Linguistics & Translation

The effect of Foreign Accented Speech (FAS) on listening comprehension has been under investigation for many years. FAS studies examine the effect of different accents on listeners’ intelligibility and perceived comprehensibility. In this study, the effects of Persian, Spanish, and American accents on Iranian students’ listening comprehension were investigated. Two hundred and fifty undergraduate English Translation students took part in a TOEFL test. Students were divided into two proficiency groups. Thirty students were chosen as the high proficiency group and thirty others were selected for the low proficiency group. Then each group was randomly divided into three sub-groups of ten students, and each group was exposed to Persian-accented English, Spanish-accented English, and standard American English. By analyzing the resulting figures with a repeated measure design of ANOVA, it was realized that for both proficiency groups the Persian accent had been the most influential one on the students’ listening comprehension. It was found that American and Spanish accents did not have any significant effect on Iranian students’ listening comprehension, although the American accent was more effective than the Spanish accent.

Bringing the concepts of narratology and optional shifts together, the present research elaborated on Iran-Iraq War’s translated narration through a case study of a novel on this war. We analyzed the English translation of the Persian novel, Journey to Heading 270 Degrees, to examine how Iran-Iraq War narratives were translated and if and how the different narration of the translator affected the narratological aspect of the source narrative. To this end, Pekkanen (2010)’s model was applied to explore into the formal dissimilarities between the source text and the target text at the micro-textual level through a linguistic comparative analysis aimed at identifying optional shifts. Optional shifts were then categorized and the most frequent optional shifts, which made a pattern in the translated text, were identified. As the final step, the narratological aspect(s) were studied in the light of the optional shifts. Our analysis revealed that the optional shift of expansion-additions which were the most frequent shift type with 203 instances, contraction-deletions with 112 instances, and optional shifts of miscellaneous cases with 36 instances affected the degree of the specification as a narratological aspect in this study.

The present study was conducted to study the effect of Structure Reviewing strategy as a direct vocabulary learning strategy on reading comprehension skill. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a language proficiency test was administrated to100 male and female university students who studied in a course other than English as their major in Omidiyeh Islamic Azad University. Ultimately, thirty pre-intermediate students were selected and assigned into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught vocabulary through Structure Reviewing as a direct vocabulary learning strategy for developing their vocabulary storage in reading comprehension. After ten sessions of treatment, the two groups were given a post-test of an achievement vocabulary test. Data analysis was conducted through samples t-test statistics. It demonstrated that the experimental group who utilized Structure Reviewing as a direct vocabulary learning strategy outperformed the control group.

The growing concern about the profuse use of texting endangering the standard forms in language prompted the present research to determine the presence or absence of SMS features in the academic writing of the participants. Triangulation was used for data collection i.e. questionnaires for learners and educators and samples of the learners’ English written work were examined for SMS features. Suppliance in Obligatory Context was used for data recording. Simple average and ratio were used for descriptive analysis of the data. Contrary to the expectation, there were no significant evidences of these features in the sample. It seems being proficient in standard forms, these learners are context conscious and can switch to the appropriate register or style when writing formally .Thus the present study has de mystified the popular belief about texting adversely affecting writing and thus destroying Standard English. Moreover, the evidences of one punctuation mark used in place of another indicate there can be other factors like carelessness or lack of knowledge of students and the lack of training, feedback or emphasis by educators or the system. So the matter of concern should be the general neglect of punctuation even out of the context of texting.

The present study aims at examining the influence of receptive (reading three glossed sentences) and productive (completing a cloze task) tasks on retrieving the knowledge of English verb-noun collocations in an Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learning context. To do so, ninety four EFL university learners were divided into two experimental (reading and cloze) groups and one control group. To examine the effects of the tasks, the students in all three groups were given receptive and productive collocation pretests aiming at measuring their existing knowledge of collocation and posttests to measure the learners' gained knowledge of collocation after being exposed to the treatments. Two weeks after completing the treatments, the students were given delayed posttests examining the participants’ ability to retrieve the receptive and productive gained of the collocations. The results of Paired Sample t-tests revealed that the tasks were highly effective in helping the students retrieve the already gained knowledge of verb-noun collocations.

Learning how individuals open conversations or how people address one another in a certain language is an important issue in studying communication and hence establishing social relationships between individuals. The speaker and the addressee's relationship, cognitive, historical and ideological reality, determine the choice of names and other address variants. Forms of address has an interesting correlation with language and culture. It should be noted that culture is the most important factor involved in the use of address forms. The current study intends to investigate Iranian students' Persian and English electronic requests to faculty to find out if they were different intera- and inter- lingually in regard the use of forms of address. To that end, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed to investigate 120 English and Persian e-mails composed by the participants to faculty members. Findings from the study have revealed a wide stylistic range in the form of address used. The results of the study also revealed that students tried to be more polite in their Persian e-mails by exaggerating in the use of the honorifics. This study prove that the application of address forms is governed by social norms and cultural rules.

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of key word method on the retention rate of Iranian EFL learners. Thus far, the studies on the efficiency of key-word method, as a strategy of vocabulary learning, have indicated mixed results, and reached no conclusive findings. To carry out the study, 40 students were chosen from among university students registered for English classes in Isfahan University. They were all pretested to make sure that they did not know the target words that were supposed to be taught in order to find out their retention rates. All the learners were divided into two groups: one key-word method group (KWMG) and one rehearsal method group (RMG). The same set of words was taught to both groups. For the first group, we used key-word method and we let the students to choose and use their own key words, which would lead to deeper processing of information, in order to enhance long term retention. For the second group only rehearsing of the new words was used. At the end of experiment, two tests were administered: one immediate test to check out their short term retention and one delayed post test to measure their long-term recall. The results of the study have shown no significant difference in short term retention but with regard to long-term retention, the Key-word method group students outperformed the rehearsal group. In addition, in a semi- structured interview with key word method group students, it was revealed that they show a great interest in the method, and maintained that they would opt for the method when memorizing other words.

Talking about Arabic language invokes mixed feelings in Iranians. On the negative plane, it brings to mind bitter memories of Arab invasion a millennia ago, when they dominated the empire of Persia for three centuries during which radical changes to the language and culture of Persia were engineered. On the positive side, Arabic is the medium of all religious occasions, and enjoys an air of awe, authority, and sacredness to it. This situation makes Arabic unapproachable and innovations and changes to Arabic language policy and its related educational policies difficult, dangerous, and complicated because one easily runs the risk of being accused of hostility, heresy, or conspiracy against a sacred language. It is for this same reason that the major agency responsible for policy planning and implementation about Arabic resides outside of the organizations commonly in charge of language and educational planning; the responsibility lies with the seminary and other religious circles and anyone outside of that circle talking differently about the language, no matter what his professional credentials are, is considered an intruder and is seen with suspicion. In such an ideologically-driven atmosphere, disentangling beliefs from facts proves daunting. As a consequence, despite its prevalence, the quality of Arabic language teaching in Iran remains a mystery, as no serious large-scale study aiming to subject it to empirical investigation has yet been carried out. Aiming at filling this lacuna, we undertook a study in the hope that we may throw some light on of Arabic language teaching (ALT, henceforth). Our study was informed by theories and practices commonly in vogue in teaching other modern languages, particularly English. Collecting data from a survey administered to 53 Arabic teachers, we found that ALT is a different world from ELT in its various dimensions and it clearly fails to meet the standards of modern language teaching orthodoxy. Teachers were found to be lacking the minimum requirements of language teachers such as proficiency, language teaching methodology knowledge base, and the basics of linguistic knowledge needed for a language teacher.

Three languages dominate the linguistic atmosphere of the present day Iran, namely, Persian, English, and Arabic. While Persian is the singly official language of the country and English is a case of English in an expanding circle in Kachru's terms, the status and functions of Arabic are less straightforward to delineate. The educational policy of the country is for the teaching of Persian and Arabic to begin in kindergartens and primary schools and postpone English till secondary schools. Arabic is taught under various guises like including teaching Quran, religion, prayers, etc. Despite all the resources, both financial and humanistic, that goes into Arabic teaching, little is known about how the language is taught in terms of syllabus, aims, and language teaching methodology. This study was an attempt to approach Arabic language teaching in an ELT orientation to throw some light on how Arabic is currently taught in Iranian secondary schools. Moreover, we investigated the nature of final examinations and their effects on language teaching. Findings indicate that the productive skills of speaking and writing are given little, if any, attention and final tests and language teaching parallel one another, making it difficult to decide the teaching methodology is under the influence of final tests or it is the tail that wags the dog, i.e., tests driving the syllabus. We also attempted validating an instrument for future studies dealing with Arabic pedagogy. The factors that appeared were not however interpretable sufficiently, mainly due to the inadequacy of the sample of the study.

The present research conducted to investigate the effect of pictorial context on reading comprehension of EFL readers . To carry out the research 30 students were selected . They were studying at Oxford Representative language center in Iran. And they were assigned to two equal groups : a) the experimental group , and b) the control group . The two groups were assumed to be homogeneous. The experimental group received pictures immediately before they read the passages while the control group did not receive any pictures before reading the texts . Four English passages followed by five multiple-choice questions were administrated to the subjects. A T-test was then used to compare the mean scores of the two groups. Then the result of the T-test indicated that the subjects in the experimental group who had received pictures before reading the passages , scored significantly higher than the subjects in the other group . Therefore , the hypothesis of this study was supported and it was concluded that pictorial context can be a beneficial device to improve reading comprehension of EFL readers . Finally , from the pedagogical point of view , the findings of this study have paved the way for material developers and EFL teachers to improve the reading comprehension of EFL readers.