JOURNAL OF FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES (TABRIZ)
Year:2003 | Volume:46 | Issue:187|Papers Count:11

The validity and reliability of a schema-based cloze multiple choice item test (MCIT) as an indirect measure of translation ability was concurrently explored by administering it with a Persian to English MCIT, and an English to Persian open ended translation examination (OETE). The results obtained on the performance of 110 non-native undergraduate university students showed that the schema-based cloze MCIT had the highest reliability (a = 0.91). The Persian to English MCIT enjoyed an acceptable degree of reliability (a = 0.84) whereas English to Persian OETE defied reliability estimates due to its subjective nature. Although the three tests correlated significantly with each other, they presented three significantly different measures of translation ability. Since the schema-based cloze MCIT provided the most reliable measure and correlated more significantly with its traditional counterpart and since it took less time to be scored, it is suggested that schema-based cloze MCITs be employed as indirect measures of translation ability to save time and remove subjectivity in translation.

This study aimed at exploring the relationship between field dependence/ independence and the use of listening comprehension strategies by female English majors in Shiraz. To this end, 138 students at the intermediate level, chosen out of 208, were given the Strategy Inventory for Listening Comprehension (Afsarnia, 1999) to determine the type of strategies they used. They were then divided into two groups of field dependent and field independent based on their performance on the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), devised by Witkin et al (1971). Correlation coefficients indicated that metacognitive, memory, cognitive and social strategies were significantly related to the cognitive style, whereas affective and compensatory strategies did not show a significant correlation. Next a series of Nests was run and it was seen that FI students used metacognitive, memory, and cognitive strategies more frequently than their FD counterparts, but FD students made more use of social strategies than FI ones.

The importance of collocation in the learning of a foreign language and the problems that LZ learners face with in using collocations has been underscored by researchers. There have been, however, few studies to take all types of collocations, particularly the grammatical type, into consideration. As a result, this study has devoted special attention to lexical and grammatical collocations. A sample of 80 Iranian EFL learners at Shiraz University served as participants. A multiple-choice test of collocations consisting of forty items was adopted in the study. The data were examined and results showed that: i) There is a significant relationship between the performance of the learners on lexical and grammatical collocations. ii) There is a significant difference between the performance of the learners on different subcategories of collocations.

In this paper we have tried to examine a number of criteria of adequacy for grammars (and for the linguistic theories associated with them). We have argued that grammars should attain not only observational, but also descriptive adequacy; and we went on to argue that linguistic theories must attain the higher level of explanatory adequacy. In order to achieve this goal, the linguistic theory must be universally valid, psychologically real and maximally constrained. In section 2 we have argued that only maximally constrained theory of language can lead to the development of an adequate theory of language acquisition. We have discussed the innateness hypothesis and have argued that U.G. is a theory of the initial state of the language faculty prior to any language experience; and the goal of linguistic description is to postulate general traits and tendencies in all languages on the basis of studies on grammars of individual languages. In section 3 we have discussed The Theory of Markedness and The Theory of Core Grammar, suggesting that U.G. corresponds to the genetically determined biological foundations of language acquisition. We have argued that the concept of Universal Grammar is based on the assumption of an unmarked Core Grammar. Through actualization of the rules and constraints in individual languages, the specific grammar is developed on the basis of U.G.

English, like all languages in the world, has changed through its history. Some of its changes are due to the natural process of change which all languages pass through, and some others have come about as a result of language contact. Foreign influences on English are so great that they have changed English from an almost pure language to a completely mixed one. The language which has had the most penetrating influence on English is French. The Normans invasion put the native inhabitants of the country in direct contact with the language of the invaders, Norman French. In this article, first, the socio-historical situation of England under Norman Kings, which gave rise to this language change, is investigated, and then the French influence on different components of the English language is presented.

How L2 learners compensate for their linguistic deficiency when they try to communicate some concept or idea for which they do not have a linguistic symbol in their mind is the major focus of this paper. The learners bridge the linguistic hiatus by deploying six major strategies named conceptual, linguistic, cooperative, retrieve, appeal, avoidance, each indicative and the result of a different psychological plan. In this paper a new classification is proposed and the influence of language proficiency on the selection of strategies is examined. The results show that proficiency in the language does not play a significant role in the selection of strategies by those students who learn English informal situations.