LANGUAGE RELATED RESEARCH (COMPARATIVE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE RESEARCH)
Year:2021 | Volume:12 | Issue:5 (65)|Papers Count:22

Based on multifarious levels of social status, education, and occupation, people have certain values which construct and reconstruct their identity. In the Iranian culture, “ Devaluation” means blemishing these values that make people ignore individuals’ values and virtues through certain linguistic expressions. Studying these expressions, one can achieve its dominant culture in Iranian society. Therefore, the current research is an attempt to study Devaluation Cultuling (culture+language) in light of the conceptual model of cultuling analysis. By integrating the components of Hymes’ s ( ) SPEAKING model, emotioncy model and cultural models, the conceptual model of cultuling analysis is the most comprehensive model for studying cultulings of the Persian language. Studying linguistic structures and expressions containing devaluation cultuling and interviewing individuals, the authors found that devaluation cultuling is commonly used in Iranian culture with high frequency, and individuals have negative feelings toward this cultuling. Iranians employ devaluation cultuling for various purposes such as destructing and belittling others’ achievements, insulting, questioning the culture of community members, flattering and hiding their weaknesses. Findings demonstrated that this cultuling could represent cultural models of indirectness, high context, low trust, and holistic thinking of Iranians. Informing people about devaluation cultuling enables us to modify and change this defective cultural gene.

This study explores the experiences of two high school students learning English in rural Vietnam through the lens of ecological systems theory. It also aims to gain in-depth insights into learners’ constructions of motivation within the nexus of personal and ecological elements. Data gathering spanned approximately months and was based primarily on interviews, observations, and written and visual reflections. The analytical procedures drew on deductive category application in which pre-formulated theoretical constructs were used for content analysis. Findings show that given the constraints of rural context, the learning experiences of the two participants were vividly unfolded through their dynamic role in perceiving and evaluating language resources, support and learning opportunities, and their ongoing interaction with elements within and across ecosystems. Such processes contributed to shaping the ways in which these learners constructed their L motivation against the challenges in their lifeworld. The study reiterates the importance of examining motivation in context, incorporating both personal and ecological aspects underpinning language learning at both micro and macro levels. It calls for dialogues, discussions and negotiation among various educational stakeholders in creating language environments and opportunities for learners in rural settings.

largely focused on linguistic changes in learners. Regrettably, this has left the non-linguistic changes under-researched. To address this, the current study examined what self-identity changes Chinese university EFL learners experienced and how individual characteristics (i. e., gender, starting age of study, and university major) may have affected these changes. To do so, a self-identity change questionnaire was administered online to Chinese university students using a convenience sampling strategy. Seven identity change variables were measured by the survey: changes in ( ) positive self-confidence, ( ) negative self-confidence, ( ) productive identity change, ( ) additive identity change, ( ) zero change, ( ) subtractive change, and ( ) split change. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the items on the questionnaire measured their intended identity change variable. Descriptive statistics showed that participants experienced changes in self-confidence, additive identity, and productive identity, but did not experience subtractive or split change. The results also showed that the participants were unaware that they had experienced any changes. Multiple analysis of variance results showed that the individual characteristics contributed to some variation in the identity changes. The findings support theories suggesting that language learning contributes to non-linguistic changes within learners.

The present study sought to cast light on differences in strategies of compliment responses used across Persian and American English. For this purpose, participants, under three groups of Persian native speakers, American native speakers, and Persian learners of English, answered a Discourse Completion Test (DCT), followed by a semi-structured interview with the Persian learners of English to cross-check the findings of the DCTs. The collected responses from the DCTs were coded at macro and micro-levels. Moreover, a macro-level of Persian cultural schemas was used for the Persian groups. The chi-square test revealed the independent performance of the three groups. Judged by the written DCTs while performing in English, the learners’ responses displayed cases of utilizing the native Persian cultural schemas. More specifically, the English learner respondents employed different instances of ta’ arof and shekaste-nafsi. Confirmed by the interview, such failures resulted from insufficient exposure to the American English culture and more importantly from their lack of instruction and awareness of cross-cultural pragmatic differences.

Given the complexity of spoken interaction, acquiring conversation skills has been difficult for most EFL learners, and as EFL classrooms largely depend on hypothetical scripted material, learners lack explicit exposure to naturally occurring language essential for real-life interaction. This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study aiming at assessing the impact of conversation analysis-(CA) informed language-in-(natural)-talk log assignments on the development of Thai EFL learners’ conversation skills. Eighty-eight second-year undergraduates at a university in southern Thailand took part in the study. As part of a monitored self-study task, the participants completed ten language-in-talk log assignments with self-selective use of audiovisuals available online. The quantitative data was collected using pre-and post-test role-plays. The qualitative data was assessed through completed log assignments, close analysis of the role-plays, and written interview for data triangulation. The findings suggested that the log assignment intervention significantly enhance participants’ conversation abilities, including turn construction, turn delivery, and the sequential organization of turntaking. The qualitative results also show that via CA-informed requirements of the log assignment, students became more aware of conversation mechanisms and language use in real-life interaction. This paper recommends that language-in-talk log assignments be incorporated into existing EFL conversation lessons.

Teacher professional development rests on the provision of knowledge, development of skills, and change of attitudes of teacher candidates and in-service teachers. Teachers’ professional knowledge, perceptions and teaching practice contribute greatly to student learning. This study sets out to investigate the relationships and inter-relationships among professional knowledge, academic self-concept and self-reported instructional practice which was found as a research gap in the literature. Using a sample of pre-service TEFL teachers in Iran, a significant positive correlation was found between professional knowledge and academic self-concept. The findings also revealed that different domains of professional knowledge are not related to each other for TEFL. Finally, the obtained results indicated that academic self-concept affected instructional practice in total and at the level of sub-dimensions while professional knowledge had an effect on the two dimensions of instructional practice, namely cognitive activation and student learning support but not on the dimension of classroom management.

In any teacher education practicum program in the Philippines, teaching demonstration is the most challenging undertaking of the student teachers during the internship program. This phenomenological study design explored the teaching demonstration experiences of student teachers reflected in their teaching journals. Data were 22 teaching journals taken from the internship portfolios produced by the Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd)-English graduates from a state university in the Philippines. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Eight generated themes from the teaching journals that could provide suggestions for future student teachers and other members of the discourse community concerning the teaching demonstration were drawn, which are 1. „ The Look‟ of a Student Teacher, 2. Teaching with Enthusiasm, 3. The Voice of a Student Teacher in the ESL Classroom, 4. Lesson Planning Advice, 5. Subject Matter Familiarity, 6. Instructional Materials Efficiency, 7. Tips for Classroom Management, and 8. Improving the Questioning Skill. A focus group interview with the participants, which was also analyzed using content analysis, with some of the BSEd-English graduates was also utilized to further discuss the findings. The paper concludes with pedagogical implications for the Teacher Education Institution (TEI) and the concerned members of the discourse community.

Standard political discourse is replete with ambiguity and vagueness. Politicians frequently use vague language to hide their inadequate knowledge, show their low interest in the issue, and/or evoke emotion. This study reports on a qualitative content analysis of vagueness in two Iranian presidents' political interviews within a pragmalinguistic and sociopolitical paradigm. The data consisted of nine question-answer exchanges extracted from seven internationally live broadcast interviews. A total of 57 instances of vague language use were analyzed in terms of 21 pragmalinguistic vagueness strategies. Implications are that vagueness in political discourse is motivated by a multiplicity of factors such as face management, sociopolitical and situational adaptation, conflict avoidance, and personal characteristics of the interviewers and the respondents. Vagueness was also found to be a sign of diplomatic prudence or wisdom.

Metaphor is practised in all languages worldwide. Over the last two decades, investigation on metaphor has relied on some perspectives, such as lexical-constructional, critical, conceptual, axiological, cognitive theory or underlined aspects, as well as semantic and cultural pragmatic as the least of all. This qualitative study focused on how semantic components and cultural pragmatic were used to study the meaning and function of Balinese women metaphor. The purposive sampling method was to collect data from various sources and triangulated it into key informants. The results showed two classifications of Balinese women's metaphors, namely physical perspective as a concrete metaphor that depicts their body parts and personality perspective as an abstract, which emphasizes their ideal role. The pragmatic cultural interpretation involved the cognitive process of declarative analogy that referred to the similarity of values. Meanwhile, the personality perspective metaphor produced higher emotive values than the physical one. Hence, this type of metaphor is used by the Balinese people to advise women.

Despite their substantial role in natural discourse, idioms often intimidate EFL students. Therefore, finding effective ways of mitigating students’ frustration has been a fundamental consideration in language teaching. Mnemonics, as associative memory tools, are largely acknowledged to be instrumental in reducing the cognitive load involved in language learning, particularly in learning lexical items. This study was conducted to explore the effects of linguistic, verbal, and visual mnemonics on empowering language learners in the recall and recognition of English idioms. Two-hundred seventy intermediate-level EFL learners preparing themselves for IELTS took part in this study. The participants were in nine groups of members each. They were divided into three main groups, each of which was taught idioms using one of the above-mentioned mnemonics. The MANOVA procedure was used to analyze the collected data. The results revealed statistically significant differences among these instructional strategies in case of recall, with linguistic mnemonics being the most influential. The findings of the study can have theoretical implications for researchers in that they can shed light on some of the dark corners of the field and spark interest for further research. The findings can also have some pedagogical implications for teaching programs, curriculum developers, educational policymakers, teachers, and language learners. Developing a clearer understanding of how these mnemonics influence idiom learning can help the stakeholders make more informed decisions about how to treat idioms.

Textbooks play a crucial role in language education even in a digital age where education tends to be digitalized. It has been claimed that pronunciation is underrepresented in EFL textbooks, notwithstanding its significance in spoken interaction. To this end, this research investigated the treatment of pronunciation in a multilevel EFL textbook series along with such components as teacher’ s book, pronunciation extra, and MyEnglishLab. Following the analysis of a total of 264 units in student’ s book and other textbook components individually, it was found that suprasegmental features predominated the textbook series compared to segmentals. It was also discovered that controlled practice activities prevailed, pursued respectively by description and analysis, and listening discrimination activities. The findings suggest that the analyzed textbook series contain a sufficient amount of pronunciation practice, albeit not including adequate guided and communicative practice. The research concluded that pronunciation is not underrepresented in this textbook series. It might accordingly be inferred that there might be other causes of ignoring pronunciation than its treatment in EFL textbooks in the Turkish context, such as teacher cognition (i. e. beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge, etc. ), institutional policies, time constraints, or psychological reasons.

The use of Web 2. 0 technology in language education has received much research attention quite recently. In an attempt to shed more light on the use of Google Docs as a kind of Web 2. 0 technology in language learning, the purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of online collaborative writing using Google Docs and collaborative writing in a face-to-face classroom on the writing performance and writing self-regulation of EFL learners. A sample of 38 homogeneous intermediate learners was recruited as the participants who were then randomly divided to an experimental group (N = 19) and a control group (N = 19). The participants of the experimental group received online collaborative writing using Google Docs while the control group received collaborative writing in the face-to-face classroom. Two timed-writing tasks and the Second Language Writing Self-regulation (SLWS) scale were administered to gather the data. The results obtained from performing paired-samples t-tests and ANCOVA revealed that collaborative writing both via using Google Docs and in the face-toface classroom significantly enhanced the writing performance and writing self-regulation of the participants. However, the gains experienced by the experimental group were significantly higher than those experienced by the control group. Pedagogical implications for Google Docs-supported collaborative writing are finally discussed.

This study is conducted to reveal the types of mood, speech function realizations, and the persuasion strategies applied to Donald Trump‟ s clauses in his three remarks regarding the issue of COVID-19. Discourse analysis is applied to analyze the data. The applied mood types and speech function realizations are then correlated with Cialdini's principles of persuasion to see the persuasion principles applied in the three remarks. The results show that the President's three remarks are dominated by declarative mood with three most frequently used speech functions: statements of fact, statements of opinion, and statements of the assertion. In terms of Cialdini's persuasion principles, the speaker uses all of the six principles in his three remarks, except the principle of preference employed only in the third remark. The other five principles, namely authority, consistency, social-evidence, reciprocity, and rareness/scarcity, are contained in the three remarks with their persuasive purposes. In Cialdini's persuasion principles, the clauses used by President Trump reveal the strategies of taking advantage of his powerful authority in his remarks, showing his consistency while delivering the remarks, expressing his best efforts for his inhabitants, and showing successful evidence in overcoming the pandemic compared with other countries‟ endeavors.

Classroom discourse refers to the language and interaction used by the teacher and the students to communicate and shape learning in the educational context. The present study focused on Iranian EFL teachers’ classroom discourse by observing their dominancy, teacher talk, question types, and interactions in their classes. To do so, through a non-experimental, descriptive research design, 20 female experienced teachers with the age range of 30-40, teaching at an upper-intermediate level in different language institutes in Isfahan, Iran were selected based on the convenience sampling. Two classes of the teachers were observed, the sessions were recorded, and their classroom discourses were transcribed and later analyzed. Moreover, to increase the validity and reliability of the research, a semistructured interview was conducted with volunteer participants; their reflections on their communication with the learners and discourse types were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics in terms of frequency and percentages. The findings of the study showed that the teachers made use of specific discourse to ascertain their dominance and control in their classes. The findings also revealed that the teachers used more monologic discourse patterns in their classes rather than dialogic ones. Teacher talk far exceeded student talk, Initiation-Response-Feedback pattern dominated the classroom discourse; and display questions were used more frequently than referential ones. These findings could benefit teachers to be more conscious about type of CD and its effect on student-to-student and teacher-to-student interactions. It could also serve the purpose of critical classroom discourse analysis.

Teacher written feedback (TWF) has received growing attention from researchers and teachers. Although TWF arguably targets multiple dimensions of students‟ writing, research to date has largely focused on the relationship between written corrective feedback and language development. More research is needed to understand TWF more holistically and as a two-way social process (Storch, 2018). As such, it is important to understand students‟ perspectives on TWF in different instructional contexts. The present study explores Vietnamese EFL students‟ perceptions of TWF practices and their preferences for TWF. Data was collected from 97 English-major students in a Vietnamese tertiary setting by means of a questionnaire and follow-up interviews. The findings show that while TWF tended to weigh more on the linguistic end of the form-meaning continuum, students preferred TWF to target both form and global issues of content/idea development and writing style. However, students were divided in their preferences for comprehensive/selective feedback and for direct/indirect feedback. Although students were aware of the necessity of revising their writing upon reception of feedback, they reported different post-feedback actions. Above all, students‟ preferences and expectations were underpinned by their own beliefs about the values of TWF that encompass both cognitive/noncognitive and affective dimensions. The study offers important pedagogical implications for planning written feedback in writing instruction.

In order to engage students in higher-level thinking, cognitive activation (CA) strategies have been advanced and utilized in mathematics. CA develops when learners are challenged, confronted with conflicts, asked to think and explain clearly on their learning, and realize connections between new and previous content. Extending the theme to English language teaching (ELT), this study investigated Iranian English language teachers‟ knowledge and practice of cognitive activation writing strategies (CAWS). In so doing, a model was proposed based on a questionnaire that was developed and validated in the present study. Through this scale, knowledge and practice of CAWS by 213 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers were explored. During a pilot phase, the reliability of the questionnaire was calculated to be. 78 for the knowledge section and. 81 for the practice section. Two items in each section were removed after conducting exploratory factor analysis. Ultimately, the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the proposed model was fit for the data. Five components were confirmed as constituents of CAWS for the knowledge section, and four components were identified for the practice section. The findings revealed that Iranian EFL teachers were already familiar with the CAWS and purportedly practiced them in their writing classes. Using the scale in the process of writing instruction can provide ELT practitioners with a helpful platform for relating to CA strategies and empowers learners to accomplish tasks such as problem-solving in their writing assignments, similar to what is practiced in mathematics.

Learners’ attitudes towards learning have been found to influence second language (L2) development. It has been suggested that affective factors such as first language (L1) reading attitude can be transferred to the L2 along with L1 skills. In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts, research has shown that the role that reading attitude plays in reading comprehension is as important as the nature of the reading strategies used. Therefore, it becomes necessary to understand the relationship between L1 and L2 reading attitudes in EFL contexts and evaluate how demographic and cognitive variables can mediate that relationship. To this end, the present quantitative study sought to contribute to this area by investigating the relationship between L1 and L2 reading attitudes in 65 EFL elementary school learners and by assessing the impact of gender, age, and L2 proficiency on these attitudes. Main results revealed that age and L2 proficiency did not correlate with either L1 or L2 reading attitude components, L1 and L2 reading attitudes correlated weakly, and older female learners displayed stronger attitudes toward L1 reading recreational aspects. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of affective components in understanding L1 and L2 reading attitudes.

This study investigated rhetorical functions and their associated linguistic realizations in English review article abstracts. The analysis was based on a corpus of English review article abstracts from linguistics and applied linguistics disciplines and followed a corpusdriven discourse analytic top-down approach. MAXQDA and WordSmith were used to code the moves and analyze their associated sub-corpora, respectively. The results of calculating range and frequency distributions showed that English conceptual review article abstracts use a rhetorical structure, different from that of research paper abstracts. This rhetorical organization is realized through a different set of moves, namely ) establishing the territory or area of study, ) identifying the problem, ) introducing the present research, ) organizing the paper, and ) concluding or reflecting. Moreover, each move was realized through a distinct set of sub-moves. In terms of range, the moves dealing with purpose and structure were the most widely present moves; in terms of frequency distribution, the move dealing with structure was the most frequent. Furthermore, the highly frequent use of plural self-mentions indicates that in review article abstracts, the emphasis is on research as a group activity inclusive of the researcher(s) and objects of study. In addition, the presence of ‘ establishing the territory’ , together with ‘ identifying the problem’ can be seen as an attempt to sell the research. Finally, the prevalent use of the five moves showed that most review article abstracts are indicative-informative in function.

Annually, a good number of Iranian students who have completed their undergraduate studies in non-English-related majors apply and enroll in Master‘ s level Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) programs. Although evaluating MA TEFL program in Iran from university instructors‘ and students‘ perspectives has so far been the subject of several studies, the experiences and views of these TEFL major-changers have not been duly explored. To address the existing gap, in this qualitative research, the experiences of major-changers studying TEFL at MA level in three state universities in Tehran have been investigated. Besides, six TEFL university instructors were asked to share their perspectives concerning major-changers attending MA TEFL programs. In the main, the findings revealed that motives like interest in pursuing an English teaching career rather than a job related to their former major; gaining the required competency through attending crash courses held by university exam preparatory institutes; facing challenges in acquiring the specialized discourse of the community; and witnessing realities which ran counter to their prior supposition, as discussed by the major-changers and the instructors, formed part of the lived experiences and views of these major-changers.

The major purpose of the present study was to uncover if the structural complexity of type I and type II conditionals can greatly be mitigated by applying the sandwich format of dynamic assessment (DA). More specifically, this study aimed at investigating the contributory role of DA in improving intermediate EFL learners‘ acquisition of conditional structures. To this end, a quasiexperimental pretest-posttest design was utilized. From the target population of students studying English at one of language institutes in Isfahan, two intact classes were selected based on a convenient sampling method. The age of the participants was between 19 and 24. Subsequently, they were randomly assigned to two equal groups receiving their instruction through the present, practice, produce (PPP) method, and the treatment group members were exposed to the sandwich format of DA. The findings revealed that the students in the experimental group significantly outperformed those in the control group on the immediate and delayed post-test. The results indicated that interaction, mediation, and feedback were important factors helping EFL students overcome the challenging task of learning conditionals. Notably, the findings may have important implications for EFL, learners, teachers, and materials developers.

Cette é tude cherche à pré ciser les diffé rents processus cognitifs mis en oeuvre lors de la compré hension d’ un texte dans une langue é trangè re. Le but de cette é tude est d'expliquer l’ ensemble des enjeux cognitifs et des facteurs sociaux en jeu dans la compré hension de texte par un lecteur non indigè ne. Dans ce but, la mé thode de recherche descriptive a é té choisie pour ré vé ler les similitudes et les diffé rences de compré hension de texte en langue maternelle et en langue é trangè re. Pour ce faire, toutes les similitudes et les diffé rences de compré hension en langue maternelle et en langue é trangè re ont é té exploré es, extraites et classifié es de maniè re exhaustive. Les ré sultats montrent que si la compré hension de texte en langue seconde a plusieurs points de convergence avec celle en langue maternelle, elle s’ en distingue sur plusieurs points tous classifiables en trois grandes caté gories (les diffé rences linguistiques et de traitement; les diffé rences individuelles et expé rientielles; et les diffé rences socioculturelles et institutionnelles) englobant, chacune, plusieurs sous caté gories. Sur la base des ré sultats de cette é tude, un modè le globale de ces diffé rences a é té conç u pour la premiè re fois. Les ré sultats de cette é tude dé bouchent sur une connaissance des spé cificité s et des limites de la compré hension dans le contexte de l’ enseignement de la compré hension de textes en langue é trangè re.

L’ identité et l’ ethos sont deux des notions importantes qui servent à ré vé ler les traits de caractè re intradiscursifs et extradiscursifs du sujet parlant dans les analyses du discours. Cet article a pour but de jeter quelque lumiè re sur les traits identitaires et l’ ethos discursif d’ un leader exceptionnel qu’ est Mustafa Kemal Atatü rk, commandant de la Guerre d’ indé pendance turque et fondateur de la Ré publique de Turquie. Le corpus é tudié a é té dé limité par certains extraits de discours tenus entre 1919 et 1938, où Atatü rk a utilisé le pronom « je » (et « nous »). Le cadre thé orique est composé de deux notions relevant de l’ analyse du discours: l’ identité et l’ ethos. Dans les analyses effectué es, il a é té traité d’ une part l’ identité personnelle, l’ identité de positionnement et l’ identité discussive d’ Atatü rk, de l’ autre, la dimension caté gorielle, expé rientielle et idé ologique dans les extraits de discours d’ Atatü rk. Et les diffé rents ethos ressortis à travers le corpus ont é té pré cisé s comme ethos combatif, solidaire et honnê te; ethos ré solu et hardi; ethos humble; et ethos collectif.