ZABANPAZHUHI (Iranian Journal of Language Research)
Year:2018 | Volume:10 | Issue:26 |Papers Count:9

Journalistic texts are decorated with metonymy in all the fields especially in the political texts. Understanding this figure of speech and its translation in the target language is a challenge with which interpreters usually encounter. In this study, we attempt to explore the role of metonymy in some samples of journalistic texts of Persian and French with the aim of detecting the similarities and differences of the use of this figure of speech in these two languages. The findings indicate that metonymy is not exclusively used to adorn journalistic texts; rather, it can have various functions such as language enrichment, avoidance of repetition, implication, etc. Besides, in French and Iranian rhetoric, there are disagreements among experts about this figure of speech, which makes the contrastive analysis of metonymy more difficult. It should be noted that definitions put forward by both French and Iranian rhetoricians suffer from some shortcomings. French and Persian rhetoricians classify metonymy in terms of contiguity and similarity respectively. There are disagreements about certain means of expression such as epanodos among French and Iranian rhetoricians. On the other hand, according to cognitive linguists, metonymy is linked to cultural patterns. Different syntactic structures and semantic fields and above all cultural differences between French and Persian make the translation of metonymy complicated. In addition, translation and its study which belong to the field of comparative linguistics can be crucial to detect cultural similarities and differences between the two languages. The results of translation suggest that metonymies linked to the different cultural patterns may not have metonymic equivalents in the target language and the translator is thus obliged to appeal to direct referents. But concerning metonymies linked to the different cultural patterns which have metonymic equivalents of the same class or another class with the same implied value in the target language, using cultural metonymic equivalents may lead to misunderstanding among the speakers of the target language. Thus, it is better to appeal to semantic substitution.

1. Background University students have to deal with a number of academic skills and literacies such as listening to academic lectures, taking notes, and writing academic essays. The students’ success in their academic work depends on their successful undertaking of these skills. Yet, many students find it difficult to cope with these literacies. English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) students may run further into problem, as they lack the necessary skills to comprehend and produce a diverse range of complex academic discourses. One of these skills, academic lecturing plays a significant role in academic education. The importance of lectures in academic education has made some scholars believe that comprehending lectures is of critical importance to the students’ academic success. Yet, understanding academic lectures is a considerable challenge for students in English-medium classes. Part of this difficulty has been attributed to “ an overwhelming impression of speed and a lack of control over the speaker” (Lynch, 2011, p. 81). Additionally, academic lectures have “ very dense informational packaging” (Lin, 2010, p. 1174). Lectures abound with important information. The dense distribution of information in lectures makes it difficult for the students to comprehend all the information presented throughout the lecture. Therefore, it is important for the students to be able to differentiate between important and unimportant information. Expressions that help students differentiate between important and unimportant information are referred to as relevance/importance markers (Crawford Camiciottoli, 2007; Deroey& Taverniers, 2012; Hunston, 1994), ‘ importance cues’ (Kiewra, 2002), ‘ emphasizers’ (Siepmann, 2005), ‘ selection cues’ (Titsworth & Kiewra, 2004), and ‘ focusers’ (Simpson, 2004). With these points in mind, an understanding of how important information is distinguished from unimportant information in academic lectures is of crucial importance. Nevertheless, very little is known about them. Except for a few studies that have specifically dealt with importance marking in English lectures (Crawford Camiciottoli, 2004, 2007; Deroey, 2015; Deroey & Taverniers, 2012), what we know about this function is limited to studies that have found examples of importance markers (Biber, 2006; DeCarrico & Nattinger, 1988; Young, 1994; among others). Furthermore, it is now widely recognized that discourse structuring or organization devices facilitate the students’ comprehension, note-taking and recall of lectures (e. g., Olsen & Huckin, 1990). This study attempts to explore importance marking in English and Persian academic lectures. 2. Methodology The study adopts an approach which is descriptive, contrastive, and corpus-driven. It aims at eliciting the importance markers from the English and Persian academic lectures. All the importance markers in the academic lectures were elicited from two corpora. Afterwards, the elicited importance markers from the Persian and English academic lectures were investigated functionally. To be more exact, two corpora were used in this research to explore the un/importance markers: the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) Corpus and the Persian corpus of SOKHAN. The BASE corpus was developed at the Universities of Warwick and Reading, England under the directorship of Hilary Nesi and Paul Thompson. BASE comprises the audio and video recordings, and the transcripts of 160 English lectures and 39 seminars, totaling 1, 644, 942 words (Nesi, 2012). The lecture section which is the basis for the analysis of this dissertation contains 1, 186, 290 words. The lectures were recorded between 1998 and 2005. Lectures are equally distributed across four broad disciplinary groups, i. e. arts and humanities (ah), life and medical sciences (ls), physical sciences (ps), and social studies (ss). The Persian corpus of SOKHAN was developed at the Science and Technology Park of North Khorasan, Iran under the directorship of Javad Zare and Zahra Keivanlou-Shahrestanaki. Corpus development was assisted by funding from the Technology University of Esfarayen and the Science and Technology Park of North Khorasan. SOKHAN consists of audio and video recordings, and the transcripts of 60 Persian academic lectures, totaling 480, 526 words. The lectures of SOKHAN were recorded between 2010 and 2015. They are delivered mainly by the male native speakers of Persian lecturers. The lectures of SOKHAN evenly spread in the four disciplinary groups of engineering (es), humanities (hs), medicine (ms), and base sciences (bs). 3. Results and conclusion The findings suggest that regardless of language, importance marking in the academic lectures is done via five discourse functions including audience engagement, discourse organization, subject status, topic treatment, and being related to exam. Besides, differentiating between the important points and the trivial ones is not necessarily done via only a single discourse function. Another finding of this research is that topic treatment markers of importance indicate importance only implicitly. It should be noted that audience engagement markers of importance were found to be the most frequently used markers in the academic lectures. Generally, marking importance in the English and Persian academic lectures mostly involves orienting the discourse to the audience. To put it differently, the presenters mostly tend to get engaged with the audience in order to indicate the important information.

1-Introduction Many Arabic loanwords have been adapted by Persian and its numerous dialects. Some of theseloanwords have uvular consonants including the voiceless stop /q/ and the voiced fricative /R/ both of which were replaced by the single phone [G] in standard Persian. However, as /R/ is a phoneme in the Roudbari Persian dialect it is not replaced by any sound. This research aimed at explaining each of these sound substitution processes within the framework of Optimality Theory (Hereafter OT) put forward by Prince and Smolensky (1993/2004). 2-Methodology The Roudbari data were collected by one of the researchers by recording the voices of several male and female native speakers. Then the data were analyzed to indentify the phonological processes and contexts in which they occurred. The phonological processes that occur in the substitution of uvular consonants of Arabic loanwords in standard Persian and Roudbari dialect were analyzed within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993/ 2004). In doing so, the constraints that caused these phonological processes were identified or formalized in case they did not exist in the OT literature. 3-Conclusion Sound substitution is a process whereby a phoneme in a loanword is replaced by its closest phone in the borrowing language. In OT loanwords are subject to the same universal constraints; however their rankings are subject to the phonology of the borowing language. Many Arabic loanwords with uvular consonants including the voiceless stop /q/ and the voiced fricative /R/ have been adapted by Persian and its numerous dialects. Both of these consonants are replaced by a single consonant, the uvular voiced stop [G], in the standard Persian. Unlike the standard accent, /R/ is a phoneme in the Roudbari Persian dialect. Therefore, it is not replaced by any sound. However, neither /q/ nor /G/ exists in the Roudbari dialect phonemic inventory. Hence, /q/ in the syllable onsets of Arabic loanwords is replaced by [k] and [c] in environments preceding [+back] and [-back] vowels respectively. Besides, word-final /q/ is replaced by [c]. It presents arguments in favor of constraint rankings which cause the occurances of these processes. Moreover, it comes up with a single inclusive ranking of constraints that is capable of explaining the replacement of Arabic /q/ by [k] and [c] in all the three environments in Roudbari dialect.

The present study aims to explore the evolution of the use of images in teaching such as direct and audio-visual methods, and two communicative approaches to language teaching to stress the increasing importance of using images as a tool in language teaching. If, at the beginning, images were used as a medium to help learners to avoid using their native language and play the role of “ semantic substitute” and facilitator of understanding the meaning of words and phrases, they gradually took more complicated roles i. e. the “ situational image” replaced the “ semantic image” . This finding has helped researchers to devise methods related to linguistic situations. Thus, the information concerning specific situations or cultural points is transferred through images. Henceforth, not only do images have a referential role, but they are also regarded as part of lesson content. In the next phase, images activate learners and stimulate their greater participation in classroom discussions. In this research, we point out the role of images in language teaching in the latest version of communicative approach. This approach takes some distance from its educational role and approaches its actual use in the real life. This role of images, which is in line with the principles of communicative approach with respect to using authentic materials in language learning, allows the learner to imagine a situation that she/ he has never experienced before. Hence, images are considered as an indispensable part of language teaching books from the very beginning up to now. This role has become more essential in the audio-visual and then in communicative methods. It has offered new dimensions to foreign language learning classes. Although, at the beginning, images were used in the classroom to avoid translation, it has created a teaching tool and educational aid along with the content of the textbooks. With an overview of the application of images throughout the history of education and various educational methods, this application gradually diverges from its initial use and approaches. Images have always caught the attention of experts. The study of the evolution of this educational tool, like other tools and techniques, can be crucial to the efficiency of its use. If audios, texts, and images constitute components of a language training material, then its importance becomes clearer. One of the features of the audio-visual methods is the association between dialogues and images which, together, show a communicative situation. Every image concerns a section of the dialogue. This connection between images and phrases is based on the theories of behaviorism and the conditioning theory because, by repeating images and dialogs, a related statement for a language learner is presented. In the second-generation of audiovisual methods, the direct connection between images and sounds disappears and the learner is usually guided in such a way that helps her/him to interpret the communication situation only by viewing images before hearing dialogues. In third-generation methods (also called communicative methods), the use of multiple images in series (or a storyline) that was related to the number of sentences and associated voices in a dialogue was omitted, and foreign language experts decided to use only one or few images that generally represent the framework of the situation and characters in the educational content. More use of educational techniques, such as the simulation or role play in communicative methods, coincides with the evolution of the status of images in foreign language teaching textbooks. Instead of mechanically repeating the dialogues of the lesson in an audio-visual method, these educational techniques allow the imitation of near-reality communication situations, which leads to more diverse dialogues in the classroom. Unlike audio-visual methods, the correspondence between sounds and images in recent methods is not pre-existing and images play the role of initiator of dialogues. The authors of the methods attempt to provoke the imagination of the learners through images. In fact, learners should imagine the conversation of the characters appearing on images. Then, they can speak in foreign languages according to what images suggest to them. The presence of images in language teaching before the communication approach is often used to facilitate and accelerate understanding and it is far from its natural and actual use. The communicative method emphasizes the need to use the natural resources of a language in education as well as the authentic texts. The application of the image from the traditional to the communicative methods and the latest achievements in the action-oriented approach have been expanded considerably and some applications have always been preserved and some others have been added; it can be said that in general, the presence of images in the teaching of foreign language is remarkable in the instructions for exercises involving images. This research attempted to explore the evolution of the role of images in the methods of teaching French from the "direct" to the communicative method and its last generation, action-oriented, and see how its role evolves for a foreign language learner.

1-Introduction Reduplication, a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) is repeated (Inkelas, 2006: 417), is divided into two types: a) total reduplication and b) partial reduplication. This research attempts to explore total reduplication in Persian. The question is that to what extent reduplication can be used as a criterion to specify the literary style of an author. To this end, two masterpieces of contemporary Iranian literature were selected: Buf-e kur by Sadegh Hedayat and Savushun by Simin Danshvar. Reduplication type and their frequency were specified and compared in these two masterpieces. 2-Theoretical Background "Sabk" (style) is an Arabic word meaning smelting and forming of gold and silver, and in literature, it refers to the special use of language in poetry and prose (Iranzadeh, 2011: 2). In fact, style is a way to reflect the author’ s inner feelings, ideas, and thoughts (Parandoji, et al, 2014: 36). Shamisa (1993) emphasizes the artistic value of repetition; He maintains that the sound of rain is relaxing and soft because of its alternate repetition, while irregular sound with no music is boring. Leech (1981) believes that “ style is a way to use language in a certain context by a certain person for a certain goal” . He introduces four criteria to specify the linguistic style of a literary work: lexical classification, syntactic classification, verbal array, cohesion, and context. Regarding all of them, he raises questions including: Are the words used by the author formal or informal? Has the author used special words? Are nouns concrete or abstract? What is the semantic function of adverbs? Which literary tools have been used by the author to transfer meaning to the audience? Is there a logical relationship between the elements of the work? Elements involved in analyzing the style of literary works are: a) word choice, b) morphological and grammatical features, c) frequency, d) semantic features, e) repetition, f) verbal context, h)congruence of letters and other sound patterns, i)allusions and metaphors, j) mode of expression and special view and the way of applying language features, k) deviation from the norm, etc. (Iranzadeh, 2011: 12-15). 3-Data analysis Total reduplication is of two types: a) total proper reduplication and b) total improper reduplication (Shaghaghi, 2012: 99). In total improper reduplication, the base is repeated completely. This process involves adverbs, nouns, adjectives, pseudo-sentences, onomatopoeic words, numbers, adverbial clauses, and sentences. Reduplicating adverb has been used by both Danshvar and Hedayat. Both of them, especially Danshvar, have used total improper reduplication in their stories. Danshvar has extensively used reduplication of onomatopoeia in her novel (Savushun). Onomatopoeia words represent a natural relation between sound and meaning. They are tangible and perceptible and authors can express their feeling by using them (Vahidian Kamyar, 1996: 10, 38). Being tangible and perceptible is one of the features of realistic novels including the realistic novel of Danshvar. She expressed and showed her feelings using onomatopoeia. Since Hedayat’ s style and language is different from those of Danshvar, just one onomatopoeia word has been used in his work. Hedayat’ s language in Buf-e kur is descriptive, he has used abstract concepts, and these features make his novel Surrealistic. Danshvar has more frequently used reduplication of adverbs and onomatopoeia than adjectives, nouns, pseudo-sentences, numbers, and adverbial phrases. In Hedayat’ s novel, reduplication of adverbs has a high frequency while other categories are either rarely used or never used. In total proper reduplication, in addition to the repetition of the base, there is a grammatical morpheme that occurs between the two bases or after the second base. In total reduplication with middle attachment, prepositions such as »be, ta, dar, tu, bar« (to, until, in, on), the enclitic /o/, the interfix /â /, and /vâ /(and) are used (Shaghaghi, 2012: 99-100). Total reduplication with middle attachment is diverse in Savushun and Buf-e kur. The preposition »be (to)« is the most commonly used, whereas others are rarely used. Samples of Buf-e kur such as "ruz be ruz" (day-by-day), "saat be saat" (hour-by-hour), and "daghigheh be daghigheh" (minute-by-minute) suggest that this pattern is mainly used in the cases in which the concept of time is involved. The narrator uses the notions of minute and hour for the continuation of his story. In fact, Hedayat's travel back and forth between the inside and the outside has resulted in the use of reduplicated adverbs of time, so that he can persuade his reader and help her/him to understand time by narrating the story minute-by minute. In total reduplication with final attachment, suffixes including "â n, ak, aki, u, i, e" attach to the second base (Shaghaghi, 2000, 526-527). This type of reduplication is less frequently used compared with others. The most significant stylistic feature of Savushun is using reduplications such as: "holholaki" (with haste), rastrastaki (in truth), and so on. These kinds of adverbs are mostly used in informal and colloquial Persian. In these two masterpieces, a total of 99 cases of reduplication were found; 71 cases in Savushun and 28 items in Buf-e kur. In Savushun, 42 items showed total improper reduplication and 29 items were total proper reduplication. In the latter pattern, 18 items were total reduplication with middle attachment and 11 items were total reduplication with final attachment. In Buf-e kur, 16 types of total improper reduplication and 12 types of proper reduplication were seen, out of which 9 had an interfix and 3 had final attachment. The analysis of data shows that in both works the frequency of total improper reduplication was higher than total proper reduplication. In Savushun, the number of reduplicated words comprised 71% of the total, but in Buf-e kur, it is 28%. We can, therefore conclude that the author of Savushun has used this linguistic tool more frequently; so it is considered as a stylistic feature. 4-Conclusion In this research, the use and frequency of total reduplication were investigated in Savushun and Buf-e kur. The results show that total improper reduplication of adverbs in both novels has the highest frequency though Danshvar has used this linguistic tool more than Hedayat. Reduplication can, therefore, be regarded as a reliable criterion to specify the literary style of an author. The style of Danshvar’ s writing is realistic, so her language is informal and colloquial without any complexity, while the style of Hedayat’ s writing in Buf-e kur is surrealistic. This difference in these two novels, therefore, has a significant effect on the use of this linguistic tool.

Introduction: The complements of Kurdish prepositions l{ (from), b{/w{ (to) and bO: (to), take the clitics-{w{ and-(d)a; as a result, circumpositions l{. . . {w{, l{. . . (d)a, w{/b{. . . {w{, l{. . . (d)a and bO: . . . {w{ are derived. This paper explores the syntactico-semantic structure of these categories within the framework of nanosyntax (Hereafter NS). Theoretical Framework: NS is a non-lexicalist approach presented in Starke (2009; 2011) and extended in Caha (2009), Taraldsen (2009), Pantcheva (2011). In NS approach, syntax builds structures (from morphemes to sentences) by taking the atomic features and arranging them by Merge into syntactic structures which comply with the hierarchical order determined by the functional sequence. In the derived structures, terminal nodes contain semantico-syntactic features that are smaller than morphemes. These features follow the fixed order of Determiner-Head-Complement. They are arranged in a universal hierarchy (functional sequence) and follow the principle one morpho-syntactic property-one feature-one head. In NS, lexicon is post-syntactic and each lexical entry includes a subtree that represents the order of the features and links the form and sound as: . So the lexicon is simply a list of entries where fragments of syntactic trees are combined with a phonological representation and a conceptual content. The Spell-out procedure can then be defined as a replacement of a piece of the syntactic tree by a lexical entry from the lexicon, thus supplying the syntactic structure with the phonological and/or conceptual content of the entry. In choosing the appropriate lexical entry, spell-out is thus concerned with whether it has a matching syntactic specification, i. e., whether the syntactic structure stored in the lexical entry matches the syntactic structure the entry replaces. Shortly speaking, spell-out is an operation through which the derived syntactic trees are identified with the saved subtrees in lexicon. In spell-out, some principles including Exhaustive Lexicalisation Principle and Superset Principle work. The former states that every syntactic feature must be lexicalized; Otherwise, the syntactic process will crash. The need to lexicalise syntactic features does not require the lexical item used to have any phonological information associated with it. Even though there are certainly restrictions on the use of phonologically empty lexical items, they derive from independent phonological principles and, presumably, learnability conditions, and they are independent from the Exhaustive Lexicalisation Principle. In other words, the Exhaustive Lexicalisation Principle states that every syntactic feature must be lexicalised by a lexical item, even if this item is phonologically null (Fá bregas, 2007: 4). Under The Superset Principle, if a lexical entry is the same as or bigger than a derived structure, it can spell it out. On the contrary, if the lexical entry is smaller than the derived syntactic structure, it cannot be spelt out by that lexical entry. Discussion: Based on uniformity principle and mirror principle, Pantcheva (2011) suggests a hierarchical structure of directional prepositions that are composed of syntactico-semantic features and have a containment relationship with one another. According to Baker, the parallelism between syntactic and morphological derivations strongly suggests a theoretical framework where both morphological and syntactic processes take place in a single module of the grammar (as cited in Pantcheva, 2011: 109). In fact, under the mirror principle, the morphological composition of an expression reflects the syntactic structure underlying it. It is, therefore, preferable to assume that, in all languages, the syntactic structure of directional expressions involves a Path projection taking as a complement a Place projection, though in many languages this is not morphologically transparent. Thus, the Uniformity Principle prompts us to postulate that the syntactic structure of the Goal path expressed by the Dutch directional preposition naar involves the same heads Path and Place as the syntactic structure for the Macedonian and Tsez Goal paths expressed by nakaj and xor, respectively, despite the fact that in Dutch there are more syntactic heads (two) than morphemes (one) (Koopman, 2000; den Dikken, 2010, among others). Based on abovementioned points, it is believed that in Sorani Kurdish l{ lexicalizes Place head and the optional morpheme-(d)a is the representative of locative case. Pantcheva (2011: 47-52) also shows that Source element is built by adding a morpheme to the Goal encoding marker and Route phrases are formed by adding a preposition to a PP expressing a Goal Path. Ultimately, Pantcheva (2011: 60) argues that Terminative paths are formed on basis of non-delimited transitional Goal paths (Cofinal paths) as evident in the composition of the English Terminative expression up to, which contains the Cofinal preposition to. The conclusion Pantcheva (2011: 55) reaches is that there is a linear ordering between Goal, Source and Route paths on the basis of the relation of morphological containment. This ordering corresponds to an increasing complexity in the syntactic structure underlying these path expressions. Goal paths are the minimal element, or put informally, the most “ simple” paths, Source paths are formed by the addition of a Source head, and finally, Route paths are the most complex ones, as they are built on top of Source paths by the addition of a Route head and the Goal-oriented paths (i. e., Terminative paths) are derived on the basis of Cofinal paths by adding of a special head bound. Kurdish data show that in the structure of l{ … {w{ circumposition, l{ and-{w{ lexicalize three features (Place, Goal and Source) and one feature (Bound) respectively. It is argued that w{ and-(d)a in w{ … (d)a circumposition contain three features (Goal, Source and Route) and one feature (Place) respectively. w{ … {w{ is another circumposition whose both elements lexicalize Place feature. 4. Conclusion: As morphological complexity mirrors syntactic complexity and the relationship between morphemes and syntactic heads/ semantic features representing them is one to one across some languages, this relationship should be induced in the underlying syntactic structure of all languages. Correspondingly, the findings of this research focusing on the circumpositions l{. . . (d)a, l{. . . {w{, w{/b{. . . (d)aandw{/b{. . . {w{, show that they contain one semantic feature (Place), three semantic features (Place, Source and Bound), four semantic features (Place, Goal, Source and Route), and one semantic feature (Place) respectively; as a result, there are the same number of heads in the syntactic tree. Furthermore, these circumpositions have hierarchical structures that represent the arrangement of the features in tree diagrams.

1. Introduction The present study explores the direct effects of teaching Persian lexical network on the level of foreign Persian language learners with respect to inferential and substitution questions. Raghibdoost and Jamshidi (2012) state that direct teaching of lexical network significantly improves the learning ability of foreign Persian language learners. Moreover, adaptation of inferential and substitution questions in task-based modules has enabled the authors of the current research to develop the present study based on the learners’ responses. When learners read a word, an image is stored in their sensory memory which is then transferred to short-term memory (where one’ s current and temporary memories are stored) to be retrieved immediately in the cases of emergency. In other words, short-term memory serves as the information storage while functioning verbal tasks. It is, therefore, known as functional memory also. To identify and find the meaning of a word or a term, one searches the short-memory, and if needed, it can be transferred and stored in the long-term memory (Filed, 2002: 19). The word information shall then be retrieved from long-term memory. When learners store a word in their short-term memory, they would only be familiar with its image and answer substitution questions. However, according to psychologists’ findings and reports, if the appropriate teaching method is applied, the learners transfer the acquired data into their long-term memory. Thus, when learners search for the answer of a question, they come across a network of related words and can easily answer inferential questions. 2. Objectives of the study The present study attempts to investigate the impact of explicit teaching of Persian verbal networks on the responses learners provide to the inferential and substitution questions. It seeks to show how learning lexical network contributes to better answering the inferential and substitution questions, as well as identifying the questions that are attempted most frequently. 3. Methodology The present study adopts an experimental and comparative approach. First, a preliminary test was given and administered to select learners who were more familiar with lexical networks. It is worth noting that the principles of task-based teaching were used to design the modules of this research. The study focuses more on reading skill but also contains listening, speaking and, writing skills to provide for parallel development of all skills. Each of the three modules taught consists of 27 verbal networks which amounts to 107 verbs overall including their subsection. At the end of the teaching session, exam questions were given into two categories of ‘ inferential (in the form of True or False)’ and ‘ substitution (substituting verbs in the same network)’ . Learners’ answers were analyzed and compared using SPSS software. Inferential questions: Based on the syllabus covered in each module, and the hope for measuring learners’ ability to identify synonymous words, five True/False questions were given. The applicants were required to refer to their memory to provide the correct answer. Substitution questions: In this part, initially, six verbs presented in the module were given as choices in five questions eliminating the verb in each question. The applicants were asked to substitute the correct verb for each question. It is worth noting that in designing post-test questions, transitive, intransitive, and linking verbs were used and the instructor implicitly emphasized the substitution principles. 4. Research Findings Post-test results were analyzed to measure the difference in the performance of applicants in answering inferential or substitution questions. The obtained mean of inferential questions (10. 20) was higher than that of substitution questions (9. 73; SD= 2. 98). However, the results of t-test (P>0. 05, 0. 73=14) and the effect size indicator (R=0. 19) showed no significant difference between the means of inferential and substitution questions. 5. Conclusion The present study suggests innovative ways of teaching lexical network and the use of connections between verbs in teaching Persian. The findings show that all learners were keen on benefiting from this semantic network of verbs. They, even, requested the researchers for the design of a dictionary for this purpose. Learners of the experimental group stated that attending classes helped them improve their knowledge of Persian. It can, therefore, be concluded that compiling Persian lexical network is of crucial importance to helping foreign Persian language learners.

The role that language teachers’ instructional behavior can play in any language instruction program has to do with helping language learners move from receiving language input to changing it into language intake, and, finally, to language uptake (Slimani, 1998, as cited in Candlin & Mercer, 2001). As they travel the distance from input to uptake, language learners have to pass through cognitive processes such as inferring, structuring, and restructuring the second language data as well as socio-cultural interactions (Kumaravadivelu, 2006) to acquire the second language (L2). In English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, like that of Iran, where language learners have the minimum real contact with the target language outside their classrooms, causing them to have almost no social interactions and contacts, the above-mentioned cognitive processes are more at work compared with the socio-cultural factors, in bringing about language learning outcomes (Ellis, 2012). Therefore, it seems that the first mission of every language instructional program in an EFL context is to modify the language input for language learners so that they can benefit from getting involved in the above mentioned processes. As a result, how a language instruction program deals with input modification is the first teaching phase to be taken into consideration. As Kumaravadivelu (2006) explained and discussed, the related literature indicates that there have been three main approaches to input modification in the English language teaching realm: (a) form-oriented, with the emphasis on structural features (b) meaning-oriented, with focusing on meaning rather than grammatical forms and (c) form-and meaning-oriented input modifications, with a focus on both meaning and grammatical forms. Focus-on-form instruction, as the latest approach towards input modification, continues to have its own share of English language teaching (ELT) research, possibly, because it easily lends itself to new conceptualizations. Based on Ellis’ s option-based conceptualization of focus-on-form instruction, in English-as-a-foreign-language contexts where both the teacher and learners share the same mother tongue, one pedagogical option at the disposal of foreign language teachers is to combine this type of instruction with the learners’ first language use. Accordingly, this study aimed at finding any possible impact of L1-mediated focus-on-form instruction on oral performance of 120 language learners. The participants of this study from Iran language institute (ILI) in Khoramabad, a city situated in the southwest of Iran, at three different language proficiency levels: elementary, intermediate, and advanced. The reason for choosing the mentioned institute was that using Farsi (the L1) is highly discouraged there by both officials and the teachers themselves, making it an ideal place for the purpose of this study. To this end, six groups of learners were chosen as the participants. The study took 24 instructive sessions altogether. The focus-on-form instruction using consciousness-raising technique for three groups, one elementary, one intermediate, and one advanced, was mediated by the participants’ first language and for the other three groups, one elementary, one intermediate, and one advanced, just by English. Afterwards, the participants were asked to participate in two individual oral posttests: one right after the instructions and one two weeks later. The results revealed that first language-mediated instruction led to significantly higher gains both in fluency and accuracy gains for elementary and intermediate levels, and significantly higher gains in accuracy for the advanced level. This study argues that the point at issue is not whether to use L1 or not but, rather, it is how to provide the language learners with conditions to take advantages of it. Arguing that L2 learnersshould be banned from using their L1 is neither realistic nor practical (Cook, 2001; Ellis, 2012, Karathanos, 2009; Levine, 2003). It goes without saying that too much use of L1 for teaching L2 cannot bring about desired outcomes especially when communicative modes of language are demanded. It seems that both teachers and learners can reap the benefit of a systematic L1 use intheir classroom alongside the L2. This, of course, is a reflection of the realities of the classroom situation especially in contexts where teachers and learners share the same mother tongue. Research has shown that forcing learner to abandon their mother tongue use when they know it is already shared by their classmates and teacher is not fruitful at all (Makulloluwa, 2013). The present study, through reconciling L1 use with FonF instruction and providing psycholinguistic justifications for using L1, suggests that a judicious and occasional use of L1 is a better technique to adopt than to completely include or exclude L1 from the teaching/learning activities. It seems that what ELT practitioners need is a re-evaluation of the English-only policy and a re-examination of the L1 role, and that the long-lasting idea that L1 is a hindrance to the learners’ L2 learning is to be practically questioned and researched. There are different groups of stakeholders that might benefit from the findings of this study. First and foremost, language learners who are directly addressed by the results of such studies can take advantage of its findings. This study showed that learners at different levels of language proficiency benefit from L1-mediated focus on form. Such a finding is worth paying attention to in our language institutes and schools where we are in desperate need of new teaching techniques and experiences. The second stakeholders are EFL teachers who need to be instructed on how to properly use learners’ L1 in the classroom. At the moment, there is a long-established idea among language teachers that L1 use is a hindrance to teaching oral communication while the present study, along with many others, proved it wrong. It seems that we need to theorize L1 use and its benefits in EFL contexts more. The third is teacher education system that should familiarize its customers with the practical, not necessarily theoretical, benefits of L1 use and how it should be implemented. Our teachers need to experience that L1 use can be exploited in favor of communicative practice, and that it is not something limited to GTM era of language teaching. And finally, the last stakeholders are material developers and syllabus designers who should leave room for learners’ mother tongue when they develop materials and design tasks and exercises for text books.