexts of the story are examined. It then goes on to point out how the reader gets to know this issue while reading the work, and experiencing its various parts. The results show that the concept of identity consists of two different metaphorical mappings for the character and the reader, leading each one to a different understanding of it. It also emphasizes the effectiveness of this new cognitive tool in uncovering the hidden layers of literary works and the broad mental complexities at various levels, including narrator, character, and reader. 1. Introduction The question of identity comprises a complexity which is shaped by various individual and social factors. Identity formation can be considered as a continuous process of "becoming" which arises from the interaction of the "ego" with the "other" in temporal, spatial and social conditions. Identity, while fragmented and multifaceted, is an attempt to achieve a unified and consistent concept that distinguishes the individual from the others and at the same time has the possibility to change and adapt to the environment. An individual’s linguistic and actual behavior is a mental representation of the concept in an interaction with environmental conditions. Thus, identity is an unresolved question or space in which various discourses are involved and take on a highly multifaceted nature. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the factors that can change this process of identity formation, affecting a person's speech and behavior directly. This study concerns the effects of crisis in identity on one's interactions with oneself and the environment. It is important to examine this through the analysis of the traumatized person's narrative of their life, in which they recount their mental and environmental experiences under the influence of the disease. The article examines the narrative process of identity formation in Tom McCarthy's novel Remainder (2005). The novel is about a first-person nameless narrator who tries to rebuild his lost and fragmented identity after experiencing a severe accident through strange and violent re-enactments of past events. The notions of heightened existential awareness and self-renewal in relation to the traumatized narrator are of the two features highlighted in the story. Research Question(s) The major question of this study is twofold. On the one hand, within a textual frame, it deals with the notion of identity as formed and recognized textually by the character; and on the other, within a contextual frame, it focuses on the reader’s process of identity formation while reading the novel. The answer to this question is based on the hypothesis that although the reader's apparent presence (in contextual frame) is based on the cognitive factors of the narrative text, the reader's own cognitive schemata are directly involved in shaping the narrator's identity during the reading process. The concept of identity, thus, becomes significant for the reader. To do so, the study borrows from the cognitive theories of conceptual metaphor and contextual frame theory as introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), and Peter Stockwell (2002) respectively. 2. Literature Review In Metaphors We Live By, Lakoffand Johnson consider “metaphor” as a means to contemplate and see the world, according to which cognition and understanding of concepts of the mind have metaphorical foundations, and the conceptual system is the direct result of the mechanism of metaphorical conceptualization (1980, p. 8). According to them, metaphorical expressions are generalized conceptual mappings that bridge between conceptual domains. This will make an abstract domain conceptually understandable based on the experiential concepts of a cognitive domain (Grady, 2007, p. 189). Manifestaion of these mental representaions can be found not only in language, but also in culture and art (Sadeghi, 2013; Afrashi and Moghimizadeh, 2014; Farshi and Afrashi, 2020; Ghaderi Najafabadi, 2016; Rezaei et al., 2017; Raisi et al., 2020). What this background shows is the limited nature of Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphor. This theory limits the formation of conceptual metaphors to the mind, which ultimately manifests itself in the linguistic and textual dimensions. However, according to Kövecses’ definition, the mind is only one source of meaning construction and processing. Other influential factors such as temporal, spatial and social phenomena play an important role in using and understanding conceptual metaphors (Kövecses, 2015, p. X). These factors are the constituents of the context with which the mind is in the ongoing process of linguistic communication and metaphorical construction. The narrative space of a story shows the contexts with which the narrator's mind and other characters are in constant interaction. In fact, the concept of identity arises from such interactions, in addition to the linguistic nature of the story. Based on what is said, this analysis focuses on the narrative of the story, since the notion of identity is expressed both in mental and textual levels in both linguistic and narrative forms, interfering with the cognitive interactions in the text and context. In his book Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction (2002), Peter Stockwell presents the theory of contextual frame theory. This approach, which has not been mentioned in Persian studies so far, seeks to "understand how readers track reference to characters and events through the process of reading." (Stockwell, 2002, p. 155). This approach also includes the mental representation of the circumstances (temporal, spatial and social) that make up the current context. This is achieved through the linguistic components and narrative of the text, and direct inferences from the work itself. (p. 155) 3. Methodology The purpose of this study is to adopt a new method by combining these two cognitive approaches to achieve a specific cognitive understanding of the concept of identity formation in the novel Remainder (2005), both textually and contextually. It seeks to achieve two important things: a) the narrator's textual journey of recognising his true lost identity formed through a process of mental schematization; B) The reader’s recognition of the concept of identity which is formed during the process of reading. Through a descriptive-analytical approach, this study makes a connection between the two cognitive perspectives of Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphors and Stockwell's (2002) contextual frame theory to examine the (con)textual frames of the story. It first discovers the mega-metaphor represented in the narrative, and the corresponding micro-metaphors in each part; and then, the subsequent role of the reader in shaping them as well as the narrator itself. Accordingly, the novel is divided into four main sections, each of which includes a mental representation of the narrator's re-enactments: 1. a London building apartment; 2. a tyre shop environment; 3. a shooting incident; 4. a bank robbery. Table 1. The Narrator’s Mental Re-enactments in the Story 1st Re-enactment 2nd Re-enactment 3rd Re-enactment 4th Re-enactment London Building Apartment Tyre Shop Shooting Incident Bank Robbery Each of these re-enactments, respectively, includes the metaphorical mappings of "perfect identity is permanent", "perfection ascends/rises up", "true perfection is united to the world", "perfect/true identity stands beyond the law". In addition, the mega-metaphor of the story is "identity is a circular cycle". On the other hand, each of these mental re-enactments has its own fundamental contextual frame, which alters from frame recall to frame switch, frame repair, and finally to frame replacement. This process is subject to a change in the metaphorical mapping of the narrator's mentality in each part of the novel. As a result, at each stage of his mental re-enactments, it is these conceptual mappings that conform to the mega-metaphor of the story, creating the process of the narrator’s mental representation more violent. 4. Discussion and Results The proposition at the beginning of the story, which is based on the metaphorical mapping "identity is a circular cycle", takes on different (con)textual frames throughout the story and guides the reader toward the final frame. During each of these processes of bounding and unbounding the frames, the reader obtains or adds information about the narrator and his story. Accordingly, when the narrator prepares the shooting scene for his third re-enactment and gives his reason for doing so, the reader and the narrator's cognitive course almost diverge from one another. The reason is the frame switch that takes place in this part of the story, which unbounds the previous contextual frames and binds them to a new re-enactment. Up to this point in the story, the reader has gained schematic knowledge of the narrator, his insistence on applying his embodied metaphors to the context of each re-enactment, and the failure to do so due to the lack of support for conceptual metaphors presented by the context. The reader realizes that the narrator is in fact in control of his mentality, turning him into a real chancer who tries to reconstruct his identity with money. The important point here is that this cyclical process only leads to the reproduction of other representations, and the remainder that the narrator recalls only repeats itself, becoming increasingly involved in violent and brutal re-enactments. In the fourth re-enactment, when the re-enactment of a bank heist turns into a real bank heist, the frame that is switched for the narrator brings with it the repairing and renewal of the frame for the reader. As a result, on the plane, the reader's belief frame of the narrator changes completely; they realize that this vain cycle of continuous repetitions is reproduced in the narrator's mind: "Identity is a circular / repetitive cycle." The difference between this conceptual metaphor created in the reader's mind and the narrator's mind is that this conceptual metaphor arises from the narrative and linguistic frames of the novel, while the narrator himself is involved in the incompatibility of his conceptual metaphors with the conditions of the frames in which he represents himself. According to the studies and (con)textual inreferences, the narrator and the reader recognize their own specific concept of identity, which leads to a different understanding of the novel: Narrator: "perfect identity is stable, permanent and high." Reader: "identity is a recurring cycle." 6. Conclusion The present article tries to reveal the limitations of Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphor by examining the concept of identity formation in Tom McCarthy’s novel Remainder (2005). It considers the contextual frame of the narrative which includes a set of temporal, spatial and social relations and conditions, as another key factor in the formation of conceptual metaphors. This claim is made possible by the analysis of the story which is a collection of these contextual frames. The ups and downs that the narrator of McCarthy's novel experiences in the process of achieving and reviving the remainders of his identity, and the frustration and despair that he experiences in each contextual frame, are dominated by a lack of mental support for his conceptual metaphors by the context. Though Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphors rejects metaphor’s abstractness and gives it an embodied dimension, it does not concern its contextual roots in the process of narrative interaction (the narrator with his environment and the reader with the text). It somehow considers the metaphorical mind apart from these circumstances, which is an abstraction process itself. On the other hand, the present study confirms the important role that the analysis of literary texts plays in the critical examination of linguistic findings and theories. Literary texts create frames in both textual and contextual dimensions, as they originate from the cognitive functions of the writer's mind and cognitive components that real-world people use in interaction with others. This similarity makes the story a good case for proving, denying, or correcting cognitive and linguistic findings. The findings of the present paper challenge Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphors and call for its revision. The present article uses a cognitive approach to fiction and proposes a new and integrated model that examines the metaphorical concept of identity and shows how it is mapped and perceived by the character and reader in Tom McCarthy's novel Remainder (2005). It draws on Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphor (1980) and the contextual frame theory developed by Peter Stockwell (2002). First, the mega-metaphor in the story is extracted; then its correspondence with the micro-metaphors in the text of the narrative, and the character's view from that point in different contexts of the story are examined. It then goes on to point out how the reader gets to know this issue while reading the work, and experiencing its various parts. The results show that the concept of identity consists of two different metaphorical mappings for the character and the reader, leading each one to a different understanding of it. It also emphasizes the effectiveness of this new cognitive tool in uncovering the hidden layers of literary works and the broad mental complexities at various levels, including narrator, character, and reader. 1. Introduction The question of identity comprises a complexity which is shaped by various individual and social factors. Identity formation can be considered as a continuous process of "becoming" which arises from the interaction of the "ego" with the "other" in temporal, spatial and social conditions. Identity, while fragmented and multifaceted, is an attempt to achieve a unified and consistent concept that distinguishes the individual from the others and at the same time has the possibility to change and adapt to the environment. An individual’s linguistic and actual behavior is a mental representation of the concept in an interaction with environmental conditions. Thus, identity is an unresolved question or space in which various discourses are involved and take on a highly multifaceted nature. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the factors that can change this process of identity formation, affecting a person's speech and behavior directly. This study concerns the effects of crisis in identity on one's interactions with oneself and the environment. It is important to examine this through the analysis of the traumatized person's narrative of their life, in which they recount their mental and environmental experiences under the influence of the disease. The article examines the narrative process of identity formation in Tom McCarthy's novel Remainder (2005). The novel is about a first-person nameless narrator who tries to rebuild his lost and fragmented identity after experiencing a severe accident through strange and violent re-enactments of past events. The notions of heightened existential awareness and self-renewal in relation to the traumatized narrator are of the two features highlighted in the story. Research Question(s) The major question of this study is twofold. On the one hand, within a textual frame, it deals with the notion of identity as formed and recognized textually by the character; and on the other, within a contextual frame, it focuses on the reader’s process of identity formation while reading the novel. The answer to this question is based on the hypothesis that although the reader's apparent presence (in contextual frame) is based on the cognitive factors of the narrative text, the reader's own cognitive schemata are directly involved in shaping the narrator's identity during the reading process. The concept of identity, thus, becomes significant for the reader. To do so, the study borrows from the cognitive theories of conceptual metaphor and contextual frame theory as introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), and Peter Stockwell (2002) respectively. 2. Literature Review In Metaphors We Live By, Lakoffand Johnson consider “metaphor” as a means to contemplate and see the world, according to which cognition and understanding of concepts of the mind have metaphorical foundations, and the conceptual system is the direct result of the mechanism of metaphorical conceptualization (1980, p. 8). According to them, metaphorical expressions are generalized conceptual mappings that bridge between conceptual domains. This will make an abstract domain conceptually understandable based on the experiential concepts of a cognitive domain (Grady, 2007, p. 189). Manifestaion of these mental representaions can be found not only in language, but also in culture and art (Sadeghi, 2013; Afrashi and Moghimizadeh, 2014; Farshi and Afrashi, 2020; Ghaderi Najafabadi, 2016; Rezaei et al., 2017; Raisi et al., 2020). What this background shows is the limited nature of Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphor. This theory limits the formation of conceptual metaphors to the mind, which ultimately manifests itself in the linguistic and textual dimensions. However, according to Kövecses’ definition, the mind is only one source of meaning construction and processing. Other influential factors such as temporal, spatial and social phenomena play an important role in using and understanding conceptual metaphors (Kövecses, 2015, p. X). These factors are the constituents of the context with which the mind is in the ongoing process of linguistic communication and metaphorical construction. The narrative space of a story shows the contexts with which the narrator's mind and other characters are in constant interaction. In fact, the concept of identity arises from such interactions, in addition to the linguistic nature of the story. Based on what is said, this analysis focuses on the narrative of the story, since the notion of identity is expressed both in mental and textual levels in both linguistic and narrative forms, interfering with the cognitive interactions in the text and context. In his book Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction (2002), Peter Stockwell presents the theory of contextual frame theory. This approach, which has not been mentioned in Persian studies so far, seeks to "understand how readers track reference to characters and events through the process of reading." (Stockwell, 2002, p. 155). This approach also includes the mental representation of the circumstances (temporal, spatial and social) that make up the current context. This is achieved through the linguistic components and narrative of the text, and direct inferences from the work itself. (p. 155) 3. Methodology The purpose of this study is to adopt a new method by combining these two cognitive approaches to achieve a specific cognitive understanding of the concept of identity formation in the novel Remainder (2005), both textually and contextually. It seeks to achieve two important things: a) the narrator's textual journey of recognising his true lost identity formed through a process of mental schematization; B) The reader’s recognition of the concept of identity which is formed during the process of reading. Through a descriptive-analytical approach, this study makes a connection between the two cognitive perspectives of Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphors and Stockwell's (2002) contextual frame theory to examine the (con)textual frames of the story. It first discovers the mega-metaphor represented in the narrative, and the corresponding micro-metaphors in each part; and then, the subsequent role of the reader in shaping them as well as the narrator itself. Accordingly, the novel is divided into four main sections, each of which includes a mental representation of the narrator's re-enactments: 1. a London building apartment; 2. a tyre shop environment; 3. a shooting incident; 4. a bank robbery. Table 1. The Narrator’s Mental Re-enactments in the Story 1st Re-enactment 2nd Re-enactment 3rd Re-enactment 4th Re-enactment London Building Apartment Tyre Shop Shooting Incident Bank Robbery Each of these re-enactments, respectively, includes the metaphorical mappings of "perfect identity is permanent", "perfection ascends/rises up", "true perfection is united to the world", "perfect/true identity stands beyond the law". In addition, the mega-metaphor of the story is "identity is a circular cycle". On the other hand, each of these mental re-enactments has its own fundamental contextual frame, which alters from frame recall to frame switch, frame repair, and finally to frame replacement. This process is subject to a change in the metaphorical mapping of the narrator's mentality in each part of the novel. As a result, at each stage of his mental re-enactments, it is these conceptual mappings that conform to the mega-metaphor of the story, creating the process of the narrator’s mental representation more violent. 4. Discussion and Results The proposition at the beginning of the story, which is based on the metaphorical mapping "identity is a circular cycle", takes on different (con)textual frames throughout the story and guides the reader toward the final frame. During each of these processes of bounding and unbounding the frames, the reader obtains or adds information about the narrator and his story. Accordingly, when the narrator prepares the shooting scene for his third re-enactment and gives his reason for doing so, the reader and the narrator's cognitive course almost diverge from one another. The reason is the frame switch that takes place in this part of the story, which unbounds the previous contextual frames and binds them to a new re-enactment. Up to this point in the story, the reader has gained schematic knowledge of the narrator, his insistence on applying his embodied metaphors to the context of each re-enactment, and the failure to do so due to the lack of support for conceptual metaphors presented by the context. The reader realizes that the narrator is in fact in control of his mentality, turning him into a real chancer who tries to reconstruct his identity with money. The important point here is that this cyclical process only leads to the reproduction of other representations, and the remainder that the narrator recalls only repeats itself, becoming increasingly involved in violent and brutal re-enactments. In the fourth re-enactment, when the re-enactment of a bank heist turns into a real bank heist, the frame that is switched for the narrator brings with it the repairing and renewal of the frame for the reader. As a result, on the plane, the reader's belief frame of the narrator changes completely; they realize that this vain cycle of continuous repetitions is reproduced in the narrator's mind: "Identity is a circular / repetitive cycle." The difference between this conceptual metaphor created in the reader's mind and the narrator's mind is that this conceptual metaphor arises from the narrative and linguistic frames of the novel, while the narrator himself is involved in the incompatibility of his conceptual metaphors with the conditions of the frames in which he represents himself. According to the studies and (con)textual inreferences, the narrator and the reader recognize their own specific concept of identity, which leads to a different understanding of the novel: Narrator: "perfect identity is stable, permanent and high." Reader: "identity is a recurring cycle." 6. Conclusion The present article tries to reveal the limitations of Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphor by examining the concept of identity formation in Tom McCarthy’s novel Remainder (2005). It considers the contextual frame of the narrative which includes a set of temporal, spatial and social relations and conditions, as another key factor in the formation of conceptual metaphors. This claim is made possible by the analysis of the story which is a collection of these contextual frames. The ups and downs that the narrator of McCarthy's novel experiences in the process of achieving and reviving the remainders of his identity, and the frustration and despair that he experiences in each contextual frame, are dominated by a lack of mental support for his conceptual metaphors by the context. Though Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphors rejects metaphor’s abstractness and gives it an embodied dimension, it does not concern its contextual roots in the process of narrative interaction (the narrator with his environment and the reader with the text). It somehow considers the metaphorical mind apart from these circumstances, which is an abstraction process itself. On the other hand, the present study confirms the important role that the analysis of literary texts plays in the critical examination of linguistic findings and theories. Literary texts create frames in both textual and contextual dimensions, as they originate from the cognitive functions of the writer's mind and cognitive components that real-world people use in interaction with others. This similarity makes the story a good case for proving, denying, or correcting cognitive and linguistic findings. The findings of the present paper challenge Lakoff and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphors and call for its revision.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7072_29e11ea8ec6c7804a7f939e8e78e9c18.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Explaining and Studying the Linguistic Explorations of the Russian Futurist Poet Velimir Khlebnikov Explaining and Studying the Linguistic Explorations of the Russian Futurist Poet Velimir Khlebnikov 317 347 7073 10.29252/LRR.13.4.10 FA Zeinab Sadeghi Sahlabad Assistant Proffessor, Department of Russian Language, Faculty of Literature, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-7031-0763 Journal Article Velimir Khlebnikov is one of the leading Russian poets and one of the founders of the school of Futurism in Russia. In Iran, he is better known as a poet and his linguistic research has not received much attention. Khlebnikov revised the symbolic poetic system. If in the tradition of Symbolism, words were thought of as symbols and appeared in poetry with poetic language and their hidden meaning was valuable, in Khlebnikov's poetic system, words with their phonetic construction had an intrinsic meaning and poetic value, and thus he paid attention to the past of the language and changed the previous common perceptions about the language. The present study is conducted in a descriptive-analytical manner, with the aim of opening up a glimpse into the achievements of Russian Futurists, and seeks to answer the question of what Khlebnikov's linguistic explorations were, as one of the most prominent figures of Russian Futurism, and what outcomes his explorations had for Rusian language. Examining the poet's linguistic theories, it was concluded that his linguistic research had led to the expansion of the vocabulary system in Russian and the creation of a universal language called "zaum / meta-meaning", a language in which sound itself produces meaning. It was also concluded that without Khlebnikov's linguistic research, formalist theories would not have been able to emerge. According to this poet, consonants in words are more important than vowels; Especially the first consonant that guides the meaning of the whole word. According to Khlebnikov, words that begin with a similar consonant carry the same meaning. 1. Introduction One of the ideas that Khlebnikov always pursued in his short life was the idea of global unity. We can see the reflection of this idea not only in his poems, but also in his linguistic explorations and theories. He had a common universal belief, a language that connects all people. Zaum was in fact a collection of futurist poets' attempts to create a language of new poets that was able to properly express the poet's inner intentions. A language in which meaning is transferred exclusively to phonetics Khlebnikov was looking for a language in which sound and meaning could be connected unconditionally. In other words, Khlebnikov's idea was to create a universal grammar and, accordingly, a universal language. He thought that all languages are based on a primary language and tried to reach the depths of the history of the language. Another Khlebnikov's idea for global unity was the creation of an Asian union. Khlebnikov always thought to Russia's necessary connection with the East, and he meant not only the strengthening of political and economic relations, but also the interaction of linguistic cultures. As Khlebnikov's poems and literary texts are adorned with words in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. There are four types of zaum: - Phonetic zaum: when the combination of letters is not known with morphemes. - Morphological zaum: The monosyllabic words (roots and vowels) are combined in such a way that the meaning of the resulting word is not largely defined. - Syntaxical zaum: When using ordinary words, they are not used grammatically in a normal sentence and the nature of the relationship between the words is somehow unknown. - Meta-syntaxical zaum: Despite the formal and grammatical correctness of structures consisting of ordinary words, a high degree of ambiguity is created at the reference level; In simpler terms, it is basically not clear what is being talked about. The theories of Potebnja (1835-1891), a Russian linguist, had a profound influence on the semantics and semiotics of later linguistic and literary circles. Khlebnikov's approach was not unaffected by Potebnja traditions. Potebnja believed that in the early stages of language, there was a clear and expressive connection between the sound and the meaning of words, which over time and the writing of words, this clarity has been lost and words have found a conventional meaning and become written signs. Khlebnikov, in fact, sought to revive that initial idea between the sound and the meaning of the word, which was hidden within the nature of each word and behind its sound. Khlebnikov's scientific-artistic explorations were mainly focused on the word. By working on the word and exploring its nature, he tried to discover the rules of organization and the creative development of language. Khlebnikov understood the word as a living nature, which one must creatively master and transform it. By searching the word as an independent force that forms part of nature, Khlebnikov penetrates not only the depths of the word, but also the human past, and rediscovers its historical roots, which are close to natural life. Khlebnikov had two principles for words: 1. The first consonant of a simple word guides the whole word. 2. Other words that start with the same consonant are united by the same concept and seem to go to the same point of mind from different angles. Therefore, the first sound of a word is more important to the poet than other letters of the word. In his view, the intrinsic motivation of the word is highly dependent on the sound of the first word, and the rest of the letters are under the control of the first letter. The reason for the extensive research in the field of language and the attempt to create a poetic language and the evolution of theological creation in the time of the Futurists must be found in the critical conditions of the time in which poets and writers were caught, the crisis that led to the outbreak of wars and movements in the early twentieth century. The literary crisis was also one of the prominent manifestations of this and in the field of literature and art, it caused the creation of new aesthetic traditions. Thus the tendency of the Futurists, and especially of Khlebnikov, to reveal the hidden capabilities of language and to lead to a dramatic change in the field of poetic language. Research Question(s) In the present study, we seek to answer the question of what was Khlebnikov's linguistic research and what was its achievement for the Russian language. The research hypothesis is that Khlebnikov's linguistic innovations, despite the complexity, difficulty and need to decipher words, have been considered by young poets after him and his approach to language has become their model and has led to vocabulary enrichment and increase in vocabulary. Provided the creation of formalism. Therefore, with a descriptive-analytical approach, Khelebnikov's theories, achievements and linguistic and theological researches in Khelebnikov's articles and poems are examined. 2. Literature Review There has been no comprehensive research on Khlebnikov's linguistic research in Iran, and what is available focused on his literary and historical works. In "Peculiarities of Khlebnikov's mythopoetics" by Redkin, "On the epic and national-historical nature of Khlebnikov's poetry, the cosmism and philosophical nature of the French poet's literary thought" (Redikin, 2016, p. 10). In this study, which is in Russian language, the poet's views on Polish culture as well as the Idea of Public Unity are discussed, but the author has not commented on the poet's linguistic theories. 3. Methodology For Khlebnikov's research, descriptive-analytical features are taken from the ideas of great thinkers such as Jacobson, Shklovsky, Bakhtin, Vinokur, and others, and attempts are made to introduce and analyze the views of linguists through his articles and works. 4. Results From the present paper, based on the research question and hypothesis, the following results are obtained: 1. Formalism was not possible without Khlebnikov, so it is necessary to examine his linguistic theories. The linguistic techniques of the Russian formalists in the field of poetic language were based on the research of the Futurists. 2. Some of the achievements of formalism, which were mainly rooted in Khlebnikov's research, are: - Play with language and words in poetry; - "De-familiarization", which is based on the importance and recognition of each word, and the poet or writer, with linguistic tricks and accuracy in the sound of words, separates it from the everyday semantic burden; - The use of ancient words, which is called archeology; - Application of special and unfamiliar syntactic structure; - Vocabulary innovation. 3. Khlebnikov's linguistic research on sounds and the creation of a universal language led to the expansion of the Russian lexical system, and he created many new words. 4. His achievements attracted the attention of poets and writers after him and even influenced other arts such as theater, painting and music and led to the creation of new styles in these arts. Thus, Khlebnikov's research in lexicography and lexicography was a search for a clear way to lead him to solve the problems of the world language, one of which was to create a "zaum" in this study for the first time in Iran in detail with linguistic research of this prominent figure. Futurists were dealt with in the field of lexicography. Velimir Khlebnikov is one of the leading Russian poets and one of the founders of the school of Futurism in Russia. In Iran, he is better known as a poet and his linguistic research has not received much attention. Khlebnikov revised the symbolic poetic system. If in the tradition of Symbolism, words were thought of as symbols and appeared in poetry with poetic language and their hidden meaning was valuable, in Khlebnikov's poetic system, words with their phonetic construction had an intrinsic meaning and poetic value, and thus he paid attention to the past of the language and changed the previous common perceptions about the language. The present study is conducted in a descriptive-analytical manner, with the aim of opening up a glimpse into the achievements of Russian Futurists, and seeks to answer the question of what Khlebnikov's linguistic explorations were, as one of the most prominent figures of Russian Futurism, and what outcomes his explorations had for Rusian language. Examining the poet's linguistic theories, it was concluded that his linguistic research had led to the expansion of the vocabulary system in Russian and the creation of a universal language called "zaum / meta-meaning", a language in which sound itself produces meaning. It was also concluded that without Khlebnikov's linguistic research, formalist theories would not have been able to emerge. According to this poet, consonants in words are more important than vowels; Especially the first consonant that guides the meaning of the whole word. According to Khlebnikov, words that begin with a similar consonant carry the same meaning. 1. Introduction One of the ideas that Khlebnikov always pursued in his short life was the idea of global unity. We can see the reflection of this idea not only in his poems, but also in his linguistic explorations and theories. He had a common universal belief, a language that connects all people. Zaum was in fact a collection of futurist poets' attempts to create a language of new poets that was able to properly express the poet's inner intentions. A language in which meaning is transferred exclusively to phonetics Khlebnikov was looking for a language in which sound and meaning could be connected unconditionally. In other words, Khlebnikov's idea was to create a universal grammar and, accordingly, a universal language. He thought that all languages are based on a primary language and tried to reach the depths of the history of the language. Another Khlebnikov's idea for global unity was the creation of an Asian union. Khlebnikov always thought to Russia's necessary connection with the East, and he meant not only the strengthening of political and economic relations, but also the interaction of linguistic cultures. As Khlebnikov's poems and literary texts are adorned with words in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. There are four types of zaum: - Phonetic zaum: when the combination of letters is not known with morphemes. - Morphological zaum: The monosyllabic words (roots and vowels) are combined in such a way that the meaning of the resulting word is not largely defined. - Syntaxical zaum: When using ordinary words, they are not used grammatically in a normal sentence and the nature of the relationship between the words is somehow unknown. - Meta-syntaxical zaum: Despite the formal and grammatical correctness of structures consisting of ordinary words, a high degree of ambiguity is created at the reference level; In simpler terms, it is basically not clear what is being talked about. The theories of Potebnja (1835-1891), a Russian linguist, had a profound influence on the semantics and semiotics of later linguistic and literary circles. Khlebnikov's approach was not unaffected by Potebnja traditions. Potebnja believed that in the early stages of language, there was a clear and expressive connection between the sound and the meaning of words, which over time and the writing of words, this clarity has been lost and words have found a conventional meaning and become written signs. Khlebnikov, in fact, sought to revive that initial idea between the sound and the meaning of the word, which was hidden within the nature of each word and behind its sound. Khlebnikov's scientific-artistic explorations were mainly focused on the word. By working on the word and exploring its nature, he tried to discover the rules of organization and the creative development of language. Khlebnikov understood the word as a living nature, which one must creatively master and transform it. By searching the word as an independent force that forms part of nature, Khlebnikov penetrates not only the depths of the word, but also the human past, and rediscovers its historical roots, which are close to natural life. Khlebnikov had two principles for words: 1. The first consonant of a simple word guides the whole word. 2. Other words that start with the same consonant are united by the same concept and seem to go to the same point of mind from different angles. Therefore, the first sound of a word is more important to the poet than other letters of the word. In his view, the intrinsic motivation of the word is highly dependent on the sound of the first word, and the rest of the letters are under the control of the first letter. The reason for the extensive research in the field of language and the attempt to create a poetic language and the evolution of theological creation in the time of the Futurists must be found in the critical conditions of the time in which poets and writers were caught, the crisis that led to the outbreak of wars and movements in the early twentieth century. The literary crisis was also one of the prominent manifestations of this and in the field of literature and art, it caused the creation of new aesthetic traditions. Thus the tendency of the Futurists, and especially of Khlebnikov, to reveal the hidden capabilities of language and to lead to a dramatic change in the field of poetic language. Research Question(s) In the present study, we seek to answer the question of what was Khlebnikov's linguistic research and what was its achievement for the Russian language. The research hypothesis is that Khlebnikov's linguistic innovations, despite the complexity, difficulty and need to decipher words, have been considered by young poets after him and his approach to language has become their model and has led to vocabulary enrichment and increase in vocabulary. Provided the creation of formalism. Therefore, with a descriptive-analytical approach, Khelebnikov's theories, achievements and linguistic and theological researches in Khelebnikov's articles and poems are examined. 2. Literature Review There has been no comprehensive research on Khlebnikov's linguistic research in Iran, and what is available focused on his literary and historical works. In "Peculiarities of Khlebnikov's mythopoetics" by Redkin, "On the epic and national-historical nature of Khlebnikov's poetry, the cosmism and philosophical nature of the French poet's literary thought" (Redikin, 2016, p. 10). In this study, which is in Russian language, the poet's views on Polish culture as well as the Idea of Public Unity are discussed, but the author has not commented on the poet's linguistic theories. 3. Methodology For Khlebnikov's research, descriptive-analytical features are taken from the ideas of great thinkers such as Jacobson, Shklovsky, Bakhtin, Vinokur, and others, and attempts are made to introduce and analyze the views of linguists through his articles and works. 4. Results From the present paper, based on the research question and hypothesis, the following results are obtained: 1. Formalism was not possible without Khlebnikov, so it is necessary to examine his linguistic theories. The linguistic techniques of the Russian formalists in the field of poetic language were based on the research of the Futurists. 2. Some of the achievements of formalism, which were mainly rooted in Khlebnikov's research, are: - Play with language and words in poetry; - "De-familiarization", which is based on the importance and recognition of each word, and the poet or writer, with linguistic tricks and accuracy in the sound of words, separates it from the everyday semantic burden; - The use of ancient words, which is called archeology; - Application of special and unfamiliar syntactic structure; - Vocabulary innovation. 3. Khlebnikov's linguistic research on sounds and the creation of a universal language led to the expansion of the Russian lexical system, and he created many new words. 4. His achievements attracted the attention of poets and writers after him and even influenced other arts such as theater, painting and music and led to the creation of new styles in these arts. Thus, Khlebnikov's research in lexicography and lexicography was a search for a clear way to lead him to solve the problems of the world language, one of which was to create a "zaum" in this study for the first time in Iran in detail with linguistic research of this prominent figure. Futurists were dealt with in the field of lexicography.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7073_c7217b04fe11f374f9a6737901025606.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Coverage Level of Language and Culture Competence in the Curricula of B.A. and M.A. English Translation Programs Offered by Iranian State Universities Coverage Level of Language and Culture Competence in the Curricula of B.A. and M.A. English Translation Programs Offered by Iranian State Universities 349 386 7074 10.29252/LRR.13.4.11 FA Ali Beikian Assistant Professor in Translation Studies, Chabahar Maritime University, Chabahar, Iran 0000-0002-7734-2370 Mansoor Ganji Assistant Professor in TEFL, , Chabahar Maritime University, Chabahar, Iran; Journal Article It is evident that the most important competence emphasized by any translation competence model (TCM) is mastery of source and target languages and cultures. On the other hand, languages and cultures are always closely tied, a fact highlighted more than ever by Agar’s (1994) proposed concept of ‘languaculture’. The present two-phase qualitative study was conducted with the purpose of investigating how the curricula of B.A. and M.A. English translation programs offered by Iranian state universities cover language and culture competence as compared to overseas peer programs and how they can be improved in terms of the said competence. To this end, content analysis of the relevant curricula as well as semi-structured interviews with Iranian experts were used to gather the required data. The principal finding of the present research is that it emphasizes the necessity of revising the current curricula in line with the maximum coverage of topics contained in a proposed list of Persian language and culture topics, English language and culture topics, and joint language and culture topics. The said list of language and culture topics, being another valuable finding of the study, may also be used for designing new autonomous translator, interpreter, and audiovisual translator training programs, or at least concentrations with specialized tracks and strands. Further, the detailed findings of the study, gained through an atomistic approach to language and culture competence, may be availed of by researchers who intend to conduct further studies on each and every element of this competence. 1. Introduction A close look at various translation competence models (TCMs) shows that they all cover languaculture (LC) competence one way or another. As regards the language side of the coin, knowledge of two languages has been pinpointed using different terms, including ‘linguistic competence’ by Bausch (as cited in Rothe-Neves, 2007), ‘source and target language competences at discourse and style levels’ (Honig, 1991), ‘source and target texts processing’ (Hatim & Mason, 1997; Stolze, 1997), ‘source and target language knowledge’ (Bell, 1991; Kastberg, 2007; Kiraly, 2000; Russo, 2000; Schäffner, 2000; Sim, 2000), ‘grammatical competence’ (Beeby, 1996), ‘language competence’ (EMT Expert Group, 2009; Neubert, 2000), ‘language awareness’ (Fox, 2000), ‘proficiency, being related to certain special bilingual skills’ (Campbell, 1991), ‘communicative and textual sub-competence’ by Kelly (as cited in Brala-Vukanovic, 2016, p. 226), ‘bilingual sub-competence’ (PACTE, 2005, p. 611), ‘communicative competence in at least two languages’ (Göpferich, 2009), ‘comprehension and production strategies’ (Forte, 2012), ‘listening and analysis of source speech and production of target speech’ (Gile, 2009), ‘absolute command of the source and target languages’ (Gouadec, 2007, p. 150), ‘language skills’ (Pöchhacker, 2000), ‘pre-process competence, including language proﬁciency and terminology management’ (Albl-Mikasa, 2013), ‘perception, decoding, recoding, encoding, and expressing skills’ (Ma, 2013), and more recently ‘language and culture competence’ (Beikian, 2020; EMT, 2017). Along the same vein, culture sub-competence, albeit variously termed again, goes hand in hand with language sub-competence in most of the models having been examined in the course of the present study. Some terms used by scholars to mention culture sub-competence in their proposed TCMs include ‘communicative competence in source and target language cultures’ (Bell, 1991), ‘cultural knowledge’ by Stolze (1992), ‘cultural knowledge of the source and target language’ (Kiraly, 1995), ‘sociolinguistic and discourse competence’ (Beeby, 1996), ‘cultural competence’ (Kastberg, 2007; Neubert, 2000; Pöchhacker (2000), ‘cultural competence, including knowledge about cultural, historical, political, economic, etc. aspects in the respective countries’ (Schäffner, 2000), ‘sociocultural competence’ (Fox, 2000), ‘source and target culture controls’ (Sim, 2000), ‘cultural sub-competence’ by Kelly (as cited in Brala-Vukanovic, 2016, p. 226), ‘extra-linguistic sub-competence, made up of encyclopedic, thematic and bicultural knowledge’ (PACTE, 2005, p. 611), ‘intercultural competence, consisting of sociolinguistic and textual dimensions’ (EMT Expert Group, 2009, pp. 4-7), ‘multi-cultural competence’ (Gouadec, 2007), and finally ‘language and culture competence’ (Beikian, 2020; EMT, 2017). 2. Purpose One of the most apparent applications of some of the given TCMs is as valid frameworks, the aim of which is to shape curriculum proposals in higher education (Campbell, 1998; Schäffner, 2000; Kelly, 2002; Pym, 2003; Colina, 2003; Kearns, 2006; Morón, 2009, Beikian, 2020). The present two-phase qualitative study was conducted with the purpose of investigating how the curricula of B.A. and M.A English translation programs offered by Iranian state universities cover LC competence as compared to overseas peer programs and how the said national programs can be improved in terms of covering this pivotal competence. 3. Research Method The first phase of the study aimed at finding how LC competence is covered by Iranian state universities offering B.A. and M.A. translation programs in English and their overseas peer programs. Since Iranian state universities are not ranked officially, all 23 B.A. translator training programs and 8 M.A. translation studies programs offered in English by Iranian state universities were included in the study. As regards overseas peer programs, based on U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems in 2020, translation programs offered in 49 countries enjoying top systems of higher education were included in the study, which resulted in examining 20 B.A. programs and 73 M.A. programs. In order to access the curriculum of each program, first we consulted the program website; and if the required data were not found, we used personal communication with the program contact person. Then the contents of the national and overseas curricula were analyzed and all language and culture courses were extracted. Afterward, the said courses were categorized based on the themes which the researchers had extracted from the relevant literature. In addition, the courses extracted from the national and overseas curricula were further compared and contrasted for the purpose of finding the similarities and differences among them. In the second phase, we interviewed 55 Iranian experts who had been defined to be either university teachers having taught translation and/or interpreting courses at Iranian state universities for at least 3 years or translation studies Ph.D. candidates being graduates of both B.A. and M.A. translation programs offered in English by Iranian state universities. Then semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the ‘structuring’ form of qualitative content analysis method. To this end, first of all, tentative categories were defined and explained in the coding agenda; and for the purpose of differentiating the categories, coding rules were defined. Subsequently, the transcript of each interview was read and every statement seeming relevant at a first glance was underlined. After reconsidering the developed categories, the content of each transcript was structured using a color scheme. Then statements, opinions, and quotes were taken out by order of their color and summarized into the category system, although some were quoted directly. In the end, the categories and subcategories were analyzed by tallying their frequencies, which were then represented using tables. 4. Findings and Discussion As regards language sub-competence, while Iranian programs mostly focus on receptive and productive skills as well as such components as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, foreign peer programs offer quite variegated courses such as etymology, text analysis, appreciating written texts, language consolidation for translation and interpreting purposes, business communication, communication skills, language and communication studies, health communication, characteristics of specialized texts, text analysis for translation, creative writing, intensive writing, advanced native language, native language skills for translation, multilingual debate, conversation analysis, analysis of persuasive texts, language fluency for interpreters, native language for conference interpreters, native language fluency enhancement, editing in native language writing, native language in audio-visual translation, documentation and terminology for translation, lexicology, applied terminology, and foreign language semantic factoring. When it comes to culture sub-competence, there are only a total number of 6 culture courses contained in the curricula of Iranian B.A and M.A. programs. What adds fuel to this flame of failure to cover culture adequately is that some of the courses (e.g., ‘cultural elements in two languages’ and ‘culture and sociology in translation) are electives, allowing Iranian universities either not to offer them at all or, in the best scenario, suffice to offering only one (Rezvani &Vakilinejad, 2012). This is while foreign peer programs offer a multitude of various courses intended to form students’ cultural competence, such as communication across cultures, subjects in culture and communication, variation and change, discourse analysis, discourse and power, language and power, language and culture, culture and conflict, intercultural studies, intercultural communication, cross-cultural perspectives on society, representation of cultures, intercultural perspectives on sustainable development, institutional discourse, changing topics from the intercultural communication area, culture and business, advanced intercultural communication/negotiations, advanced political and legal communication, and advanced health communication. According to the Iranian experts, national B.A. programs are afflicted with such problems as applicants’ not having good commands of English language proficiency (agreeing with Behafarin, 2015; Hadipour, 2017; Riazi & Razmjou, 2004; Yousefi, 2014; Ziahosseiny, 2003) and Persian language proficiency (consistent with Behafarin, 2015; Miremadi, 2003; Riazi & Razmjou, 2004) and their ill-informedness about the nature and requirements of the program. The said experts argued that Iranian M.A. programs suffer from such deficiencies as admission of applicants who are mostly ill-informed about the nature and requirements of the program (consistent with Birjandi & Nosratinia, 2009), unsatisfactory admission system, applicants’ not having good commands of Persian and English proficiency (compatible with Miremadi, 2003), and inadequate prerequisite courses for the students not having done their B.A. in translation. Added to these are out-of-date curricula and departments’ lack of adequate autonomy to determine admission criteria. When asked about how the B.A. situation could be improved, the interviewees suggested that admission criteria be made stricter (confirming Hadipour, 2017; Khazaee Farid & Khoshsaligheh, 2010) by adding independent English and Persian proficiency tests to the current entrance exam and including English and Persian writing competence tests in the same; departments be given autonomy on admitting applicants using admission interviews; applicants be required to provide an acceptable TOEFL or IELTS score; an English proficiency placement test be given to newly admitted students (compatible with Ziahosseiny, 2003); courses on Persian language reading, writing, and editing (consistent with Khoshsaligheh, 2014; Miremadi, 2003; Riazi & Razmjou, 2004; Sohrabi, Rahimi & Arjmandi, 2015) as well as courses on English and Persian cultures (in agreement with Behafarin, 2015; Khoshsaligheh, 2010; Salari & Khazaee Farid, 2015) be added to the curricula; the present curricula be revised by modeling successful leading programs worldwide (agreeing with Heydarian, 2003; Khazaee Farid, 2001; Miremadi, 2003); and textbooks be localized. As a way out of the current M.A. situation, the Iranian experts proposed that the current entrance exam be made stricter by adding an admission interview and a practical translation aptitude test in the form of essay questions; stricter language proficiency criteria be established by requiring applicants to provide an acceptable TOEFL or IELTS score; applicants not having done their B.A. in translation either not be admitted or be required to provide an English proficiency certificate; courses directed at training political and journalistic text translators and localization experts be included in the curriculum; courses be directed at training specialized translators and interpreters; courses such as Localization, Foundations of History, Editing and Proofreading, CDA and Translation, and Foundations of Culture and Sociology be included in the curriculum; the course Sociocultural Studies in Translation be offered as a compulsory course; and the present curricula be revised by modeling successful leading programs worldwide (confirming Heydarian, 2003; Khazaee Farid, 2001; Miremadi, 2003). 5. Innovation and Contribution Upon integrating the findings of the two phases of the study, we prepared a list of course topics jointly recommended by the interviewees and extracted from the curricula of peer overseas programs. The principal contribution of the present research is that it emphasizes the necessity of revising the current curricula in line with maximum coverage of topics proposed as a list of Persian LC topics, English LC topics, and Joint LC topics. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that this list is based both on Iranian experts’ views and the insights gained from the curricula of a total of 93 foreign peer programs offered by leading universities worldwide. The said list can prove very useful for both revising the current curricula and devising new ones. It is axiomatic that the proposed LC course topics are too many to be assigned individual courses. This is why they have been labeled ‘course topics’, which implies that when revising the exiting curricula or devising new ones, curriculum designers need to merge several related course topics in one single course. In addition, these course topics have been proposed with an eye to designing autonomous translation, interpreting, and audiovisual translation programs, concentrations, and specialized tracks. It is evident that the most important competence emphasized by any translation competence model (TCM) is mastery of source and target languages and cultures. On the other hand, languages and cultures are always closely tied, a fact highlighted more than ever by Agar’s (1994) proposed concept of ‘languaculture’. The present two-phase qualitative study was conducted with the purpose of investigating how the curricula of B.A. and M.A. English translation programs offered by Iranian state universities cover language and culture competence as compared to overseas peer programs and how they can be improved in terms of the said competence. To this end, content analysis of the relevant curricula as well as semi-structured interviews with Iranian experts were used to gather the required data. The principal finding of the present research is that it emphasizes the necessity of revising the current curricula in line with the maximum coverage of topics contained in a proposed list of Persian language and culture topics, English language and culture topics, and joint language and culture topics. The said list of language and culture topics, being another valuable finding of the study, may also be used for designing new autonomous translator, interpreter, and audiovisual translator training programs, or at least concentrations with specialized tracks and strands. Further, the detailed findings of the study, gained through an atomistic approach to language and culture competence, may be availed of by researchers who intend to conduct further studies on each and every element of this competence. 1. Introduction A close look at various translation competence models (TCMs) shows that they all cover languaculture (LC) competence one way or another. As regards the language side of the coin, knowledge of two languages has been pinpointed using different terms, including ‘linguistic competence’ by Bausch (as cited in Rothe-Neves, 2007), ‘source and target language competences at discourse and style levels’ (Honig, 1991), ‘source and target texts processing’ (Hatim & Mason, 1997; Stolze, 1997), ‘source and target language knowledge’ (Bell, 1991; Kastberg, 2007; Kiraly, 2000; Russo, 2000; Schäffner, 2000; Sim, 2000), ‘grammatical competence’ (Beeby, 1996), ‘language competence’ (EMT Expert Group, 2009; Neubert, 2000), ‘language awareness’ (Fox, 2000), ‘proficiency, being related to certain special bilingual skills’ (Campbell, 1991), ‘communicative and textual sub-competence’ by Kelly (as cited in Brala-Vukanovic, 2016, p. 226), ‘bilingual sub-competence’ (PACTE, 2005, p. 611), ‘communicative competence in at least two languages’ (Göpferich, 2009), ‘comprehension and production strategies’ (Forte, 2012), ‘listening and analysis of source speech and production of target speech’ (Gile, 2009), ‘absolute command of the source and target languages’ (Gouadec, 2007, p. 150), ‘language skills’ (Pöchhacker, 2000), ‘pre-process competence, including language proﬁciency and terminology management’ (Albl-Mikasa, 2013), ‘perception, decoding, recoding, encoding, and expressing skills’ (Ma, 2013), and more recently ‘language and culture competence’ (Beikian, 2020; EMT, 2017). Along the same vein, culture sub-competence, albeit variously termed again, goes hand in hand with language sub-competence in most of the models having been examined in the course of the present study. Some terms used by scholars to mention culture sub-competence in their proposed TCMs include ‘communicative competence in source and target language cultures’ (Bell, 1991), ‘cultural knowledge’ by Stolze (1992), ‘cultural knowledge of the source and target language’ (Kiraly, 1995), ‘sociolinguistic and discourse competence’ (Beeby, 1996), ‘cultural competence’ (Kastberg, 2007; Neubert, 2000; Pöchhacker (2000), ‘cultural competence, including knowledge about cultural, historical, political, economic, etc. aspects in the respective countries’ (Schäffner, 2000), ‘sociocultural competence’ (Fox, 2000), ‘source and target culture controls’ (Sim, 2000), ‘cultural sub-competence’ by Kelly (as cited in Brala-Vukanovic, 2016, p. 226), ‘extra-linguistic sub-competence, made up of encyclopedic, thematic and bicultural knowledge’ (PACTE, 2005, p. 611), ‘intercultural competence, consisting of sociolinguistic and textual dimensions’ (EMT Expert Group, 2009, pp. 4-7), ‘multi-cultural competence’ (Gouadec, 2007), and finally ‘language and culture competence’ (Beikian, 2020; EMT, 2017). 2. Purpose One of the most apparent applications of some of the given TCMs is as valid frameworks, the aim of which is to shape curriculum proposals in higher education (Campbell, 1998; Schäffner, 2000; Kelly, 2002; Pym, 2003; Colina, 2003; Kearns, 2006; Morón, 2009, Beikian, 2020). The present two-phase qualitative study was conducted with the purpose of investigating how the curricula of B.A. and M.A English translation programs offered by Iranian state universities cover LC competence as compared to overseas peer programs and how the said national programs can be improved in terms of covering this pivotal competence. 3. Research Method The first phase of the study aimed at finding how LC competence is covered by Iranian state universities offering B.A. and M.A. translation programs in English and their overseas peer programs. Since Iranian state universities are not ranked officially, all 23 B.A. translator training programs and 8 M.A. translation studies programs offered in English by Iranian state universities were included in the study. As regards overseas peer programs, based on U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems in 2020, translation programs offered in 49 countries enjoying top systems of higher education were included in the study, which resulted in examining 20 B.A. programs and 73 M.A. programs. In order to access the curriculum of each program, first we consulted the program website; and if the required data were not found, we used personal communication with the program contact person. Then the contents of the national and overseas curricula were analyzed and all language and culture courses were extracted. Afterward, the said courses were categorized based on the themes which the researchers had extracted from the relevant literature. In addition, the courses extracted from the national and overseas curricula were further compared and contrasted for the purpose of finding the similarities and differences among them. In the second phase, we interviewed 55 Iranian experts who had been defined to be either university teachers having taught translation and/or interpreting courses at Iranian state universities for at least 3 years or translation studies Ph.D. candidates being graduates of both B.A. and M.A. translation programs offered in English by Iranian state universities. Then semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the ‘structuring’ form of qualitative content analysis method. To this end, first of all, tentative categories were defined and explained in the coding agenda; and for the purpose of differentiating the categories, coding rules were defined. Subsequently, the transcript of each interview was read and every statement seeming relevant at a first glance was underlined. After reconsidering the developed categories, the content of each transcript was structured using a color scheme. Then statements, opinions, and quotes were taken out by order of their color and summarized into the category system, although some were quoted directly. In the end, the categories and subcategories were analyzed by tallying their frequencies, which were then represented using tables. 4. Findings and Discussion As regards language sub-competence, while Iranian programs mostly focus on receptive and productive skills as well as such components as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, foreign peer programs offer quite variegated courses such as etymology, text analysis, appreciating written texts, language consolidation for translation and interpreting purposes, business communication, communication skills, language and communication studies, health communication, characteristics of specialized texts, text analysis for translation, creative writing, intensive writing, advanced native language, native language skills for translation, multilingual debate, conversation analysis, analysis of persuasive texts, language fluency for interpreters, native language for conference interpreters, native language fluency enhancement, editing in native language writing, native language in audio-visual translation, documentation and terminology for translation, lexicology, applied terminology, and foreign language semantic factoring. When it comes to culture sub-competence, there are only a total number of 6 culture courses contained in the curricula of Iranian B.A and M.A. programs. What adds fuel to this flame of failure to cover culture adequately is that some of the courses (e.g., ‘cultural elements in two languages’ and ‘culture and sociology in translation) are electives, allowing Iranian universities either not to offer them at all or, in the best scenario, suffice to offering only one (Rezvani &Vakilinejad, 2012). This is while foreign peer programs offer a multitude of various courses intended to form students’ cultural competence, such as communication across cultures, subjects in culture and communication, variation and change, discourse analysis, discourse and power, language and power, language and culture, culture and conflict, intercultural studies, intercultural communication, cross-cultural perspectives on society, representation of cultures, intercultural perspectives on sustainable development, institutional discourse, changing topics from the intercultural communication area, culture and business, advanced intercultural communication/negotiations, advanced political and legal communication, and advanced health communication. According to the Iranian experts, national B.A. programs are afflicted with such problems as applicants’ not having good commands of English language proficiency (agreeing with Behafarin, 2015; Hadipour, 2017; Riazi & Razmjou, 2004; Yousefi, 2014; Ziahosseiny, 2003) and Persian language proficiency (consistent with Behafarin, 2015; Miremadi, 2003; Riazi & Razmjou, 2004) and their ill-informedness about the nature and requirements of the program. The said experts argued that Iranian M.A. programs suffer from such deficiencies as admission of applicants who are mostly ill-informed about the nature and requirements of the program (consistent with Birjandi & Nosratinia, 2009), unsatisfactory admission system, applicants’ not having good commands of Persian and English proficiency (compatible with Miremadi, 2003), and inadequate prerequisite courses for the students not having done their B.A. in translation. Added to these are out-of-date curricula and departments’ lack of adequate autonomy to determine admission criteria. When asked about how the B.A. situation could be improved, the interviewees suggested that admission criteria be made stricter (confirming Hadipour, 2017; Khazaee Farid & Khoshsaligheh, 2010) by adding independent English and Persian proficiency tests to the current entrance exam and including English and Persian writing competence tests in the same; departments be given autonomy on admitting applicants using admission interviews; applicants be required to provide an acceptable TOEFL or IELTS score; an English proficiency placement test be given to newly admitted students (compatible with Ziahosseiny, 2003); courses on Persian language reading, writing, and editing (consistent with Khoshsaligheh, 2014; Miremadi, 2003; Riazi & Razmjou, 2004; Sohrabi, Rahimi & Arjmandi, 2015) as well as courses on English and Persian cultures (in agreement with Behafarin, 2015; Khoshsaligheh, 2010; Salari & Khazaee Farid, 2015) be added to the curricula; the present curricula be revised by modeling successful leading programs worldwide (agreeing with Heydarian, 2003; Khazaee Farid, 2001; Miremadi, 2003); and textbooks be localized. As a way out of the current M.A. situation, the Iranian experts proposed that the current entrance exam be made stricter by adding an admission interview and a practical translation aptitude test in the form of essay questions; stricter language proficiency criteria be established by requiring applicants to provide an acceptable TOEFL or IELTS score; applicants not having done their B.A. in translation either not be admitted or be required to provide an English proficiency certificate; courses directed at training political and journalistic text translators and localization experts be included in the curriculum; courses be directed at training specialized translators and interpreters; courses such as Localization, Foundations of History, Editing and Proofreading, CDA and Translation, and Foundations of Culture and Sociology be included in the curriculum; the course Sociocultural Studies in Translation be offered as a compulsory course; and the present curricula be revised by modeling successful leading programs worldwide (confirming Heydarian, 2003; Khazaee Farid, 2001; Miremadi, 2003). 5. Innovation and Contribution Upon integrating the findings of the two phases of the study, we prepared a list of course topics jointly recommended by the interviewees and extracted from the curricula of peer overseas programs. The principal contribution of the present research is that it emphasizes the necessity of revising the current curricula in line with maximum coverage of topics proposed as a list of Persian LC topics, English LC topics, and Joint LC topics. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that this list is based both on Iranian experts’ views and the insights gained from the curricula of a total of 93 foreign peer programs offered by leading universities worldwide. The said list can prove very useful for both revising the current curricula and devising new ones. It is axiomatic that the proposed LC course topics are too many to be assigned individual courses. This is why they have been labeled ‘course topics’, which implies that when revising the exiting curricula or devising new ones, curriculum designers need to merge several related course topics in one single course. In addition, these course topics have been proposed with an eye to designing autonomous translation, interpreting, and audiovisual translation programs, concentrations, and specialized tracks.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7074_4f2b590864ff38e818c75312f81b1cbf.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 The Analysis of Allomorphs of the Past Morpheme of Mamasani Lori Dialect The Analysis of Allomorphs of the Past Morpheme of Mamasani Lori Dialect 387 430 7075 10.29252/LRR.13.4.12 FA Ayoub Ansari PhD Candidate of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran. 0000-0001-9815-1058 Arezoo Najafian Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-3969-2564 Mohammad Ahmadkhani Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran Belghis Rovshan Professor, Department of Linguistics, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran. Journal Article Mamasani Lori dialect is one of the southern dialects of Lori language and a branch of southwestern Iranian dialects which, like many other Iranian dialects, has significant phonetic and phonological variations. One of the notable morphonological domains in this dialect is the representation of various forms of the past morpheme. The main issue of this research is how to optimize the processes, constraints and rankings of these morphonological variations based on the optimality theory, and investigating whether there are universal rules for them? The method of the present research is descriptive-analytical and the method of data collection is documentary, based on the list of simple verbs of Persian language (Tabatabai 1997), a list of equivalent verbs in Mamasani Lori dialect was extracted and transcribed based on the International Phonetic Alphabet and all contexts of past allomorphs are analyzed in the data. Data analysis showed that /ɪd/ is the underlying past morpheme is the in this dialect, based on the criteria of context distribution, frequency of occurrence and application of the least rules. So, this study resulted in specifying nine allomorphs of past morpheme, (/ Ið /, / ð /, / ɑð /, / d /, / t /, / es /, / s /, / ɑs / and / Ø), and analyzing their phonetic realization based on OT in this dialect..... 1. Introduction Mamasani Lori dialect is one of the southern dialects of Lori language and a branch of southwestern Iranian dialects which, like many other Iranian dialects, has significant phonetic and phonological variations. One of the notable morphonological domains in this dialect is the representation of various forms of the past morpheme. The main issue of this research is how to optimize the processes, constraints and rankings of these morphonological variations based on the optimality theory, and investigating whether there are universal rules for them? The importance and necessity of the current study is to preserve the heritage of the ancient Iranian languages and to provide a comprehensive description of one of the morpho-phonological sub-fields of the studied dialect. In this regard, it has been attempted to answer the following research questions while analyzing the subject: 1) What are the allomorphs of the past morpheme in Lori Mamasani's dialect? 2) In the framework of optimality theory, what processes, constraints, and rankings govern the optimal output of the allomorphs of the past morpheme, and are they governed by universal rules? 2. Methodology The method of the present research is descriptive-analytical and the method of data collection is documentary, based on the list of simple verbs of Persian language (Tabatabai, 1376), a list of equivalent verbs in Mamasani Lori dialect was extracted and transcribed based on the International Phonetic Alphabet and all contexts of past allomorphs are analyzed in the data. 3. Findings The findings showed that the tendency to weakening in the dialect of Lori Mamasani is a very common and widespread process. Data analysis showed that /ɪd/ is the underlying past morpheme in this dialect, based on the criteria of context distribution, frequency of occurrence and application of the least rules. The past morpheme includes the nine allomorphs (/ Ið /, / ð /, / ɑð /, / d /, / t /, / es /, / s /, / ɑs / and / Ø) which are realized as a result of weakening process in this dialect. In this study, some degrees of weakening in the consonant and vowel of the past morpheme / ɪd / was observed, which indicates that in general the weakening process is a function of the global constraints of LAZY in this dialect. Also, a weakening continuum has been observed in the vowel of these allomorphs, in which the tense high vowel / ɪ / in the allomorph / ɪð / is weakened to the central vowel / e / in the allomorph / es / and the lax low vowel / ɑ / in the allomorphs / ɑs / and / ɑ /. The * V (tense) constraint governs this process. In more than half of the examined data (246 verbs out of the total 446 verbs), the past morpheme realized in two forms, / Ið /, / es /. The allomorph / es / is realized as a result of the devoicing process of the voiced dental fricative phoneme / ð / in the allomorph /Ið/, which immediately realized as /s/,that is its closest phoneme based on the place of articulation feature, because there is no voiceless dental fricative phoneme / ɵ / in the phonological system of this dialect. 4. Discussion and Conclusion The process of consonantal devoicing under the influence of sociological factors is a common process in Iranian languages and dialects. In this study, the importance of consonant and vowel weakening processes in selecting optimal outputs and allomorphs of the past morpheme is shown. It seems that this study can be generalized to the allomorphs of the past morpheme in Persian as well, because in terms of the criteria occurrence frequency, context/texture and application of the least rules in Persian, the allomorph / ɪd / can be considered as the underlying past morpheme in Persian, Contrary to the opinion of Karampour et al.(1390) who believed that other allomorphs are realized as a result of phonological processes and derivational stages/steps in Serialism optimality which has generated the other allomorphs in surface realization. Perhaps in this way it may be possible to put aside the classical distinctions and definitions of the past-stem and the present–stem and believe only in the present-stem or verb-stem, which can be redefined by adding the past morpheme / ɪd / and applying processes such as elision, insertion, assimilation, etc. based on different phonological contexts and intermediate derivational stages in optimality approach. The present study also confirms the superiority of the performance and mechanism of the Serialism to the Parallelism (standard) optimality, because, as noted, the allomorphic variations of the past morpheme are the result of successive processes of the Serialism sequential steps, in which, at each stage, a process or change is applied to the input, and a series of feeding or bleeding processes are involved in the selection of the final output, which explains the course of evolution in the intermediate stages. In parallelism, the processes and constraints of the intermediate stages of derivation are not dealt with, and the surface forms show different and varied phonetic realizations, which are classified as irregular categories in traditional grammars.. Mamasani Lori dialect is one of the southern dialects of Lori language and a branch of southwestern Iranian dialects which, like many other Iranian dialects, has significant phonetic and phonological variations. One of the notable morphonological domains in this dialect is the representation of various forms of the past morpheme. The main issue of this research is how to optimize the processes, constraints and rankings of these morphonological variations based on the optimality theory, and investigating whether there are universal rules for them? The method of the present research is descriptive-analytical and the method of data collection is documentary, based on the list of simple verbs of Persian language (Tabatabai 1997), a list of equivalent verbs in Mamasani Lori dialect was extracted and transcribed based on the International Phonetic Alphabet and all contexts of past allomorphs are analyzed in the data. Data analysis showed that /ɪd/ is the underlying past morpheme is the in this dialect, based on the criteria of context distribution, frequency of occurrence and application of the least rules. So, this study resulted in specifying nine allomorphs of past morpheme, (/ Ið /, / ð /, / ɑð /, / d /, / t /, / es /, / s /, / ɑs / and / Ø), and analyzing their phonetic realization based on OT in this dialect..... 1. Introduction Mamasani Lori dialect is one of the southern dialects of Lori language and a branch of southwestern Iranian dialects which, like many other Iranian dialects, has significant phonetic and phonological variations. One of the notable morphonological domains in this dialect is the representation of various forms of the past morpheme. The main issue of this research is how to optimize the processes, constraints and rankings of these morphonological variations based on the optimality theory, and investigating whether there are universal rules for them? The importance and necessity of the current study is to preserve the heritage of the ancient Iranian languages and to provide a comprehensive description of one of the morpho-phonological sub-fields of the studied dialect. In this regard, it has been attempted to answer the following research questions while analyzing the subject: 1) What are the allomorphs of the past morpheme in Lori Mamasani's dialect? 2) In the framework of optimality theory, what processes, constraints, and rankings govern the optimal output of the allomorphs of the past morpheme, and are they governed by universal rules? 2. Methodology The method of the present research is descriptive-analytical and the method of data collection is documentary, based on the list of simple verbs of Persian language (Tabatabai, 1376), a list of equivalent verbs in Mamasani Lori dialect was extracted and transcribed based on the International Phonetic Alphabet and all contexts of past allomorphs are analyzed in the data. 3. Findings The findings showed that the tendency to weakening in the dialect of Lori Mamasani is a very common and widespread process. Data analysis showed that /ɪd/ is the underlying past morpheme in this dialect, based on the criteria of context distribution, frequency of occurrence and application of the least rules. The past morpheme includes the nine allomorphs (/ Ið /, / ð /, / ɑð /, / d /, / t /, / es /, / s /, / ɑs / and / Ø) which are realized as a result of weakening process in this dialect. In this study, some degrees of weakening in the consonant and vowel of the past morpheme / ɪd / was observed, which indicates that in general the weakening process is a function of the global constraints of LAZY in this dialect. Also, a weakening continuum has been observed in the vowel of these allomorphs, in which the tense high vowel / ɪ / in the allomorph / ɪð / is weakened to the central vowel / e / in the allomorph / es / and the lax low vowel / ɑ / in the allomorphs / ɑs / and / ɑ /. The * V (tense) constraint governs this process. In more than half of the examined data (246 verbs out of the total 446 verbs), the past morpheme realized in two forms, / Ið /, / es /. The allomorph / es / is realized as a result of the devoicing process of the voiced dental fricative phoneme / ð / in the allomorph /Ið/, which immediately realized as /s/,that is its closest phoneme based on the place of articulation feature, because there is no voiceless dental fricative phoneme / ɵ / in the phonological system of this dialect. 4. Discussion and Conclusion The process of consonantal devoicing under the influence of sociological factors is a common process in Iranian languages and dialects. In this study, the importance of consonant and vowel weakening processes in selecting optimal outputs and allomorphs of the past morpheme is shown. It seems that this study can be generalized to the allomorphs of the past morpheme in Persian as well, because in terms of the criteria occurrence frequency, context/texture and application of the least rules in Persian, the allomorph / ɪd / can be considered as the underlying past morpheme in Persian, Contrary to the opinion of Karampour et al.(1390) who believed that other allomorphs are realized as a result of phonological processes and derivational stages/steps in Serialism optimality which has generated the other allomorphs in surface realization. Perhaps in this way it may be possible to put aside the classical distinctions and definitions of the past-stem and the present–stem and believe only in the present-stem or verb-stem, which can be redefined by adding the past morpheme / ɪd / and applying processes such as elision, insertion, assimilation, etc. based on different phonological contexts and intermediate derivational stages in optimality approach. The present study also confirms the superiority of the performance and mechanism of the Serialism to the Parallelism (standard) optimality, because, as noted, the allomorphic variations of the past morpheme are the result of successive processes of the Serialism sequential steps, in which, at each stage, a process or change is applied to the input, and a series of feeding or bleeding processes are involved in the selection of the final output, which explains the course of evolution in the intermediate stages. In parallelism, the processes and constraints of the intermediate stages of derivation are not dealt with, and the surface forms show different and varied phonetic realizations, which are classified as irregular categories in traditional grammars..

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7075_bdad073d2c77b0525e32a0e9784089ea.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Investigating Language Learnersâ Satisfaction in Private Language Schools: A Factor Analysis of EduQual Model of Quality Assessment in Educational Contexts Investigating Language Learnersâ Satisfaction in Private Language Schools: A Factor Analysis of EduQual Model of Quality Assessment in Educational Contexts 431 465 7076 10.29252/LRR.13.4.13 FA Seyed Mohammad Reza Amirian Associate Professor of TEFL, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran 0000-0003-3719-3902 Morteza Bonjakhi PhD Candidate in TEFL, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran 0000-0003-0404-9760 Seyed Morteza Amirian Master of Management MBA, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article The aim of the present study is to examine the views of language learners receiving English language teaching services about the quality of educational services and institutions’ facility. One of the models that is used to assess the quality of education is EduQual model, which was used to design a questionnaire consisting of 28 items. The participants of this study were 254 language learners of a private English language institution, and after receiving the questionnaires, 200 questionnaires were approved and analyzed. In quantitative phase of the study, a quantitative review of the questionnaire, as well as, the fitness of this model was investigated through factor analysis in AMOS. The results of the quantitative part of this study by two indicators confirmed the fitness of the model (RMSEA and CFI), however, the other two indicators of the fitness indices were not at the desired level (p-value for Chi square and CMIN / DF). The factor load for all items of this questionnaire was also evaluated acceptable and the correlation coefficients between the aspects were in the appropriate range. In interviews, this model was mostly accepted, but some aspects of this questionnaire were questioned. The interviewees also added other factors to the quality of English language institutions that were discussed in this study. Due to the large scope of institutions, the need to create a special model for quality assessment in English language institutions in this study was strongly suggested. Introduction Undoubtedly, one of the factors which leads into quality improvement of the educational programs is assessing the quality of the educational services provided by the centers and perceived by those who have received the services. Due to undeniable competition among language schools in English language teaching, quality plays an important role in being selected. In this context, language learners are the main receivers of the service, therefore, the authorities need to know about their ideas and perceptions of quality. Investigating their ideas, in addition to assessing the quality of services, can help the school owners have a better educational planning and facility provision in line with quality enhancement. One of the models in estimating the quality in educational settings is EduQual model which is mainly designed to be used in higher educational settings. Thus, the main aim of the present paper is to investigate if the EduQual model, which mainly assess quality in higher education, fits the data gathered from language schools. Participants in this research are language learners at a language school in Sabzevar, Iran who have received English language learning services for a while in the language school. Research Questions The main question of the present study is to investigate if it is feasible to hire EduQUAL model on Iranian Institutional context to evaluate the quality of educational services? Literature Review EduQual model has been designed to estimate educational quality of higher education which is used in this study as an instrument to measure quality of English language learning service quality. The questionnaire which is designed based on this model is made of five aspects including 28 items (learning outcomes (8 items), responsiveness (6 items), physical facilities (7 items), personality development (4 items), and academics (3 items)). This model, itself, has been extracted from another model, namely ServQUAl which assesses the quality of the services provided. This model, itself, is a result of Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM is “a systematic and rationalized philosophy for change and quality management in higher education institutions” (Hammersley & Pinnington, 1999). The items of EduQual questionnaire are designed for higher educational settings, therefore, four items, which were irrelevant to language school settings, have been removed from the original form and then translated into Persian. The overall idea of this model is based on the distance between customers’ expectation and perception of the educational services they have received. The distance between the two shows the level of quality. The higher their expectations and the lower their perception, the quality will be estimated higher. The lower their expectation and the higher their perception, the quality will be estimated as higher. Methodology Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected in this study. The quantitative data was gathered through a modified version of EduQual questionnaire in five aspects and the qualitative data was gathered through interviewing the volunteered participants. The participants of the present study were 254 language learners of a private language school in Sabzevar, Iran. However, after distributing the questionnaire only 200 questionnaires were accepted to be analyzed. Firstly, the results gathered through questionnaires were entered into the SPSS software, then, investigating the relationship between aspects of the questionnaire and educational quality, the fitting indices (RMSEA, CFI, Chi-square and CMIN/DF) were calculated through AMOS software and then path diagram, factor loads of items and correlation coefficients of the aspects were reported and analyzed. The qualitative data was coded through coding procedure of Grounded Theory while analyzing the interviews. The participants in interviews were among those who have filled out the questionnaires and volunteered to participate in the interviews. The researchers set an appointment and then asked about the questions and their ideas. Results The quantitative results of two fitting indices (RMSEA and CFI) confirmed model fitness, however, two the others (p-value for Chi-square and CMIN/DF) didn’t reach their thresholds to fit the model confidently. In addition, factorial loads of all items of the questionnaire, as well as, correlational coefficients between the aspects were estimated and ensured to be acceptable. To ensure its fitness the interviews play an important role. Therefore, researchers ran a couple of interviews and the discussions were recorded and transcribed in order to be analyzed deeply. Discussion In interviews, the model was generally accepted to measure the quality level, however, a couple of items were under question such as related academic degree. This idea has raised by the interviewees because they had experienced some good teachers with unrelated degree to English language teaching. Interestingly, the interviewees added some themes which was not considered in the questionnaire. They believed that the instrument lacks a couple of aspects of quality in language schools. The aspects they believed were the importance of placement test before being assigned to a class (which is not sensitive in higher education as the students are mostly at the same level based on the university entrance examinations) and age homogeneity of the students in each class (which is not a concern in EduQual as the students are at the same age at higher education), accessible language learning consultants within the school, and regular and descriptive evaluations of the language learning progress of the language learners; each of which could be added to the model as further studies. Finally, aspects of educational quality were analyzed and some suggestions were provided to improve the model according to private language schools. Due to high number of service receivers and providers in English language teaching schools, it is necessary to develop a new model to measure quality in this specific context and based on its needs and considerations. This suggestion is because of the difference between the two contexts (language schools and higher education) has been provided. The aim of the present study is to examine the views of language learners receiving English language teaching services about the quality of educational services and institutions’ facility. One of the models that is used to assess the quality of education is EduQual model, which was used to design a questionnaire consisting of 28 items. The participants of this study were 254 language learners of a private English language institution, and after receiving the questionnaires, 200 questionnaires were approved and analyzed. In quantitative phase of the study, a quantitative review of the questionnaire, as well as, the fitness of this model was investigated through factor analysis in AMOS. The results of the quantitative part of this study by two indicators confirmed the fitness of the model (RMSEA and CFI), however, the other two indicators of the fitness indices were not at the desired level (p-value for Chi square and CMIN / DF). The factor load for all items of this questionnaire was also evaluated acceptable and the correlation coefficients between the aspects were in the appropriate range. In interviews, this model was mostly accepted, but some aspects of this questionnaire were questioned. The interviewees also added other factors to the quality of English language institutions that were discussed in this study. Due to the large scope of institutions, the need to create a special model for quality assessment in English language institutions in this study was strongly suggested. Introduction Undoubtedly, one of the factors which leads into quality improvement of the educational programs is assessing the quality of the educational services provided by the centers and perceived by those who have received the services. Due to undeniable competition among language schools in English language teaching, quality plays an important role in being selected. In this context, language learners are the main receivers of the service, therefore, the authorities need to know about their ideas and perceptions of quality. Investigating their ideas, in addition to assessing the quality of services, can help the school owners have a better educational planning and facility provision in line with quality enhancement. One of the models in estimating the quality in educational settings is EduQual model which is mainly designed to be used in higher educational settings. Thus, the main aim of the present paper is to investigate if the EduQual model, which mainly assess quality in higher education, fits the data gathered from language schools. Participants in this research are language learners at a language school in Sabzevar, Iran who have received English language learning services for a while in the language school. Research Questions The main question of the present study is to investigate if it is feasible to hire EduQUAL model on Iranian Institutional context to evaluate the quality of educational services? Literature Review EduQual model has been designed to estimate educational quality of higher education which is used in this study as an instrument to measure quality of English language learning service quality. The questionnaire which is designed based on this model is made of five aspects including 28 items (learning outcomes (8 items), responsiveness (6 items), physical facilities (7 items), personality development (4 items), and academics (3 items)). This model, itself, has been extracted from another model, namely ServQUAl which assesses the quality of the services provided. This model, itself, is a result of Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM is “a systematic and rationalized philosophy for change and quality management in higher education institutions” (Hammersley & Pinnington, 1999). The items of EduQual questionnaire are designed for higher educational settings, therefore, four items, which were irrelevant to language school settings, have been removed from the original form and then translated into Persian. The overall idea of this model is based on the distance between customers’ expectation and perception of the educational services they have received. The distance between the two shows the level of quality. The higher their expectations and the lower their perception, the quality will be estimated higher. The lower their expectation and the higher their perception, the quality will be estimated as higher. Methodology Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected in this study. The quantitative data was gathered through a modified version of EduQual questionnaire in five aspects and the qualitative data was gathered through interviewing the volunteered participants. The participants of the present study were 254 language learners of a private language school in Sabzevar, Iran. However, after distributing the questionnaire only 200 questionnaires were accepted to be analyzed. Firstly, the results gathered through questionnaires were entered into the SPSS software, then, investigating the relationship between aspects of the questionnaire and educational quality, the fitting indices (RMSEA, CFI, Chi-square and CMIN/DF) were calculated through AMOS software and then path diagram, factor loads of items and correlation coefficients of the aspects were reported and analyzed. The qualitative data was coded through coding procedure of Grounded Theory while analyzing the interviews. The participants in interviews were among those who have filled out the questionnaires and volunteered to participate in the interviews. The researchers set an appointment and then asked about the questions and their ideas. Results The quantitative results of two fitting indices (RMSEA and CFI) confirmed model fitness, however, two the others (p-value for Chi-square and CMIN/DF) didn’t reach their thresholds to fit the model confidently. In addition, factorial loads of all items of the questionnaire, as well as, correlational coefficients between the aspects were estimated and ensured to be acceptable. To ensure its fitness the interviews play an important role. Therefore, researchers ran a couple of interviews and the discussions were recorded and transcribed in order to be analyzed deeply. Discussion In interviews, the model was generally accepted to measure the quality level, however, a couple of items were under question such as related academic degree. This idea has raised by the interviewees because they had experienced some good teachers with unrelated degree to English language teaching. Interestingly, the interviewees added some themes which was not considered in the questionnaire. They believed that the instrument lacks a couple of aspects of quality in language schools. The aspects they believed were the importance of placement test before being assigned to a class (which is not sensitive in higher education as the students are mostly at the same level based on the university entrance examinations) and age homogeneity of the students in each class (which is not a concern in EduQual as the students are at the same age at higher education), accessible language learning consultants within the school, and regular and descriptive evaluations of the language learning progress of the language learners; each of which could be added to the model as further studies. Finally, aspects of educational quality were analyzed and some suggestions were provided to improve the model according to private language schools. Due to high number of service receivers and providers in English language teaching schools, it is necessary to develop a new model to measure quality in this specific context and based on its needs and considerations. This suggestion is because of the difference between the two contexts (language schools and higher education) has been provided.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7076_f02a8fde79ddf5b978cd9ae9d408b7c1.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Problems of Defining and Distinguishing Motivation and Motive Among Iranian English Learners and Native Speakers, and a Historical-Genealogical Study of the Reasons in Psychology Problems of Defining and Distinguishing Motivation and Motive Among Iranian English Learners and Native Speakers, and a Historical-Genealogical Study of the Reasons in Psychology 467 497 7077 10.29252/LRR.13.4.14 FA Azar Hosseini Fatemi Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran Jassem Fathabadi Ph.D., Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran 0000-0002-6101-2780 Reza Pishghadam Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran 0000-0001-6876-5139 Journal Article Abstract It is safe to say that motivation is one of the most controversial concepts of study in all social sciences especially psychology. Concerned with this controversy, the purpose of this study was to investigate the problems of defining and theorizing about motivation. To this end, the tendency and capability of Iranian English learners and native speakers to distinguish motive and motivation was investigated. Moreover, the problems were situated in a historical context to shed light on the reasons behind them through a structural and genealogical approach. Based on the results all the participants including only distinguished motivation and motive where both of them were present, otherwise, they were treated synonymously. The structural analysis of motivation as a word resulted in a very broad definition: the whole process of moving toward a goal. This extensive meaning, which includes both mental and outside factors, cannot be accounted for in a single theory. Therefore, in the process of becoming a concept and then a measurable construct, the range of meaning has shrunk. It, in technical terms, is the inevitable result of embracing the ontology of analytical philosophy, which ends up in moving toward fixity and identity, by most psychologists. Being aware of these facts can play a major role in preventing motivational scholars from making unjustified conclusion based on their findings. 1. Introduction The first psychological use of the term ‘motivation’ dates back to 1901 and has been a main concern and a controversial topic in psychology. It is also one of the most important, controversial, and debated concepts in SLL research. The common belief is that motivation is the indispensable factor in all facets of language learning without which the efforts for accomplishment would be in vain, and it can also make up for lack of abilities in other skills. Acknowledging the problems that surround motivation, this study aims at inspecting these problems, discovering the reasons behind them, and coming up with a comprehensive definition for motivation. Research Question(s) 1. Do English native speakers differentiate motive and motivation when one of them is present (error-recognition test)? 2. Do Iranians majoring in English differentiate motive and motivation in error-recognition test? 3. Is there any difference among male native English speakers, female native English speakers, male Iranians majoring in English, and female Iranians majoring in English in the error-recognition test? 4. Do English native speakers differentiate motive and motivation when both of them are present (two-options test)? 5. Do Iranians majoring in English differentiate motive and motivation in the two-options test? 6. Is there any difference among male native English speakers, female native English speakers, male Iranians majoring in English, and female Iranians majoring in English in the two-options test? 7. Is there any difference between participants who took the error-recognition test and those who took the two-options test? 8. Structurally speaking, what could have been the meaning of motivation as a word? 9. What are the sources of the difficulties surrounding the definition of motivation? 10. In what ways the meaning of motivation has diverged throughout its life in the field of psychology? 2. Literature Review 2.1. Motivation in Psychology Earliest attempts of psychologists to capture the essence of the concept is what came to be known as instinct approaches. In these approaches, inborn, biologically determined factors i.e., instincts, were considered to be the reasons behind behaviors. Later, drive-reduction approaches emerged to compensate for the problems inherent in instinct approaches. In these new approaches, the reason behind any behavior was considered to be lack of some biological needs which creates a drive for action to satisfy those needs. Regarding the drive-reduction approaches, two different criticisms appeared: they could not explain behaviors in which the goal was to increase arousal, and lacked the rationale needed in accounting for behaviors which do not follow an internal drive. The line of work addressing the first criticism resulted in the development of arousal approaches the main proposal of which was that each person wants to maintain a certain amount of arousal. Furthermore, incentive approaches emerged to cover external drives addressed in the second criticism. The shortcoming inherent in previous approaches paved the way for the emergence of cognitive approaches in which the source of motivation was believed to reside in people’s cognition, i.e., mental information processing or thinking. 2.2. Motivation in SLA Dornyei and Ryan divide the historical development of L2 motivation research into three periods: social psychological, cognitive-situated, and process-oriented. The first trend differentiated language learning from other school subjects because, as the proponents proposed, it is not a neutral subject. The second trend started off as an attempt to connect with motivational psychology and study motivation in actual classroom settings. Beside temporal nature, attended to by cognitive situated period, the socio-dynamic perspective emphasized the dynamic character of motivation i.e., its fluctuation in response to the changes in environment. 3. Methodology In general, 200 English native speakers (half male and half female), and 200 MA or Ph.D. students majoring in English (half male and half female) participated in this study. These participants were 22 to 42 years of age and agreed to participate in the second phase of the study via email. Twenty novels (both originally English and translated works) were randomly selected from the lists of ‘best novels of time’ provided by the Telegraph, the Guardian, and Time magazine. The word ‘motive’ has been used 241 times in these novels twelve of which, were randomly selected and used as materials to develop two tests: an error-recognition test and a two-options test. The Crosstabulation and Chi-square Test were conducted to reveal whether the participants differentiate motive and motivation in two different scenarios: first when only one of them is present, and secondly when both of them are provided as options. This data analysis was conducted both as a whole, and separately for Iranians and native speakers across both genders. Subsequently, a series of T-tests and ANOVA Tests were performed based on their scores to find out whether there is a significant difference among participants across gender, and language status. 4. Results and Conclusion This study revealed that ‘movere’ which means to move, is the principal root of motivation. Another word that has its root in ‘movere’ is motive, the meaning of which has become so close to motivation. The results of the first part confirmed this proximity of meaning: both native speakers and Iranians majoring in English did not differentiate motive and motivation when only one of them was present. However, both group did differentiate them when both of them were primed. Simply put, although English users know and expect motive and motivation to convey different meanings, they could easily end up neglecting this expected difference. The definition of human motivation at point zero, as recreated through its linguistic structure in the second part of the study, turned out to be ‘everything that happens and/or is at play from the beginning of a behavior till its end whether the goal is accomplished or the behavior is abandoned for various reasons’. The review disclosed that this definition is practically nonexistent in the literature for various reasons such as: the analytical ontological orientation dominant in research projects within humanities and social sciences the inclination of researchers and theorizers toward preciseness and fixity at the expense of excluding differences the transition from word to concept within scientific fields of study the requirements of establishing a construct in scientific research projects. Abstract It is safe to say that motivation is one of the most controversial concepts of study in all social sciences especially psychology. Concerned with this controversy, the purpose of this study was to investigate the problems of defining and theorizing about motivation. To this end, the tendency and capability of Iranian English learners and native speakers to distinguish motive and motivation was investigated. Moreover, the problems were situated in a historical context to shed light on the reasons behind them through a structural and genealogical approach. Based on the results all the participants including only distinguished motivation and motive where both of them were present, otherwise, they were treated synonymously. The structural analysis of motivation as a word resulted in a very broad definition: the whole process of moving toward a goal. This extensive meaning, which includes both mental and outside factors, cannot be accounted for in a single theory. Therefore, in the process of becoming a concept and then a measurable construct, the range of meaning has shrunk. It, in technical terms, is the inevitable result of embracing the ontology of analytical philosophy, which ends up in moving toward fixity and identity, by most psychologists. Being aware of these facts can play a major role in preventing motivational scholars from making unjustified conclusion based on their findings. 1. Introduction The first psychological use of the term ‘motivation’ dates back to 1901 and has been a main concern and a controversial topic in psychology. It is also one of the most important, controversial, and debated concepts in SLL research. The common belief is that motivation is the indispensable factor in all facets of language learning without which the efforts for accomplishment would be in vain, and it can also make up for lack of abilities in other skills. Acknowledging the problems that surround motivation, this study aims at inspecting these problems, discovering the reasons behind them, and coming up with a comprehensive definition for motivation. Research Question(s) 1. Do English native speakers differentiate motive and motivation when one of them is present (error-recognition test)? 2. Do Iranians majoring in English differentiate motive and motivation in error-recognition test? 3. Is there any difference among male native English speakers, female native English speakers, male Iranians majoring in English, and female Iranians majoring in English in the error-recognition test? 4. Do English native speakers differentiate motive and motivation when both of them are present (two-options test)? 5. Do Iranians majoring in English differentiate motive and motivation in the two-options test? 6. Is there any difference among male native English speakers, female native English speakers, male Iranians majoring in English, and female Iranians majoring in English in the two-options test? 7. Is there any difference between participants who took the error-recognition test and those who took the two-options test? 8. Structurally speaking, what could have been the meaning of motivation as a word? 9. What are the sources of the difficulties surrounding the definition of motivation? 10. In what ways the meaning of motivation has diverged throughout its life in the field of psychology? 2. Literature Review 2.1. Motivation in Psychology Earliest attempts of psychologists to capture the essence of the concept is what came to be known as instinct approaches. In these approaches, inborn, biologically determined factors i.e., instincts, were considered to be the reasons behind behaviors. Later, drive-reduction approaches emerged to compensate for the problems inherent in instinct approaches. In these new approaches, the reason behind any behavior was considered to be lack of some biological needs which creates a drive for action to satisfy those needs. Regarding the drive-reduction approaches, two different criticisms appeared: they could not explain behaviors in which the goal was to increase arousal, and lacked the rationale needed in accounting for behaviors which do not follow an internal drive. The line of work addressing the first criticism resulted in the development of arousal approaches the main proposal of which was that each person wants to maintain a certain amount of arousal. Furthermore, incentive approaches emerged to cover external drives addressed in the second criticism. The shortcoming inherent in previous approaches paved the way for the emergence of cognitive approaches in which the source of motivation was believed to reside in people’s cognition, i.e., mental information processing or thinking. 2.2. Motivation in SLA Dornyei and Ryan divide the historical development of L2 motivation research into three periods: social psychological, cognitive-situated, and process-oriented. The first trend differentiated language learning from other school subjects because, as the proponents proposed, it is not a neutral subject. The second trend started off as an attempt to connect with motivational psychology and study motivation in actual classroom settings. Beside temporal nature, attended to by cognitive situated period, the socio-dynamic perspective emphasized the dynamic character of motivation i.e., its fluctuation in response to the changes in environment. 3. Methodology In general, 200 English native speakers (half male and half female), and 200 MA or Ph.D. students majoring in English (half male and half female) participated in this study. These participants were 22 to 42 years of age and agreed to participate in the second phase of the study via email. Twenty novels (both originally English and translated works) were randomly selected from the lists of ‘best novels of time’ provided by the Telegraph, the Guardian, and Time magazine. The word ‘motive’ has been used 241 times in these novels twelve of which, were randomly selected and used as materials to develop two tests: an error-recognition test and a two-options test. The Crosstabulation and Chi-square Test were conducted to reveal whether the participants differentiate motive and motivation in two different scenarios: first when only one of them is present, and secondly when both of them are provided as options. This data analysis was conducted both as a whole, and separately for Iranians and native speakers across both genders. Subsequently, a series of T-tests and ANOVA Tests were performed based on their scores to find out whether there is a significant difference among participants across gender, and language status. 4. Results and Conclusion This study revealed that ‘movere’ which means to move, is the principal root of motivation. Another word that has its root in ‘movere’ is motive, the meaning of which has become so close to motivation. The results of the first part confirmed this proximity of meaning: both native speakers and Iranians majoring in English did not differentiate motive and motivation when only one of them was present. However, both group did differentiate them when both of them were primed. Simply put, although English users know and expect motive and motivation to convey different meanings, they could easily end up neglecting this expected difference. The definition of human motivation at point zero, as recreated through its linguistic structure in the second part of the study, turned out to be ‘everything that happens and/or is at play from the beginning of a behavior till its end whether the goal is accomplished or the behavior is abandoned for various reasons’. The review disclosed that this definition is practically nonexistent in the literature for various reasons such as: the analytical ontological orientation dominant in research projects within humanities and social sciences the inclination of researchers and theorizers toward preciseness and fixity at the expense of excluding differences the transition from word to concept within scientific fields of study the requirements of establishing a construct in scientific research projects.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7077_7012ef0335aa2adbab58bd6d0702ba41.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 The Mechanism of Absence as a Language Game of Imagination in the Screenplay âAbout Eliâ by Asghar Farhadi Based on Wittgenstein's Views The Mechanism of Absence as a Language Game of Imagination in the Screenplay âAbout Eliâ by Asghar Farhadi Based on Wittgenstein's Views 499 529 7078 10.29252/LRR.13.4.15 FA رامتین Shahbazi Gharloghi Ph.D Candidate in philosophy of art, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Mohammad Aref Associate Professor of Drama Department, School of Art and Architecture, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Seyed Mostafa Mokhtabad Amrei Professor of Art School, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0001-9259-873X Journal Article The Later Ludwig Wittgenstein believes that language games cause the formation of meaning. He considers language to have a logic that is perfected in its original grammar. But situational contradictions create conditions in which another conception of the same situation can be reached. An image that crystallizes in a new language game and can be called imagination. Thus, this notion can be transformed from a mental thing to a Lingual one. One of the contexts in which these language games can be followed by example is the field of dramatic texts. Hence, because Wittgenstein describes the nature of research in description and opposes analysis and explanation, he claims that the philosophy of language has done its job by describing language games, with the aim of how imagination is formed in language. Asghar Farhadi's About Eli has been selected for research. How does Farhadi organize his language game to achieve this goal? He seems to have used the absence element for this language game. This research, which is based on a qualitative method and on the collection of library information from the perspective of applied purpose, has reached the conclusion that absence causes the formation of contradictory and shaky language situations and helps different language procedures in dealing with Form each other. 1. Introduction The philosophical idea of “language games” by Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein alongside with linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, has brought about major changes in theories of language studies. This philosopher developed philosophical research in an attempt not to describe than‌ to explain, but to focus on functional elements. In this regard, he replaced meaning not only with a picture that he considers mind word‌ but the function of the ‌language. A screenplay text by Asghar Farhadi has been purposefully selected ‌for this study in this regard to address the issue in the field of philosophy of art. Farhadi is known as an international filmmaker whose art works have been warmly welcomed by local and international viewers with any form of language game he chooses. About Elly (2008) has been chosen. This film has dramatically created a situation in which language game‌ expansion is feasible. This study aims at determining the role that language game plays in developing dramatic language in such plays. The question is how Farhadi has turned the element of imagination into language factor and expanded dramatic language in his ‌narratives. 2. Literature Review The late Wittgenstein believes that the meaning of language forms ‌in its function. Human is involved in language‌ games in everyday language. The games‌ which we learn how to play while playing ‌and apply ‌unconsciously. These games are subject to‌ rules that are considered ‌grammar. Grammars have primary and secondary forms. The primary grammars are the context for building initial sentences in‌ language games; on the other hand, secondary grammars influence the infrastructure of‌ language which is culturally shaped. He does not believe in the mind aspect and takes this view that whatever happens in the language life of people‌ has a prominent aspect, which has to be coordinated and accompanied by‌ language games. The mentality of people is regarded as an individual grammar that is inaccessible to the public and it will not be perceivable unless it takes the language aspect in one of the language game rules. Imagination is no exception. Throughout the history of philosophy, imagination has a mental nature that is in line with Wittgenstein's mental subject‌; thus, it can be available until a language structure is made‌. Therefore, it must be determined how the language game of imagination makes meaning in function‌. One of the factors is "‌absence" that can integrate imagination into language games. Absence has been repeatedly discussed. It occasionally has philosophical, linguistic, and artistic logic aspects. Thus, absence has aspects ‌that can face its function‌ with different daily issues‌. Absence comprises all of these ‌functions in the context of language. 3. Methodology Wittgenstein has benefited from the descriptive method to provide his research and this study. According to‌ Wittgenstein, a researcher has to provide schemes based on which a machine operates, like drawing an engineering map, to know how the machine works‌; this refers to how to study language and find grammar in language‌. Hence, this study has considered how the language of imagination has been applied in Farhadi’s screenplay by reviewing Wittgenstein's literature‌ and providing study‌ samples of Farhadi’s texts. This study is based on a functional goal, collecting library information, qualitative method, and descriptive nature. 4. Discussion About Elly by Asghar Farhadi is examined‌. Language‌ games are created in this screenplay, which is listed in following table‌. Table 1 The situation and language games of the movie about Eli (Source: Authors) Situation A Sepideh and Elly situation: Elly has a fiancé who is going to divorce her and Sepideh has suggested her to travel with her to North in order to introduce her to Ahmad. (This situation is in ‌preface.) Language game P Situation B Sepideh situation: Sepideh has started the absence play of preface‌. All the players in the game have believed her‌ story. Language game ~P Situation C Elly situation: Elly has disappeared in ‌this situation. Everyone is looking for her and to know how she is. Language game q Situation D Alireza situation (Elly’s fiancé): Elly’s fiancé has entered the game and the story of situation is‌ obvious. Language game r Situation E Collective situation: Inverting the situation of A in a new language game Language game ~r In these situations‌, agents involved in language games create contexts ‌for playing without any absent elements in order to present ‌an aspect of their language and make another factor for aspect‌ expansion. Dramatic‌ dialogues ‌are first ‌selected and‌ then analyzed individually. It is obvious that the writer of the screenplay ‌has chosen various ‌ways to apply absence in this‌ analysis. Factors such as deletion of a character’s ‌name, and physical deletion of a character to name a few, reach‌ to deep linguistic structure, ‌which transforms the function of ‌language. 5. Conclusion “Absence”, if not considered as language reference, could create an imaginary situation in language games. Asghar Farhadi has tested these issues by considering different situations of language games in his screenplay of “About Elly”. His function has resulted in switching from absence to name and physical deletion and different situations. Consequently, what has been considered ‌mental is turned into something objective and linguistic. The created‌ situations are widely considered logical situations‌. It is not nonsense. However, on the other hand, the logical situations are turned into another procedure of language and are somehow transformed into an imaginative situation when are in conflict with previous and next situations. We can identify other aspects of language by using the expression “imagine” depending on the agent and the situation that has been created. Absence destabilizes the unconscious situation of language. This instability continuously leads to the creation of various kinds of language games; thus, the functional aspect of language develops. This note is a direct answer to the research question and proves the‌ hypothesis in this study. This issue could result in creating drama in conscious areas due to the fact that contradictory situations cause tension and challenges between them, which Farhadi has taken advantage of in the screenplay of “About Elly”. Eventually, it can be claimed that imagination is not just a mental matter. It also can have verbal characteristics provided that we can identify and express its proper language game. This is a way of expanding language. It is important that Wittgenstein does not seek for providing a specific shape or instruction for ‌language games. They might be family-related‌ but are more focused on how to play language‌ games in method than on providing or explaining a specific instruction‌. In this study, we tried to ‌heed more attention to absence ‌as one of these possibilities. The Later Ludwig Wittgenstein believes that language games cause the formation of meaning. He considers language to have a logic that is perfected in its original grammar. But situational contradictions create conditions in which another conception of the same situation can be reached. An image that crystallizes in a new language game and can be called imagination. Thus, this notion can be transformed from a mental thing to a Lingual one. One of the contexts in which these language games can be followed by example is the field of dramatic texts. Hence, because Wittgenstein describes the nature of research in description and opposes analysis and explanation, he claims that the philosophy of language has done its job by describing language games, with the aim of how imagination is formed in language. Asghar Farhadi's About Eli has been selected for research. How does Farhadi organize his language game to achieve this goal? He seems to have used the absence element for this language game. This research, which is based on a qualitative method and on the collection of library information from the perspective of applied purpose, has reached the conclusion that absence causes the formation of contradictory and shaky language situations and helps different language procedures in dealing with Form each other. 1. Introduction The philosophical idea of “language games” by Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein alongside with linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, has brought about major changes in theories of language studies. This philosopher developed philosophical research in an attempt not to describe than‌ to explain, but to focus on functional elements. In this regard, he replaced meaning not only with a picture that he considers mind word‌ but the function of the ‌language. A screenplay text by Asghar Farhadi has been purposefully selected ‌for this study in this regard to address the issue in the field of philosophy of art. Farhadi is known as an international filmmaker whose art works have been warmly welcomed by local and international viewers with any form of language game he chooses. About Elly (2008) has been chosen. This film has dramatically created a situation in which language game‌ expansion is feasible. This study aims at determining the role that language game plays in developing dramatic language in such plays. The question is how Farhadi has turned the element of imagination into language factor and expanded dramatic language in his ‌narratives. 2. Literature Review The late Wittgenstein believes that the meaning of language forms ‌in its function. Human is involved in language‌ games in everyday language. The games‌ which we learn how to play while playing ‌and apply ‌unconsciously. These games are subject to‌ rules that are considered ‌grammar. Grammars have primary and secondary forms. The primary grammars are the context for building initial sentences in‌ language games; on the other hand, secondary grammars influence the infrastructure of‌ language which is culturally shaped. He does not believe in the mind aspect and takes this view that whatever happens in the language life of people‌ has a prominent aspect, which has to be coordinated and accompanied by‌ language games. The mentality of people is regarded as an individual grammar that is inaccessible to the public and it will not be perceivable unless it takes the language aspect in one of the language game rules. Imagination is no exception. Throughout the history of philosophy, imagination has a mental nature that is in line with Wittgenstein's mental subject‌; thus, it can be available until a language structure is made‌. Therefore, it must be determined how the language game of imagination makes meaning in function‌. One of the factors is "‌absence" that can integrate imagination into language games. Absence has been repeatedly discussed. It occasionally has philosophical, linguistic, and artistic logic aspects. Thus, absence has aspects ‌that can face its function‌ with different daily issues‌. Absence comprises all of these ‌functions in the context of language. 3. Methodology Wittgenstein has benefited from the descriptive method to provide his research and this study. According to‌ Wittgenstein, a researcher has to provide schemes based on which a machine operates, like drawing an engineering map, to know how the machine works‌; this refers to how to study language and find grammar in language‌. Hence, this study has considered how the language of imagination has been applied in Farhadi’s screenplay by reviewing Wittgenstein's literature‌ and providing study‌ samples of Farhadi’s texts. This study is based on a functional goal, collecting library information, qualitative method, and descriptive nature. 4. Discussion About Elly by Asghar Farhadi is examined‌. Language‌ games are created in this screenplay, which is listed in following table‌. Table 1 The situation and language games of the movie about Eli (Source: Authors) Situation A Sepideh and Elly situation: Elly has a fiancé who is going to divorce her and Sepideh has suggested her to travel with her to North in order to introduce her to Ahmad. (This situation is in ‌preface.) Language game P Situation B Sepideh situation: Sepideh has started the absence play of preface‌. All the players in the game have believed her‌ story. Language game ~P Situation C Elly situation: Elly has disappeared in ‌this situation. Everyone is looking for her and to know how she is. Language game q Situation D Alireza situation (Elly’s fiancé): Elly’s fiancé has entered the game and the story of situation is‌ obvious. Language game r Situation E Collective situation: Inverting the situation of A in a new language game Language game ~r In these situations‌, agents involved in language games create contexts ‌for playing without any absent elements in order to present ‌an aspect of their language and make another factor for aspect‌ expansion. Dramatic‌ dialogues ‌are first ‌selected and‌ then analyzed individually. It is obvious that the writer of the screenplay ‌has chosen various ‌ways to apply absence in this‌ analysis. Factors such as deletion of a character’s ‌name, and physical deletion of a character to name a few, reach‌ to deep linguistic structure, ‌which transforms the function of ‌language. 5. Conclusion “Absence”, if not considered as language reference, could create an imaginary situation in language games. Asghar Farhadi has tested these issues by considering different situations of language games in his screenplay of “About Elly”. His function has resulted in switching from absence to name and physical deletion and different situations. Consequently, what has been considered ‌mental is turned into something objective and linguistic. The created‌ situations are widely considered logical situations‌. It is not nonsense. However, on the other hand, the logical situations are turned into another procedure of language and are somehow transformed into an imaginative situation when are in conflict with previous and next situations. We can identify other aspects of language by using the expression “imagine” depending on the agent and the situation that has been created. Absence destabilizes the unconscious situation of language. This instability continuously leads to the creation of various kinds of language games; thus, the functional aspect of language develops. This note is a direct answer to the research question and proves the‌ hypothesis in this study. This issue could result in creating drama in conscious areas due to the fact that contradictory situations cause tension and challenges between them, which Farhadi has taken advantage of in the screenplay of “About Elly”. Eventually, it can be claimed that imagination is not just a mental matter. It also can have verbal characteristics provided that we can identify and express its proper language game. This is a way of expanding language. It is important that Wittgenstein does not seek for providing a specific shape or instruction for ‌language games. They might be family-related‌ but are more focused on how to play language‌ games in method than on providing or explaining a specific instruction‌. In this study, we tried to ‌heed more attention to absence ‌as one of these possibilities.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7078_dac32839a9f0baae954b41abee610cc0.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Graffiti in the Linguistic Landscape of Kermanshah Graffiti in the Linguistic Landscape of Kermanshah 531 568 7079 10.29252/LRR.13.4.16 FA Shadab Shariatpanah PhD Candidate in linguistics, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-2018-0593 Bahman Zandi Professor of Linguistic, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran Shirin Pourebrahim Associate Professor of Linguistic, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran Razieh Beyraghdar Assistant Professor of Linguistic, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article Linguistic landscape is considered as one of the new branches in sociolinguistics which deals with linguistic signs in written forms used in public places. Based on this definition, all road signs, advertisement billboards, street names, place names, shops advertisement signs, graffiti and etc. constitute the linguistic landscape of a particular area. This study tries to investigate and decode graffiti in the framework of linguistic landscape. Since the multilingualism phenomenon is so important in the framework of linguistic landscape, the researchers in this study aim at the investigation of multilingualism representation in the graffiti in Kermanshah. Graffiti is the expression of the interests, feelings and thoughts of people. The present study is a descriptive one done by a documentary method. The number of 2008 graffiti in Kermanshah was analyzed. Among 2008 graffiti, 95.1 percent belong to Farsi language, 3.08 percent are in Arabic, 1.5 percent are in English, and there is no graffiti in Kurdish .The results indicate that the graffiti in Kermanshah is mostly derived from informal culture engraved on walls by ordinary people. Among Persian, English and Arabic, three writing systems, Persian was mostly used to indicate values in a formal context and was also used to indicate advertisements in informal context.. The top rate in English graffiti was about names while Arabic graffiti was ideological-religious. Sociolinguistics as a branch of linguistics examines the relationship between language and society. Since the purpose of the present research is to investigate linguistic signs in the social environment, this research fits into the framework of sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics has always been the focus of other branches of science such as anthropology and dialectology. The analysis and investigation of linguistic signs has attracted not only linguists but also researchers from other fields such as semiotics, sociology, psychology, art and urban planning. Such an attitude towards the analysis and investigation of linguistic signs has led to the presence of a new research field in sociolinguistics studies entitled "linguistic perspective". A language is a region. Linguistic landscape is the study of the language displayed in certain spaces and it deals with the analysis of advertising boards, billboards, signs and graffiti, etc. Research in this field includes various aspects such as social, economic and ideological issues. One of the basic concepts in the concept of linguistic framework is multilingualism, and many researchers have investigated the phenomenon of multilingualism in multilingual cities. Multilingualism is very important in drawing the linguistic landscape of multilingual cities. The researchers of this research have chosen the city of Kermanshah for their research and had a component-oriented approach to collect data, so that they have examined a small part of linguistic signs in the social context, i.e. wall writings. This research seeks to investigate wall graffiti in the framework of the concept of linguistic landscape and to investigate the representation of multilingualism in the wall writings of the city. The purpose of this research is to analyze and examine the graffiti of Kermanshah city in the linguistic landscape of Kermanshah city, which hopefully will lead to the scientific development of urban sociolinguistic studies. The questions that this research seeks to answer are: What is the frequency of verbal and visual graffiti in the city of Kermanshah? What is the frequency of graffiti taken from official and informal discourse? What is the frequency of Persian, Arabic and English graffiti in the city of Kermanshah? What are the social themes of the graffiti in terms of the three languages Persian, Arabic and English? What does the comparison of official and popular graffiti show? The upcoming research has been done using the content analysis method and we have benefited from the field methodology in this way. The city of Kermanshah has been chosen as the geographical scope of this research. The time frame of this research is 2018 and 2019. The number of 2008 graffiti of Kermanshah city, which were collected through photography. The selection of wall writings was not selective and all photographed wall writings were analyzed. The data were a range of different murals with different purposes and themes in the form of language writings (meaningful and meaningless) and pictures. The graffiti were placed in a folder. Wall writings that were not clear and clear, or part of them were crossed out or duplicated, were all removed from the said folder. After that, they were coded separately. In order to adjust the data, criteria were considered according to the goals and questions of the research and the data were categorized based on these criteria. At first, all graffiti were categorized in terms of being linguistic or pictorial (graffiti) or a combination of writing and image. Wall writings that were only images were excluded from the present study. In another classification of data, the wall writings of the city were divided into two categories derived from official discourse and informal discourse. Wall writings related to official discourse are written on the walls in a systematic and purposeful manner, in a neat appearance and in accordance with the goals and values of the government system and related to government organizations, and wall writings related to informal discourse are also written on the walls. They have been painted on the walls by the mass of people with different purposes such as wall advertisements. According to the language used in them, the graffiti were categorized into Persian, Arabic and English. At the end, the wall writings were examined in terms of content and categorized into different topics in order to provide a suitable platform for examining the topic and content of the wall writings. In the content division of graffiti, different social and personal issues were seen. Social issues included economic, political, educational, information-warning and ideological-religious advertisements, and individual issues included wall graffiti related to names, taboos, and expression of feelings. Also, the content of wall writings taken from official discourse and informal discourse were also analyzed. Examining the content of Persian, Arabic and English wall inscriptions is also one of the other things investigated in this article. With the general review of the results obtained from the analysis of the grafitti and the examination of the representation of multilingualism in the graffiti of the city of Kermanshah as the main goal of this research, it can be concluded that despite the use of the Kurdish language by the people in their daily conversations, the Persian language, The dominant language is the graffiti, and the Kurdish language has no share in the city's graffiti, and this is despite the fact that in addition to Persian, Arabic and English graffiti can also be seen in the city. The thematic comparison of graffiti in three languages shows the importance of Persian language as the national and official language of the country by the people to convey messages in the form of advertising and information themes and Arabic language by official institutions to promote religious beliefs and values in the form of themes. They are used ideologically. On the other hand, the English language is the only vehicle for expressing the feelings of young people in the form of the theme of the name of a specific audience and romantic words and sentences. Based on this, we can confirm Spalski's (2008) opinion regarding the different use of languages and suggest that in future researches, the relationship between the written language behavior of citizens, whether in the physical space of cities or virtual space, with the linguistic phenomenon Social bilingualism should also be considered. In addition, graffiti includes linguistic symbols that are worth investigating. Studying and deciphering wall writings is necessary to solve society's problems, to know people's desires, motivation and desires. Investigating wall writings is also important in government macro-planning in social and cultural issues. Studying wall writings is a very reliable way to get to know people's political, cultural, social, economic, and religious desires and wishes. Linguistic landscape is considered as one of the new branches in sociolinguistics which deals with linguistic signs in written forms used in public places. Based on this definition, all road signs, advertisement billboards, street names, place names, shops advertisement signs, graffiti and etc. constitute the linguistic landscape of a particular area. This study tries to investigate and decode graffiti in the framework of linguistic landscape. Since the multilingualism phenomenon is so important in the framework of linguistic landscape, the researchers in this study aim at the investigation of multilingualism representation in the graffiti in Kermanshah. Graffiti is the expression of the interests, feelings and thoughts of people. The present study is a descriptive one done by a documentary method. The number of 2008 graffiti in Kermanshah was analyzed. Among 2008 graffiti, 95.1 percent belong to Farsi language, 3.08 percent are in Arabic, 1.5 percent are in English, and there is no graffiti in Kurdish .The results indicate that the graffiti in Kermanshah is mostly derived from informal culture engraved on walls by ordinary people. Among Persian, English and Arabic, three writing systems, Persian was mostly used to indicate values in a formal context and was also used to indicate advertisements in informal context.. The top rate in English graffiti was about names while Arabic graffiti was ideological-religious. Sociolinguistics as a branch of linguistics examines the relationship between language and society. Since the purpose of the present research is to investigate linguistic signs in the social environment, this research fits into the framework of sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics has always been the focus of other branches of science such as anthropology and dialectology. The analysis and investigation of linguistic signs has attracted not only linguists but also researchers from other fields such as semiotics, sociology, psychology, art and urban planning. Such an attitude towards the analysis and investigation of linguistic signs has led to the presence of a new research field in sociolinguistics studies entitled "linguistic perspective". A language is a region. Linguistic landscape is the study of the language displayed in certain spaces and it deals with the analysis of advertising boards, billboards, signs and graffiti, etc. Research in this field includes various aspects such as social, economic and ideological issues. One of the basic concepts in the concept of linguistic framework is multilingualism, and many researchers have investigated the phenomenon of multilingualism in multilingual cities. Multilingualism is very important in drawing the linguistic landscape of multilingual cities. The researchers of this research have chosen the city of Kermanshah for their research and had a component-oriented approach to collect data, so that they have examined a small part of linguistic signs in the social context, i.e. wall writings. This research seeks to investigate wall graffiti in the framework of the concept of linguistic landscape and to investigate the representation of multilingualism in the wall writings of the city. The purpose of this research is to analyze and examine the graffiti of Kermanshah city in the linguistic landscape of Kermanshah city, which hopefully will lead to the scientific development of urban sociolinguistic studies. The questions that this research seeks to answer are: What is the frequency of verbal and visual graffiti in the city of Kermanshah? What is the frequency of graffiti taken from official and informal discourse? What is the frequency of Persian, Arabic and English graffiti in the city of Kermanshah? What are the social themes of the graffiti in terms of the three languages Persian, Arabic and English? What does the comparison of official and popular graffiti show? The upcoming research has been done using the content analysis method and we have benefited from the field methodology in this way. The city of Kermanshah has been chosen as the geographical scope of this research. The time frame of this research is 2018 and 2019. The number of 2008 graffiti of Kermanshah city, which were collected through photography. The selection of wall writings was not selective and all photographed wall writings were analyzed. The data were a range of different murals with different purposes and themes in the form of language writings (meaningful and meaningless) and pictures. The graffiti were placed in a folder. Wall writings that were not clear and clear, or part of them were crossed out or duplicated, were all removed from the said folder. After that, they were coded separately. In order to adjust the data, criteria were considered according to the goals and questions of the research and the data were categorized based on these criteria. At first, all graffiti were categorized in terms of being linguistic or pictorial (graffiti) or a combination of writing and image. Wall writings that were only images were excluded from the present study. In another classification of data, the wall writings of the city were divided into two categories derived from official discourse and informal discourse. Wall writings related to official discourse are written on the walls in a systematic and purposeful manner, in a neat appearance and in accordance with the goals and values of the government system and related to government organizations, and wall writings related to informal discourse are also written on the walls. They have been painted on the walls by the mass of people with different purposes such as wall advertisements. According to the language used in them, the graffiti were categorized into Persian, Arabic and English. At the end, the wall writings were examined in terms of content and categorized into different topics in order to provide a suitable platform for examining the topic and content of the wall writings. In the content division of graffiti, different social and personal issues were seen. Social issues included economic, political, educational, information-warning and ideological-religious advertisements, and individual issues included wall graffiti related to names, taboos, and expression of feelings. Also, the content of wall writings taken from official discourse and informal discourse were also analyzed. Examining the content of Persian, Arabic and English wall inscriptions is also one of the other things investigated in this article. With the general review of the results obtained from the analysis of the grafitti and the examination of the representation of multilingualism in the graffiti of the city of Kermanshah as the main goal of this research, it can be concluded that despite the use of the Kurdish language by the people in their daily conversations, the Persian language, The dominant language is the graffiti, and the Kurdish language has no share in the city's graffiti, and this is despite the fact that in addition to Persian, Arabic and English graffiti can also be seen in the city. The thematic comparison of graffiti in three languages shows the importance of Persian language as the national and official language of the country by the people to convey messages in the form of advertising and information themes and Arabic language by official institutions to promote religious beliefs and values in the form of themes. They are used ideologically. On the other hand, the English language is the only vehicle for expressing the feelings of young people in the form of the theme of the name of a specific audience and romantic words and sentences. Based on this, we can confirm Spalski's (2008) opinion regarding the different use of languages and suggest that in future researches, the relationship between the written language behavior of citizens, whether in the physical space of cities or virtual space, with the linguistic phenomenon Social bilingualism should also be considered. In addition, graffiti includes linguistic symbols that are worth investigating. Studying and deciphering wall writings is necessary to solve society's problems, to know people's desires, motivation and desires. Investigating wall writings is also important in government macro-planning in social and cultural issues. Studying wall writings is a very reliable way to get to know people's political, cultural, social, economic, and religious desires and wishes.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7079_488b084119a1c7a4950f00706ec7ea16.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Investigating the Phenomenological Aspects of Meaning in âThe Pear Treeâ by Goli Taraghi: A Semiotic Approach to Literary Discourse Analysis Investigating the Phenomenological Aspects of Meaning in âThe Pear Treeâ by Goli Taraghi: A Semiotic Approach to Literary Discourse Analysis 569 600 7080 10.29252/LRR.13.4.17 FA Reza Rezaei Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Department of English Language and Literature- Yasuoj University, Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Iran 0000-0002-7636-6135 Journal Article The current research aims to investigate the phenomenological aspects of meaning in fictional discourse of “The pear tree” by Goli Taraghi- one of the writers of contemporary Persian literature. Research methodology is descriptive –analytical. In fact, the author seeks to explain the underlying interaction of semiotic components in this short story by relying on and investigating the phenomenal presence of enunciator in order to show how aesthetic function emerge in discourse and affect the process of meaning production and perception. To this end, the main objective of the present research is to explain the major attributes of phenomenological approach in literary discourse analysis and it’s semio-discursive components. The results showed that the phenomenological aspects of meaning are as a result of state, tension and adjustment as semiotic correlates of discourse which leads to the formation of aesthetic discourse. The interaction of these elements marginalizes narrative action through modal constituents’ turbulence and then stabilizes them by the emergence of thymic state of love which once again rehabilitates narrative action. Undoubtedly, these interactions are in constant relationship with semiotic modes of presence. Introduction "The Pear Tree", which is a short story from the collection of stories entirled “ another place” by Goli Targhee, depicts the life of a writer who took refuge in his father's garden in Damavand to write the rest of his new book after a long period of unemployment. But in the garden, the old pear tree, which is full of memories for him, has not borne fruit, and the gardeners ask him to participate in a ritual to scare the tree and bring it back, and he accepts, and in the meantime, he reviews his teenage memories. He pays, when he falls in love with his cousin "Mim" and despite the fact that the girl is older than him, he expresses his love to her, sings love poems to her and performs various plays with her in the garden for hours, because both of them are interested in literature. They are interested, but one day the girl comes to say goodbye because she plans to join his her father, who is abroad, and the narrator asks her to wait, and the girl accepts, but years later, when the writer gets involved in political affairs, he does not answer the girl's letters and leaves her as a historical figure. Then he is postponed until he is imprisoned due to his political activities, and there he receives the news of the girl's death after seeing one of her relatives. Returning from his memories to the present, he finds himself next to a pear tree, which according to the narrator, a teenager sitting on top of a pear tree stares at him and feels a strange closeness to the pear tree. It should be mentioned that Dariush Mehrjooi made a film with the same name based on the basis of this short story in 1376. The main question of the present research is the analysis of the phenomenal dimensions of meaning in the literary discourse of Goli Targhi which depends on the stative regime of discourse and enunciator semiotic modes of presence which forms his lived experience.In order to investigate the semiotic components of discourse in this work and by relying on the phenomenological aspect of meaning , the author seeks to investigate these components. By analyzing the text and adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, the author also explained the place of discourse action and analyzed each one with the help of elements and textual evidence. Also, by examining these factors and in this direction, the writer has tried to answer the following questions: Research Question(s) 1.what are the major phenomenal dimensions of meaning and what are their semio-discursive functions and components in this short story? 2. How is it possible to explain the place of action in the whole discourse system of this short story? Therefore, the hypotheses of the present research are as follows: 1. Phenomenal dimensions of meaning in discourse correlate with state, tension and adjustment which has an aesthetic function; 2. The interaction of these components marginalizes the narrative action by disrupting the order and creating chaos in the modal verbs, and further, with the stability of the modal verbs the narrative action places once again at heart of the discourse field. Undoubtedly, these interactions have a close connection with the semiotic modes of presence. Literature Review In this section, the author intends to briefly present the studies carried out in the framework of semiotic approach to literary discourse analysis on Iranian fictional literature to examine the differences and commonalities of each of them with the present study. It should be mentioned that these studies have provided a rich background on the study of semiotic correlates with the artistic and literary discourse. Both theoretically and practically, it can go through (Shaeiri, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009a, 2009b, 2012, 2013, 2014, & 2016), Abbasi (2001, 2010, 2011) and Babak Moin (2015) in a systematic way. In the short story entitled "Pear tree" selected from the collection of short stories "Another place", Goli Targhi the life of a writer who took refuge in his father's garden in Damavand to write the rest of his new book after a long period of unemployment. But in the garden, the old pear tree, which is full of memories for him, has not borne fruit, and the gardeners ask him to participate in a ritual to scare the tree and bring it back, and he accepts, and in the meantime, he reviews his teenage memories. He pays, when he falls in love with his cousin "Mim" and despite the fact that the girl is older than him, he expresses his love to her, sings love poems to her and performs various plays with her in the garden for hours, because both of them are interested in literature. They are interested, but one day the girl comes to say goodbye because she plans to join his her father, who is abroad, and the narrator asks her to wait, and the girl accepts, but years later, when the writer gets involved in political affairs, he does not answer the girl's letters and leaves her as a historical figure. Then he is postponed until he is imprisoned due to his political activities, and there he receives the news of the girl's death after seeing one of her relatives. Returning from his memories to the present, he finds himself next to a pear tree, which according to the narrator, a teenager sitting on top of a pear tree stares at him and feels a strange closeness to the pear tree. Given the theoretical potentialities of this approach in the analysis of literary texts, no research has been carried out on the concept and the semiotic mechanisms of Phenomenal aspects of discourse and semiotic modes of presence. Therefore, this study is the first attempt in this direction. 3. Methodology In this research, the author has first investigated different types and correlates of phenomenola aspect of discourse under diverse semiotic titles. To this end and by benefiting from the descriptive –analytical research methodology, the textual data were extracted from the novel through a careful and close reading. Furthermore, all the requirements of theoretical framework were fulfilled in order to analyze and categorize different types of semiotic correlates in phenomenal reading of literary discourse. 4. Results and discussion 4-1:” Pear tree” : A discourse regime based on stative components of discourse with phenomenal and aesthetic function. 4-2: Investigating phenomenal aspect of “Pear tree”:Semiotic analysis and reading of concept of love. 4-3: Stative –tensive modes of presence in “pear tree” Figure 1. The tensive –stative figure of passage from despair to Nostalgia and love Figure 2 Tensive-existential mode of presence in pear tree short story 6. Conclusion Analyzing the phenomenal dimensions of meaning in Goli Targhi's literary discourse in the short story "The Pear Tree" is the result and subject of the stative regime of discourse and the modes of presence in literary discourse. In the present research, with the phenomenal reading of this short story and in other words, by using the important pillars of studies in semiotic approach to discourse it was observed that throughout this story, in fact, we are faced with stative components of discourse , which as a result of a sensory-perceptual activity in establishing and interacting with the surrounding world, in a way, creates a discourse with an aesthetic function, which was discussed in the course of the story under the title of crystallization of the concept of love for life. . Phenomenal dimensions of meaning in discourse in general and in this short story in particular are the output and subject to state, tension and adjustment, which has an aesthetic function. On the other hand, the interaction of these components marginalizes the narrative action by disrupting the order and creating chaos in modal verbs, narrative action places once again at the heart of literary discourse. Undoubtedly, these interactions have a close connection with the semiotic modes of presence. The current research aims to investigate the phenomenological aspects of meaning in fictional discourse of “The pear tree” by Goli Taraghi- one of the writers of contemporary Persian literature. Research methodology is descriptive –analytical. In fact, the author seeks to explain the underlying interaction of semiotic components in this short story by relying on and investigating the phenomenal presence of enunciator in order to show how aesthetic function emerge in discourse and affect the process of meaning production and perception. To this end, the main objective of the present research is to explain the major attributes of phenomenological approach in literary discourse analysis and it’s semio-discursive components. The results showed that the phenomenological aspects of meaning are as a result of state, tension and adjustment as semiotic correlates of discourse which leads to the formation of aesthetic discourse. The interaction of these elements marginalizes narrative action through modal constituents’ turbulence and then stabilizes them by the emergence of thymic state of love which once again rehabilitates narrative action. Undoubtedly, these interactions are in constant relationship with semiotic modes of presence. Introduction "The Pear Tree", which is a short story from the collection of stories entirled “ another place” by Goli Targhee, depicts the life of a writer who took refuge in his father's garden in Damavand to write the rest of his new book after a long period of unemployment. But in the garden, the old pear tree, which is full of memories for him, has not borne fruit, and the gardeners ask him to participate in a ritual to scare the tree and bring it back, and he accepts, and in the meantime, he reviews his teenage memories. He pays, when he falls in love with his cousin "Mim" and despite the fact that the girl is older than him, he expresses his love to her, sings love poems to her and performs various plays with her in the garden for hours, because both of them are interested in literature. They are interested, but one day the girl comes to say goodbye because she plans to join his her father, who is abroad, and the narrator asks her to wait, and the girl accepts, but years later, when the writer gets involved in political affairs, he does not answer the girl's letters and leaves her as a historical figure. Then he is postponed until he is imprisoned due to his political activities, and there he receives the news of the girl's death after seeing one of her relatives. Returning from his memories to the present, he finds himself next to a pear tree, which according to the narrator, a teenager sitting on top of a pear tree stares at him and feels a strange closeness to the pear tree. It should be mentioned that Dariush Mehrjooi made a film with the same name based on the basis of this short story in 1376. The main question of the present research is the analysis of the phenomenal dimensions of meaning in the literary discourse of Goli Targhi which depends on the stative regime of discourse and enunciator semiotic modes of presence which forms his lived experience.In order to investigate the semiotic components of discourse in this work and by relying on the phenomenological aspect of meaning , the author seeks to investigate these components. By analyzing the text and adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, the author also explained the place of discourse action and analyzed each one with the help of elements and textual evidence. Also, by examining these factors and in this direction, the writer has tried to answer the following questions: Research Question(s) 1.what are the major phenomenal dimensions of meaning and what are their semio-discursive functions and components in this short story? 2. How is it possible to explain the place of action in the whole discourse system of this short story? Therefore, the hypotheses of the present research are as follows: 1. Phenomenal dimensions of meaning in discourse correlate with state, tension and adjustment which has an aesthetic function; 2. The interaction of these components marginalizes the narrative action by disrupting the order and creating chaos in the modal verbs, and further, with the stability of the modal verbs the narrative action places once again at heart of the discourse field. Undoubtedly, these interactions have a close connection with the semiotic modes of presence. Literature Review In this section, the author intends to briefly present the studies carried out in the framework of semiotic approach to literary discourse analysis on Iranian fictional literature to examine the differences and commonalities of each of them with the present study. It should be mentioned that these studies have provided a rich background on the study of semiotic correlates with the artistic and literary discourse. Both theoretically and practically, it can go through (Shaeiri, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009a, 2009b, 2012, 2013, 2014, & 2016), Abbasi (2001, 2010, 2011) and Babak Moin (2015) in a systematic way. In the short story entitled "Pear tree" selected from the collection of short stories "Another place", Goli Targhi the life of a writer who took refuge in his father's garden in Damavand to write the rest of his new book after a long period of unemployment. But in the garden, the old pear tree, which is full of memories for him, has not borne fruit, and the gardeners ask him to participate in a ritual to scare the tree and bring it back, and he accepts, and in the meantime, he reviews his teenage memories. He pays, when he falls in love with his cousin "Mim" and despite the fact that the girl is older than him, he expresses his love to her, sings love poems to her and performs various plays with her in the garden for hours, because both of them are interested in literature. They are interested, but one day the girl comes to say goodbye because she plans to join his her father, who is abroad, and the narrator asks her to wait, and the girl accepts, but years later, when the writer gets involved in political affairs, he does not answer the girl's letters and leaves her as a historical figure. Then he is postponed until he is imprisoned due to his political activities, and there he receives the news of the girl's death after seeing one of her relatives. Returning from his memories to the present, he finds himself next to a pear tree, which according to the narrator, a teenager sitting on top of a pear tree stares at him and feels a strange closeness to the pear tree. Given the theoretical potentialities of this approach in the analysis of literary texts, no research has been carried out on the concept and the semiotic mechanisms of Phenomenal aspects of discourse and semiotic modes of presence. Therefore, this study is the first attempt in this direction. 3. Methodology In this research, the author has first investigated different types and correlates of phenomenola aspect of discourse under diverse semiotic titles. To this end and by benefiting from the descriptive –analytical research methodology, the textual data were extracted from the novel through a careful and close reading. Furthermore, all the requirements of theoretical framework were fulfilled in order to analyze and categorize different types of semiotic correlates in phenomenal reading of literary discourse. 4. Results and discussion 4-1:” Pear tree” : A discourse regime based on stative components of discourse with phenomenal and aesthetic function. 4-2: Investigating phenomenal aspect of “Pear tree”:Semiotic analysis and reading of concept of love. 4-3: Stative –tensive modes of presence in “pear tree” Figure 1. The tensive –stative figure of passage from despair to Nostalgia and love Figure 2 Tensive-existential mode of presence in pear tree short story 6. Conclusion Analyzing the phenomenal dimensions of meaning in Goli Targhi's literary discourse in the short story "The Pear Tree" is the result and subject of the stative regime of discourse and the modes of presence in literary discourse. In the present research, with the phenomenal reading of this short story and in other words, by using the important pillars of studies in semiotic approach to discourse it was observed that throughout this story, in fact, we are faced with stative components of discourse , which as a result of a sensory-perceptual activity in establishing and interacting with the surrounding world, in a way, creates a discourse with an aesthetic function, which was discussed in the course of the story under the title of crystallization of the concept of love for life. . Phenomenal dimensions of meaning in discourse in general and in this short story in particular are the output and subject to state, tension and adjustment, which has an aesthetic function. On the other hand, the interaction of these components marginalizes the narrative action by disrupting the order and creating chaos in modal verbs, narrative action places once again at the heart of literary discourse. Undoubtedly, these interactions have a close connection with the semiotic modes of presence.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7080_1cb524b5a3f3f82be4a7d954063c07e2.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Linguistic tools of the development, maintenance and fixation processes of the male and female narratorsâ personal authority in legitimating the narrations of âSe-Ketabâ by Zoya Pirzad and âSolokâ by Mahmoud Dolatabadi Linguistic tools of the development, maintenance and fixation processes of the male and female narratorsâ personal authority in legitimating the narrations of âSe-Ketabâ by Zoya Pirzad and âSolokâ by Mahmoud Dolatabadi 601 628 7081 10.52547/LRR.13.4.18 FA Farid Dehghaan Tarzjaani PhD Graduate, Department of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Foreign anguages, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-7258-3183 Farzan Sojoodi Professor, Department of Theater, Faculty of Cinema and Theater, Tehran University of Arts, Tehran, Iran Amir Ali Nojoumian Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature,Faculty of Humanities, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-3202-7190 Morteza Babak Moein Associate Professor, Department of French Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article Authorization is a process in narration that according which the narrator constructs her/ his own legitimation and narration using the discursive articulations. The authors’ aim in this paper is to investigate the linguistic processes of development, maintenance and fixation of authorization which the female and male narrators use in the narrations. Hence, they provided a deconstructive reading of the authorization by Van Leeuwen (2007) based on Laclau and Mouffe (2001) and Derrida (1983). Then, in order to identify the linguistic tools of development, maintenance and fixation processes of the personal authority, they went through the “Se-Ketab” by Pirzad and “Solok” by Dolatabadi and purposefully examined those parts. Finally, it was found that Pirzad and Dolatabadi try to legitimize their own dimensions by using their selves and others’ positions, creating discursive nodes, and crystallizing around them. At the same time, they try to delegitimize by rejecting the meanings of the signs from others’ narratives. Also, on a larger scale, it was revealed that the two narrators’ self-representation was different; Pirzad constituted the discursive “We” and Dolatabadi an omniscient narrator. Neither of these two narrators could escape the paradox. Authorization is a process in narration that according which the narrator constructs her/ his own legitimation and narration using the discursive articulations. The authors’ aim in this paper is to investigate the linguistic processes of development, maintenance and fixation of authorization which the female and male narrators use in the narrations. Hence, they provided a deconstructive reading of the authorization by Van Leeuwen (2007) based on Laclau and Mouffe (2001) and Derrida (1983). Then, in order to identify the linguistic tools of development, maintenance and fixation processes of the personal authority, they went through the “Se-Ketab” by Pirzad and “Solok” by Dolatabadi and purposefully examined those parts. Finally, it was found that Pirzad and Dolatabadi try to legitimize their own dimensions by using their selves and others’ positions, creating discursive nodes, and crystallizing around them. At the same time, they try to delegitimize by rejecting the meanings of the signs from others’ narratives. Also, on a larger scale, it was revealed that the two narrators’ self-representation was different; Pirzad constituted the discursive “We” and Dolatabadi an omniscient narrator. Neither of these two narrators could escape the paradox.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7081_df438e5206f31600e6ae4af72f2725f1.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 The Semiotic Analysis of Meaning Transfer in Discourse Regimes of Al-Zahra Sermon The Semiotic Analysis of Meaning Transfer in Discourse Regimes of Al-Zahra Sermon 629 658 7082 10.29252/LRR.13.4.19 FA Sayyed Mortaza Sabbagh Jafari Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Vali-e-Asr University, Rafsanjan, Iran 0000-0002-5916-1824 Samira Heidarirad Ph.D. Candidate in Arabic language and Literature, Yazd University, Iran 0000-0001-9599-5175 Journal Article In this article using the semiotic approach to discourse analysis, the authors have analysed the process of meaning transfer in Al-zahra sermon. To produce the meaning of the divine power, the afterline and earthly attachements, agony, how to die and death, respectively, in this sermon,discourse passes through different semiotic changes which leads to the process of meaning-configuration and transfer. The aim of this research which is descriptive-analytical is to define those orders of discourse governing the discourse and to consider the conditions of meaning transfer in terms of form or meaning. The major question is: how and based on which functions meaning transfer occur. Under which conditions the process of meaning transfer occur in the disconrse of sermon.The authors supposes that the process of meaning transfer is a function of becoming and emotional processes which the semantic impulses and discoursive interruption, alongside, lead to the reinforements of the processes. The most important achievement of this research is to represent that the process of meaning transfer, based on stative-eventual function of discourse with two shifts in meaning: transcendental presence of god in the beginning and mortal and graceless presence of human at the end. 1. Introduction Literary texts, given their function, create a discourse system(s) with specific sign-meanings (Semiotics). These sign-meanings are instrumental in the process of meaning reconstruction. The "al-Zahra" sermon of Ali ibn Abi Talib addresses a variety of topics. Its main theme is the power of the Almighty and the exclusivity of grandeur in Him and the resurrection. In this sermon, meaning is continuously transformed; The discourse spaces are somehow interlaced, hence allowing for a transition from one sign to another. Research Question(s) This study addressed the question of how and under what conditions the process of semiotic transfer emerge in the discourse of the al-Zahra sermon. The authors hypothesized that this is a function of Greimas's transformational processes and thymic structure of discourse, in which semiotic conjunction and discursive disjunction, that is the separation of the subject from the center of meaning explicity, reinforce these processes. 2. Literature Review The focus here was on how the conveyance of meaning takes place. This study, therefore, delved into an analysis of semantic transfer in the dynamic discourse of al-Zahra sermon to illustrate how the transformer connects with the spirit of the universe, through what process reaches from plurality (kol (all)) to unity (anta (you)), how the transformational presence experiences an eventual state, and through what function the discourse space is placed in a transcendental state. When dealing with other creatures, i.e., angels and human beings, in the sermon, the semantic transfer changes from a transformational to an actional state, where these two regimes stand against each other and the preacher refers to God's specific objective in creation. A creature such as a human, as an actant, is set on a predetermined path, and in the process of discourse, the actant subject, when facing the problem of his presence and non-presence, becomes completely passive and turns into an existential subject; That is, the sign of existential meanings is taken as the basis of discourse and the process of semantic transfer reproduces a new meaning. At the end of the sermon, when the intensity (intensité) and extent (extensité) regimes confront each other, the meaning of the resurrection and its events intertwine. 3. Methodology This was a descriptive-analytical study using the semiotic approach to analyze the discursive functions in the al-Zahra sermon. First, the theory was explained and then the entire sermon was scrutinized using the research framework. Finally, the hypotheses were examined and the findings were presented. . 4. Results The research findings showed that this sermon can be studied in relation to different discursive regimes considering its semiotic features. In terms of semantic processes, "transformational" and "tensive" processes were predominant in the discourse. This confirms the hypothesis that the process of semantic transformation in this discourse is subject to transformational processes and thymic structure of discourse, and the process is reinforced by semiotic conjunction and discourse disjunctions. Based on the tensive mode, the subject is unable to act in the face of divine gifts and is bewildered, thus placed in a transformational and affective process. This disjunction creates discursive tension, which places the subject in an intensity (intensité) state. The larger is the extent of the subject's understanding of God's power, the greater this bewilderment becomes. Therefore, the transformer subject enters a tensive state and the quantitative and qualitative extent is placed at the highest point of the horizontal and vertical axes.These two modes of presence indicate that the meaning has a fluid, dynamic flow in these signs. In the action-based system, discourse takes advantage of persuasion and faces the resistance and diligence of the actor and the creation of new situations and fluid meanings. In the end, the process of semiotic transfer takes place through movement from the transcendental presence of God in the beginning to the unbalanced and perishable presence of humans at the end of the discourse based on an eventual transformational function. In this article using the semiotic approach to discourse analysis, the authors have analysed the process of meaning transfer in Al-zahra sermon. To produce the meaning of the divine power, the afterline and earthly attachements, agony, how to die and death, respectively, in this sermon,discourse passes through different semiotic changes which leads to the process of meaning-configuration and transfer. The aim of this research which is descriptive-analytical is to define those orders of discourse governing the discourse and to consider the conditions of meaning transfer in terms of form or meaning. The major question is: how and based on which functions meaning transfer occur. Under which conditions the process of meaning transfer occur in the disconrse of sermon.The authors supposes that the process of meaning transfer is a function of becoming and emotional processes which the semantic impulses and discoursive interruption, alongside, lead to the reinforements of the processes. The most important achievement of this research is to represent that the process of meaning transfer, based on stative-eventual function of discourse with two shifts in meaning: transcendental presence of god in the beginning and mortal and graceless presence of human at the end. 1. Introduction Literary texts, given their function, create a discourse system(s) with specific sign-meanings (Semiotics). These sign-meanings are instrumental in the process of meaning reconstruction. The "al-Zahra" sermon of Ali ibn Abi Talib addresses a variety of topics. Its main theme is the power of the Almighty and the exclusivity of grandeur in Him and the resurrection. In this sermon, meaning is continuously transformed; The discourse spaces are somehow interlaced, hence allowing for a transition from one sign to another. Research Question(s) This study addressed the question of how and under what conditions the process of semiotic transfer emerge in the discourse of the al-Zahra sermon. The authors hypothesized that this is a function of Greimas's transformational processes and thymic structure of discourse, in which semiotic conjunction and discursive disjunction, that is the separation of the subject from the center of meaning explicity, reinforce these processes. 2. Literature Review The focus here was on how the conveyance of meaning takes place. This study, therefore, delved into an analysis of semantic transfer in the dynamic discourse of al-Zahra sermon to illustrate how the transformer connects with the spirit of the universe, through what process reaches from plurality (kol (all)) to unity (anta (you)), how the transformational presence experiences an eventual state, and through what function the discourse space is placed in a transcendental state. When dealing with other creatures, i.e., angels and human beings, in the sermon, the semantic transfer changes from a transformational to an actional state, where these two regimes stand against each other and the preacher refers to God's specific objective in creation. A creature such as a human, as an actant, is set on a predetermined path, and in the process of discourse, the actant subject, when facing the problem of his presence and non-presence, becomes completely passive and turns into an existential subject; That is, the sign of existential meanings is taken as the basis of discourse and the process of semantic transfer reproduces a new meaning. At the end of the sermon, when the intensity (intensité) and extent (extensité) regimes confront each other, the meaning of the resurrection and its events intertwine. 3. Methodology This was a descriptive-analytical study using the semiotic approach to analyze the discursive functions in the al-Zahra sermon. First, the theory was explained and then the entire sermon was scrutinized using the research framework. Finally, the hypotheses were examined and the findings were presented. . 4. Results The research findings showed that this sermon can be studied in relation to different discursive regimes considering its semiotic features. In terms of semantic processes, "transformational" and "tensive" processes were predominant in the discourse. This confirms the hypothesis that the process of semantic transformation in this discourse is subject to transformational processes and thymic structure of discourse, and the process is reinforced by semiotic conjunction and discourse disjunctions. Based on the tensive mode, the subject is unable to act in the face of divine gifts and is bewildered, thus placed in a transformational and affective process. This disjunction creates discursive tension, which places the subject in an intensity (intensité) state. The larger is the extent of the subject's understanding of God's power, the greater this bewilderment becomes. Therefore, the transformer subject enters a tensive state and the quantitative and qualitative extent is placed at the highest point of the horizontal and vertical axes.These two modes of presence indicate that the meaning has a fluid, dynamic flow in these signs. In the action-based system, discourse takes advantage of persuasion and faces the resistance and diligence of the actor and the creation of new situations and fluid meanings. In the end, the process of semiotic transfer takes place through movement from the transcendental presence of God in the beginning to the unbalanced and perishable presence of humans at the end of the discourse based on an eventual transformational function.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7082_3bf29f38421bc1764e6f1d1545479f93.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Investigating the Relationship between Personality Type, Learning Styles and Strategies in Chinese learners of the Persian Language Investigating the Relationship between Personality Type, Learning Styles and Strategies in Chinese learners of the Persian Language 659 690 7083 10.29252/LRR.13.4.20 FA Amirreza Vakilifard Associate professor, Department of Persian Language Didactics, Faculty of Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran Parisa Heydari Khosro Master of Teaching Persian Language, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran. Journal Article In L2 learning, each language student learns from a specific perspective, and the individual variables such as personality characteristics could impact on students’ learning. This investigation examines the relationship between the Chinese personality types, learning styles, and strategies learning Persian as a second language. The study randomly recruited 44 students. The participants were distributed three data collection instruments including Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, Kolb’s (1984) learning style inventory, Oxford’s (1990) learning strategies questionnaire. Results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the learners’ personality types and their learning styles. Students with sensing and perceiving personalities - in comparison to judging and intuition personality types – were characterized with converging learning style. Learners associated with feeling and perceiving personality types preferred diverging and assimilating learning styles comparing to those with thinking and judging personality types. Whereas learners with extraverted, sensing, feeling, and perceiving personality types dominantly tended to be assimilators, the introverted students were identified with intuitive, thinking, and judging learning styles. The results also showed that the Chinese Persian second language learners commonly used cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies. It was also found that they were considerably assimilators concerning learning style. It seems that perception of Chinese Persian second language learners’ personality types, styles, and learning strategies could largely have an influence on the improvement of instruction quality and the use of sound teaching methodologies. 1. Introduction Studying on influence of individual features in learning second languages has made a lot of progress in recent decades also a lot of theories have been put forward in this field. Since its foundation, the field of psychology has been trying to achieve two different and somewhat contradictory areas: understanding the general principles of the human mind and investigating the uniqueness of the human mind. Individual differences, as the name suggests, are characteristics or traits that may make people different from each other (Dornyei, 2005). According to Norton (1997), when language learners speak, they are not only exchanging information with their audience or audiences, but also they are continuously organizing the concept of who they are and how they relate to the social world. In other words, they are creating and exchanging their identity. Another part of the research is related to the study of learning styles and strategies of learners. In recent years, studies which are related to the influence of personality characteristics on learning styles and strategies have increased dramatically. For example, the influence of learning styles and personality traits which is based on the Myers-Briggs model has been evaluated by Myers and colleagues (1998) and Ehrman (1996). According to Brown (2000), learning styles can be considered as cognitive, emotional, and biological characteristics which are relatively stable indicators of how one perceives, interacts, and responds to the learning environment. According to Oxford (1989:235), language learning strategies are behaviors or actions that language learners use for more successful, self-reliant and enjoyable learning. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between the personality types of Chinese speakers and the styles and approaches of Persian language as a second language. In foreign countries, a lot of researches have been conducted on the relationship between learning styles and strategies and the relationship between these two components with the personality characteristics of language learners. However, the results of these studies have not been proven on the success or failure of language learners in learning a foreign language. On the other hand, in Iran, there aren’t any studies to deal with the relationship between personality traits, styles and strategies for learning Persian language. Since Chinese speakers constitute a significant part of Persian learners in Persian language teaching centers, studying their learning style can play an important role in increasing the knowledge of Persian language teachers and their teaching methods. Research Questions According to this raised issue, the following research questions are raised too. 1. What is the relationship between personality type and learning styles of Chinese speakers? 2. What is the relationship between personality type and learning strategies of Chinese speakers? 3. Which learning styles do Chinese language learners use more? 4. Which learning strategies do Chinese language learners use more? 2. Methodology The research devices in this study are Myers-Briggs personality questionnaire (AV form), Kolb learning styles questionnaire (1984) and Oxford learning strategies questionnaire (1990). Also, this research was conducted in the field and the data collection method is quantitative. The statistical population in this research is all Chinese who were Farsi learners, 44 Chinese-speakers from the Persian language teaching center of Imam Khomeini International University were randomly selected as the research sample. 3. Results This research showed that in the case of convergent learning style, people with sensory and perceptive personality type use convergent style more than intuitive and judgmental people. 4. Discussion Regarding divergent and adaptive learning styles, similarly, people with emotional and perceptive personality type use divergent and adaptive learning styles more than thinking and judgmental people. Also, regarding the absorbing learning style, people with the four dimensions of extroverted, sensory, emotional, and perceptive personality tend to use the absorbing learning style more than introverted, intuitive, thinking, and judgmental people. On the other hand, no significant relationship was found between the personality type of Chinese speakers and their learning strategies. The dominant strategy of Chinese speakers was cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Also, the dominant style of Chinese speakers in this research was absorbing style. Learners with an absorbing learning style learn more through deep thinking. These people organize information well and use abstract concepts to understand the situation. The personality type of these people is introverted and intuitive. Paying attention to this issue makes the Persian teachers as the second language teachers sensitive to language background and culture of learners in process of class activities. In addition, teachers can help the learners to be aware of their weakness, strength and preference of learning to investigate about challenges of learning. 6. Conclusion The results of this study can be used to inform teachers and second language learners about the importance of language learning strategies and styles. It is believed that knowing the specific strategies and styles which are used by language learners is of particular importance due to the effectiveness of such strategies and styles in improving the efficiency of language learners. It is suggested that more researches be conducted in the future to investigate the relationship between language learning strategies, learning styles and the personality type of Persian language teachers. The relationship between language learning strategies, learning styles and the personality type of Chinese speakers among boys and girls should be investigated in order to find out the effect of gender on these variables and their relationship. More studies should be done on the relationship between learning styles and language learning strategies on other factors such as motivation, talent, performance and duration of language learning. In L2 learning, each language student learns from a specific perspective, and the individual variables such as personality characteristics could impact on students’ learning. This investigation examines the relationship between the Chinese personality types, learning styles, and strategies learning Persian as a second language. The study randomly recruited 44 students. The participants were distributed three data collection instruments including Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, Kolb’s (1984) learning style inventory, Oxford’s (1990) learning strategies questionnaire. Results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the learners’ personality types and their learning styles. Students with sensing and perceiving personalities - in comparison to judging and intuition personality types – were characterized with converging learning style. Learners associated with feeling and perceiving personality types preferred diverging and assimilating learning styles comparing to those with thinking and judging personality types. Whereas learners with extraverted, sensing, feeling, and perceiving personality types dominantly tended to be assimilators, the introverted students were identified with intuitive, thinking, and judging learning styles. The results also showed that the Chinese Persian second language learners commonly used cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies. It was also found that they were considerably assimilators concerning learning style. It seems that perception of Chinese Persian second language learners’ personality types, styles, and learning strategies could largely have an influence on the improvement of instruction quality and the use of sound teaching methodologies. 1. Introduction Studying on influence of individual features in learning second languages has made a lot of progress in recent decades also a lot of theories have been put forward in this field. Since its foundation, the field of psychology has been trying to achieve two different and somewhat contradictory areas: understanding the general principles of the human mind and investigating the uniqueness of the human mind. Individual differences, as the name suggests, are characteristics or traits that may make people different from each other (Dornyei, 2005). According to Norton (1997), when language learners speak, they are not only exchanging information with their audience or audiences, but also they are continuously organizing the concept of who they are and how they relate to the social world. In other words, they are creating and exchanging their identity. Another part of the research is related to the study of learning styles and strategies of learners. In recent years, studies which are related to the influence of personality characteristics on learning styles and strategies have increased dramatically. For example, the influence of learning styles and personality traits which is based on the Myers-Briggs model has been evaluated by Myers and colleagues (1998) and Ehrman (1996). According to Brown (2000), learning styles can be considered as cognitive, emotional, and biological characteristics which are relatively stable indicators of how one perceives, interacts, and responds to the learning environment. According to Oxford (1989:235), language learning strategies are behaviors or actions that language learners use for more successful, self-reliant and enjoyable learning. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between the personality types of Chinese speakers and the styles and approaches of Persian language as a second language. In foreign countries, a lot of researches have been conducted on the relationship between learning styles and strategies and the relationship between these two components with the personality characteristics of language learners. However, the results of these studies have not been proven on the success or failure of language learners in learning a foreign language. On the other hand, in Iran, there aren’t any studies to deal with the relationship between personality traits, styles and strategies for learning Persian language. Since Chinese speakers constitute a significant part of Persian learners in Persian language teaching centers, studying their learning style can play an important role in increasing the knowledge of Persian language teachers and their teaching methods. Research Questions According to this raised issue, the following research questions are raised too. 1. What is the relationship between personality type and learning styles of Chinese speakers? 2. What is the relationship between personality type and learning strategies of Chinese speakers? 3. Which learning styles do Chinese language learners use more? 4. Which learning strategies do Chinese language learners use more? 2. Methodology The research devices in this study are Myers-Briggs personality questionnaire (AV form), Kolb learning styles questionnaire (1984) and Oxford learning strategies questionnaire (1990). Also, this research was conducted in the field and the data collection method is quantitative. The statistical population in this research is all Chinese who were Farsi learners, 44 Chinese-speakers from the Persian language teaching center of Imam Khomeini International University were randomly selected as the research sample. 3. Results This research showed that in the case of convergent learning style, people with sensory and perceptive personality type use convergent style more than intuitive and judgmental people. 4. Discussion Regarding divergent and adaptive learning styles, similarly, people with emotional and perceptive personality type use divergent and adaptive learning styles more than thinking and judgmental people. Also, regarding the absorbing learning style, people with the four dimensions of extroverted, sensory, emotional, and perceptive personality tend to use the absorbing learning style more than introverted, intuitive, thinking, and judgmental people. On the other hand, no significant relationship was found between the personality type of Chinese speakers and their learning strategies. The dominant strategy of Chinese speakers was cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Also, the dominant style of Chinese speakers in this research was absorbing style. Learners with an absorbing learning style learn more through deep thinking. These people organize information well and use abstract concepts to understand the situation. The personality type of these people is introverted and intuitive. Paying attention to this issue makes the Persian teachers as the second language teachers sensitive to language background and culture of learners in process of class activities. In addition, teachers can help the learners to be aware of their weakness, strength and preference of learning to investigate about challenges of learning. 6. Conclusion The results of this study can be used to inform teachers and second language learners about the importance of language learning strategies and styles. It is believed that knowing the specific strategies and styles which are used by language learners is of particular importance due to the effectiveness of such strategies and styles in improving the efficiency of language learners. It is suggested that more researches be conducted in the future to investigate the relationship between language learning strategies, learning styles and the personality type of Persian language teachers. The relationship between language learning strategies, learning styles and the personality type of Chinese speakers among boys and girls should be investigated in order to find out the effect of gender on these variables and their relationship. More studies should be done on the relationship between learning styles and language learning strategies on other factors such as motivation, talent, performance and duration of language learning.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7083_413894b7e2c6dfc6e8a0e9f18287e3c4.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Introducing âConstruction and Interpretationâ As a New Approach to Morphology Introducing âConstruction and Interpretationâ As a New Approach to Morphology 691 725 7084 10.29252/LRR.13.4.21 FA Leila Tabeshfar PhD.Candidate, Linguistics Department, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Shahla Sharifi Associate professor, Linguistics department, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdwosi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran 0000-0001-8662-6335 Farideh Haghbin Professor of Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article The purpose of this paper has been an introduction of a new approach into morphology as “construction and interpretation”. To achieve this goal, some parts of Role and Reference Theory has been extended to morphology; it has integrated with a new approach and constructed new perspective as “construction and interpretation”. This new approach has been provided to analyze how conceptualization in language is and how the function of correlate between polysemy and synonymy is and what causes this correlation. This new approach has been provided within inflectional and simple morphology to analyze some affixes and words that have been selected randomly. It has been performed in three steps: in the first step, different morphological approaches about polysemy have been reviewed, in the second step, the proposed approach has been presented and in the third step, problematic samples of previous approaches within the proposed approach have been analyzed. The results suggest that usage is different from meaning and it is the basis of language and axis of conceptualization. Usage simultaneously and continuously is in interaction with both meaning and form. This simultaneous and permanent interaction causes correlative and competitive formation of polysemy and synonymy. Pragmatic competence is in the mind of the speaker, so the speaker refers by creating interaction among usage, meaning and form inside cultural cognition and context, and the listener interprets and infers the reference unit or “construction”, in this way, conceptualization of form takes place. Introduction The reason behind the formation of polysemy correlated with synonymy in some morphological units and their lack of complete dominance over each other were examined. The interaction between usage and meaning creates form in Role and Reference Grammar. In some simple, derivative, and compound words in morphology, the form is fixed and the meaning changes. These conditions lead us to the question and necessity of the current study. Whether the interaction between usage and meaning create different forms? Do these fixed forms in the production of different meanings undertake a part of the task of conceptualization? This study investigated this situation based on the interaction between usage, form, and meaning in word formation and word selection processes. The objective is to introduce a new approach to morphology called “construction and interpretation”. By proving the hypothesis that in addition to the interaction between usage and meaning, interaction between usage and form also plays a role in conceptualization, the new approach can be used to analyze all morphological units with observing minimality, simplicity, and comprehensiveness. Literature Review Lieber (2004) suggests that polysemy in derivative words is rooted in argument structure and semantic content of affix. He argues that structural elements have a semantic skelet. The semantic skelet of an affix is placed near semantic skelet of the base and creates polysemy in the process of derivative word formation. Booij (2010) suggests that the affix has no meaning and assumes general scheme for each affix. He believes that affixes have no meaning and that the meaning of derived words results from the meaning of the base and the morphological structure in which the base is placed. Karimidoostan & Moradi (2011a.) argue the function of some Persian's Suffixes like /-ande/ and /-ar/ violate Liber's viewpoint. They believe that polysemy in these affixes is due to homonymity or metaphorical expansion. Rafiei (2012) eliminates argument structure from Liber's viewpoint to explain polysemy in some Persian's adjectives. He considers feature meanings with two positive and negative values for each affix that logically create polysemy. 3. Methodology This study has been performed in three steps: in the first step, within previous approaches, different morphological approaches about polysemy and synonymy have been reviewed, in the second step, the proposed approach has been presented that it is based on this hypothesis to creating interaction between usage and form plays a role in conceptualization. In the third step, samples of polysemy, synonymy and correlated polysemy and synonymy have been analyzed in different parts of morphology and with focus on nominative adjective; In the end, the hypothesis has been proven. Some qualified samples were selected in this respect. The focus was on choosing morphological patterns of nominative adjective in terms of derivation. These patterns have been collected from various researches analyzing within the approach of “construction and interpretation. 4. Results Analyzing the samples suggests that morphology has a communicational function like syntax; although this function is less than syntax .Usage, due to its dynamic and flowing nature, is different from meaning and is the basis of language and the axis of conceptualization. An inseparable amalgamation of form and meaning is not possible. Meaning is not in the essence of grammatical units rather it is as a pragmatic competence in the minds of speakers .The speaker in the context of cultural cognition, according to the situation of verbal communication refers by creating an interaction among usage, form and meaning; the listener infers and interprets the reference unit or “construction”, and in this way, conceptualization takes place. Applying usage and creating interaction between it and form or meaning, the speaker creates a new construction and by interpreting this construction by the listener, communication successfully establishes. Interaction of the usage with form and meaning, respectively forms polysemy and synonymy. Its simultaneous interaction with form and meaning also forms correlated, competitive polysemy and synonymy; so that neither overcomes the other completely and both continue to co- existe in parallel. 5. Discussion According to the authors, usage is the fundamental element of language because there can be one form and several meanings and several forms and one meaning; while there exists no form and meaning in parallel to another form and a meaning in different parts of morphology. Sometimes the interaction between usage and form makes a meaning and sometimes the interaction between usage and meaning makes the form. In fact, the final production of any construction in language is based on the interaction among usage, form, and meaning. The speaker connects the intended usage and the form or meaning, depending on the communication position relative to the listener. In this case, the speaker produces a new meaning or form as “construction”, the listener interprets the new construction and conceptualization takes place. 6. Conclusion The data analyses led to a new perspective in “construction and interpretation” approach; which implies that different meanings of each morphological unit appear in the mind of the speaker as a conversational implication. At the initial production stage of each morphological unit, the speaker attributes their intended usage to any of the lexical forms and creates interactions between usage and form; the listener also interprets the interaction formed and primary meaning is formed. The primary usage becomes the relatively fixed and social meaning of the form and it is recorded in dictionaries. In this case, a relative connection forms between form and meaning. Afterward, the speaker can associate a new usage to the form or meaning, based on the conversation situation. In this way, the speaker creates a new meaning or form as “construction” and the listener also interprets that and every time a new concept is created. The purpose of this paper has been an introduction of a new approach into morphology as “construction and interpretation”. To achieve this goal, some parts of Role and Reference Theory has been extended to morphology; it has integrated with a new approach and constructed new perspective as “construction and interpretation”. This new approach has been provided to analyze how conceptualization in language is and how the function of correlate between polysemy and synonymy is and what causes this correlation. This new approach has been provided within inflectional and simple morphology to analyze some affixes and words that have been selected randomly. It has been performed in three steps: in the first step, different morphological approaches about polysemy have been reviewed, in the second step, the proposed approach has been presented and in the third step, problematic samples of previous approaches within the proposed approach have been analyzed. The results suggest that usage is different from meaning and it is the basis of language and axis of conceptualization. Usage simultaneously and continuously is in interaction with both meaning and form. This simultaneous and permanent interaction causes correlative and competitive formation of polysemy and synonymy. Pragmatic competence is in the mind of the speaker, so the speaker refers by creating interaction among usage, meaning and form inside cultural cognition and context, and the listener interprets and infers the reference unit or “construction”, in this way, conceptualization of form takes place. Introduction The reason behind the formation of polysemy correlated with synonymy in some morphological units and their lack of complete dominance over each other were examined. The interaction between usage and meaning creates form in Role and Reference Grammar. In some simple, derivative, and compound words in morphology, the form is fixed and the meaning changes. These conditions lead us to the question and necessity of the current study. Whether the interaction between usage and meaning create different forms? Do these fixed forms in the production of different meanings undertake a part of the task of conceptualization? This study investigated this situation based on the interaction between usage, form, and meaning in word formation and word selection processes. The objective is to introduce a new approach to morphology called “construction and interpretation”. By proving the hypothesis that in addition to the interaction between usage and meaning, interaction between usage and form also plays a role in conceptualization, the new approach can be used to analyze all morphological units with observing minimality, simplicity, and comprehensiveness. Literature Review Lieber (2004) suggests that polysemy in derivative words is rooted in argument structure and semantic content of affix. He argues that structural elements have a semantic skelet. The semantic skelet of an affix is placed near semantic skelet of the base and creates polysemy in the process of derivative word formation. Booij (2010) suggests that the affix has no meaning and assumes general scheme for each affix. He believes that affixes have no meaning and that the meaning of derived words results from the meaning of the base and the morphological structure in which the base is placed. Karimidoostan & Moradi (2011a.) argue the function of some Persian's Suffixes like /-ande/ and /-ar/ violate Liber's viewpoint. They believe that polysemy in these affixes is due to homonymity or metaphorical expansion. Rafiei (2012) eliminates argument structure from Liber's viewpoint to explain polysemy in some Persian's adjectives. He considers feature meanings with two positive and negative values for each affix that logically create polysemy. 3. Methodology This study has been performed in three steps: in the first step, within previous approaches, different morphological approaches about polysemy and synonymy have been reviewed, in the second step, the proposed approach has been presented that it is based on this hypothesis to creating interaction between usage and form plays a role in conceptualization. In the third step, samples of polysemy, synonymy and correlated polysemy and synonymy have been analyzed in different parts of morphology and with focus on nominative adjective; In the end, the hypothesis has been proven. Some qualified samples were selected in this respect. The focus was on choosing morphological patterns of nominative adjective in terms of derivation. These patterns have been collected from various researches analyzing within the approach of “construction and interpretation. 4. Results Analyzing the samples suggests that morphology has a communicational function like syntax; although this function is less than syntax .Usage, due to its dynamic and flowing nature, is different from meaning and is the basis of language and the axis of conceptualization. An inseparable amalgamation of form and meaning is not possible. Meaning is not in the essence of grammatical units rather it is as a pragmatic competence in the minds of speakers .The speaker in the context of cultural cognition, according to the situation of verbal communication refers by creating an interaction among usage, form and meaning; the listener infers and interprets the reference unit or “construction”, and in this way, conceptualization takes place. Applying usage and creating interaction between it and form or meaning, the speaker creates a new construction and by interpreting this construction by the listener, communication successfully establishes. Interaction of the usage with form and meaning, respectively forms polysemy and synonymy. Its simultaneous interaction with form and meaning also forms correlated, competitive polysemy and synonymy; so that neither overcomes the other completely and both continue to co- existe in parallel. 5. Discussion According to the authors, usage is the fundamental element of language because there can be one form and several meanings and several forms and one meaning; while there exists no form and meaning in parallel to another form and a meaning in different parts of morphology. Sometimes the interaction between usage and form makes a meaning and sometimes the interaction between usage and meaning makes the form. In fact, the final production of any construction in language is based on the interaction among usage, form, and meaning. The speaker connects the intended usage and the form or meaning, depending on the communication position relative to the listener. In this case, the speaker produces a new meaning or form as “construction”, the listener interprets the new construction and conceptualization takes place. 6. Conclusion The data analyses led to a new perspective in “construction and interpretation” approach; which implies that different meanings of each morphological unit appear in the mind of the speaker as a conversational implication. At the initial production stage of each morphological unit, the speaker attributes their intended usage to any of the lexical forms and creates interactions between usage and form; the listener also interprets the interaction formed and primary meaning is formed. The primary usage becomes the relatively fixed and social meaning of the form and it is recorded in dictionaries. In this case, a relative connection forms between form and meaning. Afterward, the speaker can associate a new usage to the form or meaning, based on the conversation situation. In this way, the speaker creates a new meaning or form as “construction” and the listener also interprets that and every time a new concept is created.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7084_1e9f65024cd764a33b94a14b0e79f42d.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 The Study of the Content Validity Supportive Factors of the EPT Multiple-Choice Reading Comprehension Test: Based on Componential Perspective The Study of the Content Validity Supportive Factors of the EPT Multiple-Choice Reading Comprehension Test: Based on Componential Perspective 727 762 7085 10.29252/LRR.13.4.22 FA Roshanak Rezaei Ph.D. candidate, Department of English Language, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran Faramarz Aziz Malayeri Assistant Professor of TEFL, Department of English Language, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran Abbas Bayat Assistant Professor of TEFL, Department of English Language, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran 0000-0002-5625-0717 Hossein Ahmadi Assistant Professor of TEFL, Department of English Language, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran 0000-0002-9448-5760 Journal Article The validity supporting factors of the EPT reading comprehension test, a standard language proficiency test held monthly in Iran, were investigated in this research paper. To this end, each of the test questions was assigned to one of the known effective linguistic and non-linguistic components used by different readers in comprehending a reading text. Our ability to read in a second language, at first, depends on our familiarity with linguistic knowledge, which is the words and grammar of the target language, and under the influence of our non-linguistic knowledge; that if the assessment of reading comprehension ability is unfairly mixed with our "non-linguistic knowledge", the result will not reflect the content validity of the test. Since high-stake tests like EPT are designed for examinees with different experiences and other intrapersonal cognitive abilities, balancing the content of the test will lead us to more favorable results. 85 questions from 22 expository texts were randomly selected, and 150 female students graduated from the theoretical fields of humanities, experimental, and mathematics from Malayer city participated in the test. The data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation statistical analysis, Heterotrait-monotrait ratio, Exploratory Factor Analysis, and the Partial Least Square model. The results showed that non-linguistic knowledge has a significant and more than expected effect on the performance of the testees. Teachers, lecturers, and institutes implementing and designing second language reading comprehension standardized tests will use the results of this research. 1. Introduction To determine the level of proficiency in a foreign language, several language tests are frequently held each year. Language proficiency tests do not consider the method used by language learners; their emphasis is generally on the past language experience of the examinees and what they have learned until the time of the test (Jafarpour, 2015). Among the valid language tests held in Iran is the EPT, which has been held almost every month by the Islamic Azad University since 2012. EPT is composed of three parts: vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension. The importance of this exam is in the graduation of the students of this university at the PhD level. In terms of test structure, EPT can be compared with TOEFL PBT. The only difference lies in the lack of listening and writing sections. This test consists of 100 questions; it does not have a negative score, and the time allotted is set on 140 minutes. The reading comprehension section has 35 questions, usually consisting of 4 separate expository texts on different fields. 15 questions are in the format of cloze test, and the rest is passage-based multiple choice questions. The importance of evaluation, as stated by Black and William (1998), is undeniable both for teachers and learners. Therefore, a test content validity can guarantee the appropriateness of the result interpretations (Linn & Gronlund, 2000). Test validity can be interpreted as an agreement between the test score and the quality it is intended to measure (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2001). Thus, it can be concluded that any investigation and analysis on the effectiveness of the supporting content validity factors of a proficiency test can predict the adequacy of the level of linguistic knowledge as opposed to non-linguistic knowledge of the testees. According to Bachman's language proficiency model (1990), strategic competence of language learners is based on their language competence and their knowledge structures, or their knowledge of the world (Alderson, Clapham, & Wall, 2005), and the knowledge they have acquired while learning their first language (Hedge, 2003). Here, it can be implied that theoretically, in order to be successful in reading comprehension tasks, in addition to language competence, one needs to be equipped with other reader-oriented variables such as synthesizing, infering, and evaluating information (Alderson, 2000). As Nunan (1991) has stated, reading comprehension in a foreign language is different from that in one's first language. A word of caution hence should be mentioned in this regard. The assessment of this language ability should be run under a more controlled condition in terms of the testee's knowledge of the world. Nunan (1991) believed in the interaction of language competence and world knowledge when doing a comprehension task. Reading comprehension in a foreign language, as the result, needs separate sub-skills that are required to be taught (Alderson, 2000). Considering the above mentioned premises, foreign language reading comprehension tests for mid-band language proficiency levels are expected to make use of these different source-based variables equally. This means that despite the inherent difficulty to assess this language ability, language-based questions should be paid the same attention as nonlanguage-based questions all over the test as possiblly as they can (Weir, 2005). This parity is the motivation of the present study. Collecting intermediate passages employed in different EPT administrations, the study aimed at determining the load of different linguistic (text-dependent) and non-linguistic (reader-dependent) components of the test based on the componential perspective theories. The list of components is based on Farhadi and Hesami's (2005, p. 35) list of variables in their article, construct validity of L2 reading comprehension skills. The following research question is going to be answered: Which group of components, linguistic versus non-linguistic components, has the strongest correlations with the value score obtained in the measurement of reading competence based on the gathered data? 2. Methodology 2.1. Subjects A total number of 150 12th-grade female students took part in the present study. They were from three different fields of study (58 from experimental sciences, 48 from mathematical sciences, and 44 from humanities) from 3 language institutes in Malayer. They were selected by cluster random method. The subjects were between 18 to 22 years old. (M=19.5, SD=1.51). These students were intermediate language learners and got a score range between 51 and 70 out of 120 in the Oxford English Placement Test, so they were all placed at the CEFR level of B1.2 to B2.1. 2.2. Educational tools and materials The material used in the present study consisted of 22 randomly-selected reading comprehension passages adapted from the EPT test. The test items underwent a close specification process to assign each item to the component it was intended to measure. The linguistic components understood vocabulary, using context, identifying facts and details, summarizing concepts, sequencing events, distinguishing between facts and opinions, and discovering main idea. For non-linguistic components, understanding point of view, determining author's purpose, drawing conclusions, identifying inferences, understanding cause and effect, using prior knowledge, identifying figurative language, and visualizing ideas were utilized. 3. Results The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was run in order to get a maximum dispersion of factor loadings within factors of linguistic and nonlinguistic components. For a smaller number of variables highly onto each factor resulting in more interpretable clusters of factors, principal axis factoring and varimax rotation methods were applied. SPSS results showed that the components of reading ability measured four constructs with an accuracy of 49.50 percent. From the results, scanning, and literal and reorganizational processing played an important role in comprehending second language intermediate texts of EPT. The model of the standardized regression weights between each component and the overall linguistic and nonlinguistic constructs displayed in figure 1 indicates that the linguistic components of reading comprehension test had moderate and significant contributions to their construct, while nonlinguistic components of reading comprehension test had a high and significant contribusion to their construct. Figure. 1, The relationships between components of constructs (standardized regression weights) The validity supporting factors of the EPT reading comprehension test, a standard language proficiency test held monthly in Iran, were investigated in this research paper. To this end, each of the test questions was assigned to one of the known effective linguistic and non-linguistic components used by different readers in comprehending a reading text. Our ability to read in a second language, at first, depends on our familiarity with linguistic knowledge, which is the words and grammar of the target language, and under the influence of our non-linguistic knowledge; that if the assessment of reading comprehension ability is unfairly mixed with our "non-linguistic knowledge", the result will not reflect the content validity of the test. Since high-stake tests like EPT are designed for examinees with different experiences and other intrapersonal cognitive abilities, balancing the content of the test will lead us to more favorable results. 85 questions from 22 expository texts were randomly selected, and 150 female students graduated from the theoretical fields of humanities, experimental, and mathematics from Malayer city participated in the test. The data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation statistical analysis, Heterotrait-monotrait ratio, Exploratory Factor Analysis, and the Partial Least Square model. The results showed that non-linguistic knowledge has a significant and more than expected effect on the performance of the testees. Teachers, lecturers, and institutes implementing and designing second language reading comprehension standardized tests will use the results of this research. 1. Introduction To determine the level of proficiency in a foreign language, several language tests are frequently held each year. Language proficiency tests do not consider the method used by language learners; their emphasis is generally on the past language experience of the examinees and what they have learned until the time of the test (Jafarpour, 2015). Among the valid language tests held in Iran is the EPT, which has been held almost every month by the Islamic Azad University since 2012. EPT is composed of three parts: vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension. The importance of this exam is in the graduation of the students of this university at the PhD level. In terms of test structure, EPT can be compared with TOEFL PBT. The only difference lies in the lack of listening and writing sections. This test consists of 100 questions; it does not have a negative score, and the time allotted is set on 140 minutes. The reading comprehension section has 35 questions, usually consisting of 4 separate expository texts on different fields. 15 questions are in the format of cloze test, and the rest is passage-based multiple choice questions. The importance of evaluation, as stated by Black and William (1998), is undeniable both for teachers and learners. Therefore, a test content validity can guarantee the appropriateness of the result interpretations (Linn & Gronlund, 2000). Test validity can be interpreted as an agreement between the test score and the quality it is intended to measure (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2001). Thus, it can be concluded that any investigation and analysis on the effectiveness of the supporting content validity factors of a proficiency test can predict the adequacy of the level of linguistic knowledge as opposed to non-linguistic knowledge of the testees. According to Bachman's language proficiency model (1990), strategic competence of language learners is based on their language competence and their knowledge structures, or their knowledge of the world (Alderson, Clapham, & Wall, 2005), and the knowledge they have acquired while learning their first language (Hedge, 2003). Here, it can be implied that theoretically, in order to be successful in reading comprehension tasks, in addition to language competence, one needs to be equipped with other reader-oriented variables such as synthesizing, infering, and evaluating information (Alderson, 2000). As Nunan (1991) has stated, reading comprehension in a foreign language is different from that in one's first language. A word of caution hence should be mentioned in this regard. The assessment of this language ability should be run under a more controlled condition in terms of the testee's knowledge of the world. Nunan (1991) believed in the interaction of language competence and world knowledge when doing a comprehension task. Reading comprehension in a foreign language, as the result, needs separate sub-skills that are required to be taught (Alderson, 2000). Considering the above mentioned premises, foreign language reading comprehension tests for mid-band language proficiency levels are expected to make use of these different source-based variables equally. This means that despite the inherent difficulty to assess this language ability, language-based questions should be paid the same attention as nonlanguage-based questions all over the test as possiblly as they can (Weir, 2005). This parity is the motivation of the present study. Collecting intermediate passages employed in different EPT administrations, the study aimed at determining the load of different linguistic (text-dependent) and non-linguistic (reader-dependent) components of the test based on the componential perspective theories. The list of components is based on Farhadi and Hesami's (2005, p. 35) list of variables in their article, construct validity of L2 reading comprehension skills. The following research question is going to be answered: Which group of components, linguistic versus non-linguistic components, has the strongest correlations with the value score obtained in the measurement of reading competence based on the gathered data? 2. Methodology 2.1. Subjects A total number of 150 12th-grade female students took part in the present study. They were from three different fields of study (58 from experimental sciences, 48 from mathematical sciences, and 44 from humanities) from 3 language institutes in Malayer. They were selected by cluster random method. The subjects were between 18 to 22 years old. (M=19.5, SD=1.51). These students were intermediate language learners and got a score range between 51 and 70 out of 120 in the Oxford English Placement Test, so they were all placed at the CEFR level of B1.2 to B2.1. 2.2. Educational tools and materials The material used in the present study consisted of 22 randomly-selected reading comprehension passages adapted from the EPT test. The test items underwent a close specification process to assign each item to the component it was intended to measure. The linguistic components understood vocabulary, using context, identifying facts and details, summarizing concepts, sequencing events, distinguishing between facts and opinions, and discovering main idea. For non-linguistic components, understanding point of view, determining author's purpose, drawing conclusions, identifying inferences, understanding cause and effect, using prior knowledge, identifying figurative language, and visualizing ideas were utilized. 3. Results The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was run in order to get a maximum dispersion of factor loadings within factors of linguistic and nonlinguistic components. For a smaller number of variables highly onto each factor resulting in more interpretable clusters of factors, principal axis factoring and varimax rotation methods were applied. SPSS results showed that the components of reading ability measured four constructs with an accuracy of 49.50 percent. From the results, scanning, and literal and reorganizational processing played an important role in comprehending second language intermediate texts of EPT. The model of the standardized regression weights between each component and the overall linguistic and nonlinguistic constructs displayed in figure 1 indicates that the linguistic components of reading comprehension test had moderate and significant contributions to their construct, while nonlinguistic components of reading comprehension test had a high and significant contribusion to their construct. Figure. 1, The relationships between components of constructs (standardized regression weights)

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7085_0dbd53751c00e0784799008b44471a77.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 The Impact of Typographical Input Enhancement, Gloss, and Advance Organizers on the Reading Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners The Impact of Typographical Input Enhancement, Gloss, and Advance Organizers on the Reading Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners 763 791 7086 10.29252/LRR.13.4.23 FA Reza Bagheri Nevisi Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, University of Qom, Qom, Iran Rasoul Mohammad Hosseinpur Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, University of Qom, Qom, Iran Bahram Rostami MA Graduate in TEFL, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, University of Qom, Qom, Iran 0000-0002-3066-7565 Journal Article The importance of noticing, attending to linguistic features, and focusing on linguistic input like focus-on-form and focus-on-forms have always been a contentious issue in language teaching. Consistent with this line of research, the present study aimed to investigate the impact of typographical input enhancement, gloss, and advance organizes on EFL learners' reading comprehension ability. Eighty EFL learners were chosen from Safir Language Institute in Ahvaz and were assigned to four equal groups of typographical input enhancement, gloss, advance organizer and simple-text. A Preliminary English Test (PET) of reading was utilized as pretest. Control group and the three experimental groups were instructed for eight weeks through the aforementioned techniques. Finally, an equal version of PET was used as posttest. ANCOVA was run to analyze the data. Results indicated that the advance organizer group significantly outperformed the other groups regarding their reading comprehension performances. The study has important implications for reading comprehension task analysis, task design, and task instruction and the way such information could be utilized to activate schemata and retrieve information from long-term memory. 1. Introduction The importance of noticing, attending to linguistic features, and focusing on linguistic input like focus-on-form and focus-on-forms have always been a contentious issue in language teaching. The role of input enhancement in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has undergone many developments and the studies done in this domain have generated various outcomes. Some researchers support the positive role of input enhancement in SLA and believe that paying attention to form is necessary for L2 learning to transpire, but some other researchers adopt the opposite stance (Ellis, 2008). Consistent with this line of research, the study aimed at delving into the impact typographical input enhancement, gloss, and advance organizers techniques on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. Research Questions: 1. Does typographical input enhancement technique have any significant impact on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners? 2. Does gloss technique have any significant impact on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners? 3. Does advance organizers technique have any significant impact on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners? 2. Literature Review To increase the perceptual saliency of the language structures, different techniques can be utilized. Focus-on-form and focus–on-forms are regarded as two kinds of approaches which can be applied in grammar instruction (Long, 1991). Long (1991) made the distinction between focus-on-form and focus-on-forms. In his view, the latter refers to decontextualized, highly meta-pragmatic, teacher-oriented instruction in which the primary goal is to scaffold learners to amass individual linguistic features. The former, however, refers to meaning-oriented activities in which learners' attention is focused on target features as they arise incidentally in the input. In fact, focus-on-forms employs explicit awareness-raising activities, whereas focus-on-form techniques such as input enhancement indirectly draw learners’ attention to target forms. 3. Methodolgy Based on the results obtained from the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT), 80 intermediate EFL learners were chosen from Safir Language Institute in Ahvaz, Iran and were assigned to four equal groups of typographical input enhancement, gloss, advance organizer and simple-text. Next, a Preliminary English Test (PET) of reading was utilized as pretest. Control group and the three experimental groups were instructed for eight weeks through the aforementioned techniques. Then, an equal version of PET was used as posttest. Covariances (ANCOVA) was run to analyze the data.. 4. Results The results indicated that advance organizer group significantly outperformed the other groups in terms of their reading comprehension performences. In other words, the findings revealed that the advance organizer technique was much more effective than typographical input enhancement and gloss. The study also found that typographical input enhancement and gloss did not have a significant impact on the reading comprehension abilityof EFL learners. This finding reveals that mere exposure to new forms through input enhancement alone might only trigger the maintenance rehearsal process, during which the recently-retrieved input is stored in the long-term memory as an unanalyzed chunk. Therefore, input enhancement may not independently improve conceptually-driven learning processes. 5. Discussion The findings for the first research question do not confirm the previous studies conducted on learners' reading comprehension concerning input enhancement and gloss (Abbasian & Yekani, 2014; Aghajani & Rahimy, 2013; Ayiewbey, 2013; Goudarzi & Raouf Moini, 2012; Hazrativand, 2012; Nahavandi & Mukundan, 2013; Simard, 2009). In the present research, typographical input enhancement and gloss aimed at indirectly drawing learners' attention to the highlighted forms and L2 marginal glosses, but the highlighted forms and l2 marginal glosses might not be well-noticed by the students. It can be said that students' not paying sufficient attention to the typographical input enhancement and gloss could be a likely reason for their insignificant impact. Furthermore, advance organizer unlike the other two techniques had a significant impact on the reading comprehension of EFL students. Advance organizers' group outperformed those in typographical input enhancement and gloss groups. Schema knowledge could have influenced the results as it can display a class of things, events and situations. However, a learner's understanding can be enhanced when a schema sets a type of framework, which is understandable and helps learners comprehend data, retrieve information from long-term memory, and specify their purposes. Thus, the probable cause for the significant impact of the advance organizers on the reading comprehension of EFL learners can be attributed to the fact that the learners possess the right schemata, and are able to glean the best and adequate clues from within the text. Contrary to Gorjian et al. (2015) and Tajeddin (2013) which pointed to an insignificant effect of advance organizers, the results of the present study, in line with Davaei and Talebinezhad (2012) suggests that advance organizers can be viewed as an effective and facilitative means in boosting the overall reading comprehension ability of EFL learners. 6. Conclusion The findings of the study may be helpful to the English teachers, EFL learners, and curriculum developers. Teachers might benefit from the results of the study in teaching the aforementioned techniques. It seems that not only do EFL learners need to be familiarized with such techniques and the way they work in classroom settings, but also the circumtances under which such reading techniques can be more effectively and appropriately utilized to improve their overall comprehension ability. Finally, the findings might have useful implications for curriculum developers because such outcomes can be readily incorporated into the curriculum or classroom syllabus in reading comprehension classes. Accordingly, a specific part of the reading comprehension classes can be devoted to instructing students through these techniques to discern how effective and useful they can be in promoting students reading comprehension abilities. The importance of noticing, attending to linguistic features, and focusing on linguistic input like focus-on-form and focus-on-forms have always been a contentious issue in language teaching. Consistent with this line of research, the present study aimed to investigate the impact of typographical input enhancement, gloss, and advance organizes on EFL learners' reading comprehension ability. Eighty EFL learners were chosen from Safir Language Institute in Ahvaz and were assigned to four equal groups of typographical input enhancement, gloss, advance organizer and simple-text. A Preliminary English Test (PET) of reading was utilized as pretest. Control group and the three experimental groups were instructed for eight weeks through the aforementioned techniques. Finally, an equal version of PET was used as posttest. ANCOVA was run to analyze the data. Results indicated that the advance organizer group significantly outperformed the other groups regarding their reading comprehension performances. The study has important implications for reading comprehension task analysis, task design, and task instruction and the way such information could be utilized to activate schemata and retrieve information from long-term memory. 1. Introduction The importance of noticing, attending to linguistic features, and focusing on linguistic input like focus-on-form and focus-on-forms have always been a contentious issue in language teaching. The role of input enhancement in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has undergone many developments and the studies done in this domain have generated various outcomes. Some researchers support the positive role of input enhancement in SLA and believe that paying attention to form is necessary for L2 learning to transpire, but some other researchers adopt the opposite stance (Ellis, 2008). Consistent with this line of research, the study aimed at delving into the impact typographical input enhancement, gloss, and advance organizers techniques on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. Research Questions: 1. Does typographical input enhancement technique have any significant impact on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners? 2. Does gloss technique have any significant impact on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners? 3. Does advance organizers technique have any significant impact on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners? 2. Literature Review To increase the perceptual saliency of the language structures, different techniques can be utilized. Focus-on-form and focus–on-forms are regarded as two kinds of approaches which can be applied in grammar instruction (Long, 1991). Long (1991) made the distinction between focus-on-form and focus-on-forms. In his view, the latter refers to decontextualized, highly meta-pragmatic, teacher-oriented instruction in which the primary goal is to scaffold learners to amass individual linguistic features. The former, however, refers to meaning-oriented activities in which learners' attention is focused on target features as they arise incidentally in the input. In fact, focus-on-forms employs explicit awareness-raising activities, whereas focus-on-form techniques such as input enhancement indirectly draw learners’ attention to target forms. 3. Methodolgy Based on the results obtained from the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT), 80 intermediate EFL learners were chosen from Safir Language Institute in Ahvaz, Iran and were assigned to four equal groups of typographical input enhancement, gloss, advance organizer and simple-text. Next, a Preliminary English Test (PET) of reading was utilized as pretest. Control group and the three experimental groups were instructed for eight weeks through the aforementioned techniques. Then, an equal version of PET was used as posttest. Covariances (ANCOVA) was run to analyze the data.. 4. Results The results indicated that advance organizer group significantly outperformed the other groups in terms of their reading comprehension performences. In other words, the findings revealed that the advance organizer technique was much more effective than typographical input enhancement and gloss. The study also found that typographical input enhancement and gloss did not have a significant impact on the reading comprehension abilityof EFL learners. This finding reveals that mere exposure to new forms through input enhancement alone might only trigger the maintenance rehearsal process, during which the recently-retrieved input is stored in the long-term memory as an unanalyzed chunk. Therefore, input enhancement may not independently improve conceptually-driven learning processes. 5. Discussion The findings for the first research question do not confirm the previous studies conducted on learners' reading comprehension concerning input enhancement and gloss (Abbasian & Yekani, 2014; Aghajani & Rahimy, 2013; Ayiewbey, 2013; Goudarzi & Raouf Moini, 2012; Hazrativand, 2012; Nahavandi & Mukundan, 2013; Simard, 2009). In the present research, typographical input enhancement and gloss aimed at indirectly drawing learners' attention to the highlighted forms and L2 marginal glosses, but the highlighted forms and l2 marginal glosses might not be well-noticed by the students. It can be said that students' not paying sufficient attention to the typographical input enhancement and gloss could be a likely reason for their insignificant impact. Furthermore, advance organizer unlike the other two techniques had a significant impact on the reading comprehension of EFL students. Advance organizers' group outperformed those in typographical input enhancement and gloss groups. Schema knowledge could have influenced the results as it can display a class of things, events and situations. However, a learner's understanding can be enhanced when a schema sets a type of framework, which is understandable and helps learners comprehend data, retrieve information from long-term memory, and specify their purposes. Thus, the probable cause for the significant impact of the advance organizers on the reading comprehension of EFL learners can be attributed to the fact that the learners possess the right schemata, and are able to glean the best and adequate clues from within the text. Contrary to Gorjian et al. (2015) and Tajeddin (2013) which pointed to an insignificant effect of advance organizers, the results of the present study, in line with Davaei and Talebinezhad (2012) suggests that advance organizers can be viewed as an effective and facilitative means in boosting the overall reading comprehension ability of EFL learners. 6. Conclusion The findings of the study may be helpful to the English teachers, EFL learners, and curriculum developers. Teachers might benefit from the results of the study in teaching the aforementioned techniques. It seems that not only do EFL learners need to be familiarized with such techniques and the way they work in classroom settings, but also the circumtances under which such reading techniques can be more effectively and appropriately utilized to improve their overall comprehension ability. Finally, the findings might have useful implications for curriculum developers because such outcomes can be readily incorporated into the curriculum or classroom syllabus in reading comprehension classes. Accordingly, a specific part of the reading comprehension classes can be devoted to instructing students through these techniques to discern how effective and useful they can be in promoting students reading comprehension abilities.

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7086_f8e6ba1db0f3c4054afec1684ba8fb26.pdf

Tarbiat Modares University Language Related Research 2322-3081 13 4 2022 09 23 Investigating the Effect of Working Memory Capacity on English Vocabulary and Grammar Learning in Inductive and Deductive Instructional Methods Investigating the Effect of Working Memory Capacity on English Vocabulary and Grammar Learning in Inductive and Deductive Instructional Methods 793 821 7087 10.29252/LRR.13.4.24 FA Majid Nemati Associate Professor of TEFL, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 0000-0001-6129-8873 Sayyed Mohammad Alavi Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 0000-0003-1740-2164 Asieh Seifi Ph.D. student of TEFL, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 0000-0003-1464-4213 Journal Article Working memory as a cognitive system is considered as one of the sources of individual differences in second language learning by many researchers. In order to examine the relationship between the capacity of two components of working memory (as one of the sources of individual differences in learning) and learning English vocabulary and grammar (as basic components in learning a second language), and also to explore the effect of instructional method as an effective variable along with working memory capacity, a convenience sampling method research was conducted. Subjects of this study were 74 female language learners selected from children between 9-12years old. These learners were at the beginner level in terms of English language proficiency. In order to determine the phonological loop capacity, non-word repetition test and digit recall test were used and, counting recall test and backward digit recall test were employed to determine central executive capacity. Based on the scores of these tests, language learners were divided into two homogeneous groups. The first group received inductive instruction and the second group underwent deductive instruction. Linear regression and two sample independent t-test were used for data analysis. The results indicated that both the phonological loop capacity and the central executive capacity had a significant effect on English vocabulary and grammar learning. Moreover, deductive teaching method significantly leads to better results in terms of grammar learning compared to the inductive teaching method. Introduction Second language teachers observe significant differences between language learners regarding learning speed and final achievement in classrooms. Many factors can lead to such individual differences in learning a second language. Working memory as one of these sources of individual differences has been the focus of attention by many researchers over the past three decades. Learning a second language depends on a set of cognitive processes and systems, and working memory is one of these cognitive systems. Accordingly, this study attempts to find the effect of working memory on second language learning in children and under various instructional methods as a subject that has remained almost untouched, especially in Iran. Baddeley’s model of working memory was adopted as the theoretical framework of this study. Research questions: Q1- Do the capacity of the phonological loop and the capacity of central executive as two components of working memory have a significant effect on learning English vocabulary and grammar in 9-12-year-old children? Q2- Does the deductive instructional method compared to the inductive method have any more significant effect on learning English vocabulary and grammar in 9-12-year-old children with almost the same level of working memory capacity? 2. Literature review Working memory is a term that has grown out of memory studies and refers to the active processing system that manipulates information, explains our ability to remember information, and often occurs despite distracting information that we have to ignore (Alloway & Alloway, 2010). According to Baddeley (2015) to explore the role of working memory in learning a second language, which is a relatively new research field, it is necessary to conduct more extensive researches in different languages, different age groups, and different environmental and educational conditions. The greater the number of studies, the more accurate the results and findings will be. A number of studies have confirmed that the phonological loop capacity plays an important role in vocabulary learning. Martin and Ellis (2012), Kormos and Sáfár (2008), French (2006) and O'Brien et al. (2006) are examples of these researches. Moreover some studies indicate that working memory plays an important role in the production and processing of second language such as Trude &Tokowicz (2011), Gass and Lee (2011), Finardi and Weissheimer (2009), Leeser (2007), French (2006) and Sunderman and Kroll (2006). 3. Methodology This research is a quasi-experimental classroom research. Convenience sampling was used in recruiting the subjects of this study. The study was carried out at Lesan English language institute in Gorgan, Iran. The age of the participants ranged from 9 to 12. The participants consisted of 74 language learners who were beginners in terms of English language proficiency level and had almost no knowledge of English writing, speech, vocabulary, and grammar. Initially, the students took 4 subtests of "working Memory Test Battery for Children". To determine the phonological loop capacity, two tests of non-word repetition and digit recall were used, and to determine the central executive capacity, two tests of counting recall and backward digit recall were taken. Learners were divided into two homogeneous groups according to their working memory test results. 36 of these language learners were taught inductively (-rule-explanation, +production-practice, self/pair-correction) and 38 were taught deductively (+rule-explanation, +production-practice, teacher-correction). Both groups completed 21 instructional sessions. During the instructional sessions, both groups took four classroom written tests and four oral tests, and the average scores of the subjects in vocabulary and grammar were considered as a criterion for their learning. The relationship between the phonological loop and the central executive capacity and the scores of English grammar and vocabulary as a learning criterion were examined to determine whether there is a significant correlation between them or not. First, the reliability of collected data and data distribution normality were checked and confirmed. Then the effect of the phonological loop and the central executive capacity was first examined separately and then in combination with the learning of English vocabulary and grammar. 4. Results The results revealed that both independent variables, namely the phonological loop and the central executive capacity (both separately and in combination) have a positive and significant effect on the dependent variables, English vocabulary, and grammar learning, in children. The capacity of the phonological loop has a greater impact on learning English vocabulary, and the central executive capacity has a greater impact on learning English grammar. Considering the second hypothesis, the results of this study indicated that there is no significant difference in learners’ performance regarding vocabulary learning in inductive and deductive instructional groups, but the learners of the deductive group performed significantly better in grammar learning than the inductive group. This may be due to the fact that attention is one of the functions of the central executive component and by reducing the pressure on working memory, or in other words, by reducing the need for simultaneous attention to form and meaning, better results can be achieved in learning grammar (specially for learners with poor working memory). Working memory as a cognitive system is considered as one of the sources of individual differences in second language learning by many researchers. In order to examine the relationship between the capacity of two components of working memory (as one of the sources of individual differences in learning) and learning English vocabulary and grammar (as basic components in learning a second language), and also to explore the effect of instructional method as an effective variable along with working memory capacity, a convenience sampling method research was conducted. Subjects of this study were 74 female language learners selected from children between 9-12years old. These learners were at the beginner level in terms of English language proficiency. In order to determine the phonological loop capacity, non-word repetition test and digit recall test were used and, counting recall test and backward digit recall test were employed to determine central executive capacity. Based on the scores of these tests, language learners were divided into two homogeneous groups. The first group received inductive instruction and the second group underwent deductive instruction. Linear regression and two sample independent t-test were used for data analysis. The results indicated that both the phonological loop capacity and the central executive capacity had a significant effect on English vocabulary and grammar learning. Moreover, deductive teaching method significantly leads to better results in terms of grammar learning compared to the inductive teaching method. Introduction Second language teachers observe significant differences between language learners regarding learning speed and final achievement in classrooms. Many factors can lead to such individual differences in learning a second language. Working memory as one of these sources of individual differences has been the focus of attention by many researchers over the past three decades. Learning a second language depends on a set of cognitive processes and systems, and working memory is one of these cognitive systems. Accordingly, this study attempts to find the effect of working memory on second language learning in children and under various instructional methods as a subject that has remained almost untouched, especially in Iran. Baddeley’s model of working memory was adopted as the theoretical framework of this study. Research questions: Q1- Do the capacity of the phonological loop and the capacity of central executive as two components of working memory have a significant effect on learning English vocabulary and grammar in 9-12-year-old children? Q2- Does the deductive instructional method compared to the inductive method have any more significant effect on learning English vocabulary and grammar in 9-12-year-old children with almost the same level of working memory capacity? 2. Literature review Working memory is a term that has grown out of memory studies and refers to the active processing system that manipulates information, explains our ability to remember information, and often occurs despite distracting information that we have to ignore (Alloway & Alloway, 2010). According to Baddeley (2015) to explore the role of working memory in learning a second language, which is a relatively new research field, it is necessary to conduct more extensive researches in different languages, different age groups, and different environmental and educational conditions. The greater the number of studies, the more accurate the results and findings will be. A number of studies have confirmed that the phonological loop capacity plays an important role in vocabulary learning. Martin and Ellis (2012), Kormos and Sáfár (2008), French (2006) and O'Brien et al. (2006) are examples of these researches. Moreover some studies indicate that working memory plays an important role in the production and processing of second language such as Trude &Tokowicz (2011), Gass and Lee (2011), Finardi and Weissheimer (2009), Leeser (2007), French (2006) and Sunderman and Kroll (2006). 3. Methodology This research is a quasi-experimental classroom research. Convenience sampling was used in recruiting the subjects of this study. The study was carried out at Lesan English language institute in Gorgan, Iran. The age of the participants ranged from 9 to 12. The participants consisted of 74 language learners who were beginners in terms of English language proficiency level and had almost no knowledge of English writing, speech, vocabulary, and grammar. Initially, the students took 4 subtests of "working Memory Test Battery for Children". To determine the phonological loop capacity, two tests of non-word repetition and digit recall were used, and to determine the central executive capacity, two tests of counting recall and backward digit recall were taken. Learners were divided into two homogeneous groups according to their working memory test results. 36 of these language learners were taught inductively (-rule-explanation, +production-practice, self/pair-correction) and 38 were taught deductively (+rule-explanation, +production-practice, teacher-correction). Both groups completed 21 instructional sessions. During the instructional sessions, both groups took four classroom written tests and four oral tests, and the average scores of the subjects in vocabulary and grammar were considered as a criterion for their learning. The relationship between the phonological loop and the central executive capacity and the scores of English grammar and vocabulary as a learning criterion were examined to determine whether there is a significant correlation between them or not. First, the reliability of collected data and data distribution normality were checked and confirmed. Then the effect of the phonological loop and the central executive capacity was first examined separately and then in combination with the learning of English vocabulary and grammar. 4. Results The results revealed that both independent variables, namely the phonological loop and the central executive capacity (both separately and in combination) have a positive and significant effect on the dependent variables, English vocabulary, and grammar learning, in children. The capacity of the phonological loop has a greater impact on learning English vocabulary, and the central executive capacity has a greater impact on learning English grammar. Considering the second hypothesis, the results of this study indicated that there is no significant difference in learners’ performance regarding vocabulary learning in inductive and deductive instructional groups, but the learners of the deductive group performed significantly better in grammar learning than the inductive group. This may be due to the fact that attention is one of the functions of the central executive component and by reducing the pressure on working memory, or in other words, by reducing the need for simultaneous attention to form and meaning, better results can be achieved in learning grammar (specially for learners with poor working memory).

https://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article_7087_5c2631d54272554b181cf21ad2171fa3.pdf