JOURNAL OF CRITICAL LITERATURE AND HUMANITIES
Year:2020 | Volume:20 | Issue:8|Papers Count:20

In the field of phonetics of French as a foreign language, studies have been conducted in recent decades, among which French Phonetics can be considered as the first book for Iranian students in undergraduate and postgraduate of French as a foreign language. In this paper, using a methodological analysis, based on the position and the role of phonetic ability in the communicative-actional approaches and the methods of phonetics in the teaching of foreign languages, we tried to evaluate the French Phonetics with respect to the goals and needs of French language teaching. The results showed that the book’ s educational approach is a combination of articulatory and descriptive phonetics which only focuses on phonetic foreign language teaching (Parisian French pronunciation), regardless of the diversity of Iranian students’ first language. Considering the scientific developments in the field of foreign language teaching, linguistics, and in particular phonetics (such as verbo-tonal method and acoustic phonetics based on the use of technology), this textbook, even in the eighth edition, has failed to keep pace with the current trends in the field and could not fulfill the needs of French language teaching and learning in the context of Iran.

Using the descriptive-critical method and emphasizing the concept of language-culture education, in this paper, we have tried to find only two books from the series of French-language textbooks of education, namely French textbooks for the first and second year of middle school. The realization of the goals and needs of French language teaching should be reviewed. In this research, we examined the place of teaching culture and mother tongue (origin) and foreign language (destination) in these two books. The educational approach of these books is a semi-audio-visual approach, and due to scientific advances in the field of foreign language teaching, these educational books have not been able to keep pace with current knowledge and in line with today’ s needs of teaching / learning French. Intercultural skills training is one of the important functions of the educational system. The aim of this study was to describe and critically analyze the content of French books in the seventh and eighth years of Intermediate 1 in terms of addressing the categories of language and culture education and interculturalism. There is still a fundamental weakness in the teaching of destination culture and interculturalism, and there is a need for greater coherence between the teaching of culture and mother tongue with the teaching of intercultural components.

Criticism of books and authors’ works is aimed at creating dynamics in the academic, literary, and academic circles and can, if neutral and constructive, lead to progress, dialogue between experts, and improved efficiency. In the field of academic books, this can also lead to deficiencies and complete writing of works. The Book of French Poetry by the Honorable Shahnaz Shahin and Mahvash Ghavimi, published by the University Academic Press, has been published in 2000 and has been reviewed and edited in 2004. Designed with an academic audience to teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses in French literature, the book has some drawbacks, despite its clear writing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the writing and presentation of this book’ s material and to address some of the shortcomings, mainly in the form of the arrangement of contents within the book’ s chapters, the citation system, and the examples presented from a formal point of view. The content commentary refers to the overemphasis on French poetic form and the lack of a comprehensive introduction of French poets and their influential works.

Semantic deviation means the transgression of the criteria that determines the coincidence of the vocabularies and avoiding the standard of language. Based on the research findings, we could say that semantic deviation is an important factor in the creation of poetry. In this sense, the more frequent the occurrence of this type of deviation is, the more semantic horizons in the poetry are achieved, and the achievement of meaning occurs later. In Baudelaire’ s poems, the creation of new and special compositions, picturing the details, imagination, making beautiful scenes, and using pleasant similes and metaphors, led to the emergence of this kind of semantic deviation. The aim of this article is to study the semantic deviation in The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, referring to metaphor and metonymy, and their reflection in the translations by Hassan Honarmandi, Mohammad-Ali Eslami Nodooshan, and Mohammadreza Parsayar. To reach this goal, at first, we examined semantic deviation as an important issue in the critique of formalism, focusing on Geoffrey Leech’ s classification, a formalist linguist, and then the original text has been compared with its translations, and the differences between them have been studied.

The close relationship between spelling and writing has led us to study Mahvash Ghavimi’ s works as a part of studies done at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, and we review and criticize two educational and academic works entitled "The French Spelling Guide" and "The French Writing Guidelines", published by the University Publication Center. The present article has tried to take a brief look at the emergence and evolution of spelling before paying attention to the role of dictation in learning French language spelling and its connection with writing skill. The study of the content and especially the exercises that the authors have included in these two books has allowed this research to reveal the approach of the authors of the books in language teaching by determining the type of exercises, and also there are some strategies suggested in order to correct, improve and update them. The main goal of the authors in these two books is to teach the basics of French spelling in a very prescriptive way in the first book, and in the second one, it refers to sentence construction and its constituent elements to be learned by bachelor students of French language and literature and French language translation.

Studying some of Mahvash Ghavimi’ s works in the academic and general area shows that she attaches significant importance to textual approaches. Contrary to many books that only explain the theories, Ghavimi in her three books, Sher No Dar Bouteh Naghd (Modern Poetry Criticism), Ava and Elgha (Sound and Suggestion), and Gozari Bar Dastan Nevisi (A study on Writing a story), after introducing Russian Formalism and French Structuralism to readers, in order to prove their effectiveness in literary research, uses them in examining and analyzing different types of Persian literature texts. This study tries to explore the origins and consequences of this approach in addition to Ghavimi’ s method of using a textual approaches in the analysis of Persian texts. Although Ghavimi acts correctly in her analysis of Persian poems and novels with the help of textual approaches, she sometimes ignores its fundamentals, such as avoid judging and evaluating, as well as avoiding nationalism in the study of literature. Her emotional bond to the contextual approach, both in theory and in practice, is so profound that she cannot measure it accurately.

Mahvash Ghavimi, a researcher, university professor, and one of the famous experts in French language and literature, whose main fame in translation is related to the works of Christian Bobin, has translated Le Malentendu and Les Justes by Albert Camus. Ashian Publishing published both of them in 2010 in a volume, then republished them in 2018. In the present article, we have a brief look at the paratextuality, approaches to translating the play and its problems, the background of the translation of these two works in Iran and reason for retranslation. We also examined these two plays from a textual perspective and tried to take an overview to a translation approach in these two works. The discussion of the performance, which is the fundamental element of any play, is detailed and does not fit into this paper and is left to the experts in this field. In the translation of these two works, the content of the original text has been translated and conveyed as far as it is intended, but regardless of its performance in terms of text, sometimes the haste and the translation of the word to the word are obvious.

This study presents the possible and hitherto unknown or little spread influence of the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi on the Spanish writer and educator Baltasar Graciá n, and consequently, the projection of Ferdowsi in modern western thought through certain European philosophers and thinkers of special importance. In a comparative vision of aspects of the works of both authors, an attempt will be made to support Ferdowsi’ s legacy to Western thought, specifically in the educational and moral aspects.

The epic of Narts is based on the folklore of the Ossetian and the causes of its people’ s pride. In this research, the equivalent of cultural and historical names and facts in the Russian translation of the text by A. A. Dzantiev and T. A. Hamitsaeva have been studied. Changing the writing alphabet of Ossetian language to Cyrillic in 1954 caused phonetic changes, especially in the specific names of the Ossetian. Both translators are Ossetian and fluent in the Russian language. They have tried in many cases to keep the fact in their own language. In the text of the translation, we see that even the equivalent words have been preserved in the original language of the text due to the cultural burden and the importance of the age and social hierarchy in that culture. The sounds are entirely in the Ossetian translation text. In translating proverbs, although in some cases translators rely on Russian equivalents, there are also examples of word-for-word translation. In translating units of measurement, translators used obsolete Russian words.

The purpose of the present study is to show the influence of Iranian culture and literature on another territory. Russian futurist, Vlimir Khelebnikov (1922-1884), was one of those poets who greatly influenced Iranian culture and literature. He was one of the Russian poets who had the chance to be present in Iran and came to Gilan during the uprising of Mirza Kochak Khan along with the Red Army forces in Gilan and was able to get acquainted with Iran. Orientalism is one of the most prominent aspects of his poetry, in which we will only examine the themes of his six-volume collection of poems in the present study. The re-creation of Iranian themes with new manifestations in his poetry has rendered Khelebnikov’ s poetry beautiful and exquisite. Although Iran’ s influence on him is not limited to literary and mythical aspects of Iran and beyond, it can be examined in cultural, religious, historical, and biological and natural dimensions, But Iranian scholars have paid little attention to his work. An examination of Khelebnikov’ s poetry reveals his love for Hakim Ganjeh and reflects on his military poems as well as Shahnameh’ s myths.

General French (1991-1994) is one of the important textbooks in the teaching / learning of FFL in Iran. This work aims to evaluate the objectives of book and the properties of its texts according to their degree of specialization and the methodology of the work in relation to the teaching of understanding of the writings. First, we have shown that the objectives of the committee in question are slammed on those of the structure-global-audio-visual methods and that the General French content does not correspond to these. Secondly, using the Coupe’ s (1986) analysis model, we have shown that all the texts contained in the book, except one of them, are popular, informative and limited to a small number of communication situation. In this part, we have noted that the process of presenting from easy to difficult and from popularized to specific, proposed by the committee, is not followed in the book. And finally, in a third step, relying on the Global Approach of Moirand (1979), we noted that the method of the book to teach reading understanding is bottom-up. In general, the failure to take into account various communication situations, such as various conceptual domains and psycho-cognitive learning, means that General French is already outdated at its first publication in bookshops.

Translation critique criteria are based on the function of translation. Sometimes this function is more hypertextual, and sometimes it deals with the discourse that produces the translated work in the target community. Examining the confrontation between the source text and the destination text can be useful in terms of language, teaching, and quantitative translation, which we call translation evaluation. Translation criticism, however, focuses on the transtemporal space of the work, its translation process, and its overall results and effects. The translator produces a product, and it is consumed in the target community, thereby producing thought and ideology. The reflection of the translator’ s work goes beyond just checking for the correct or wrong translation of a word. Critical thinking should target the whole discourse and the consequences of the collective produced. In this article, we take a look at the acceptance of Christian Bobin’ s works and Mahvash Qavimi’ s translations of this French author’ s works.

Christophe Balaÿ is one of the iranologists who has sacrificed their whole life to study Persian literature and the outcome is a book, entitled Genè se du roman persan modern, which has been translated to Persian by two Iranian university professors Mahvash Ghavimi and Nasrine-Dokht Khatat. The analysis of this translation and the comparison with the original text written in French can depict us the translators’ positioning facing with different challenges in text. And such a study could be interesting and helpful not only for professional translators but for students who aim to have a take a more profound look on this translation. We used Vinaya and Darbelent’ s method because it is one of the most used and useful methods in this domain. In this article, we try to demonstrate which strategies the translators use in order to convey the meanings and to respect the structures of the text. In fact, the principal question we tried to answer to is: why translator chooses some structures and refuses the others? Finally, it is concluded that the product-based translation of this book seeks to attract Persian speakers and make them comprehend the materials as efficiently as possible.

Many books have been written to illustrate the position of the new technologies in teaching and learning a foreign or second language (L2); nonetheless, most of these books have not been successful. The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching and Learning edited by Caral A. Chapell and Shanon Sauro and published by Wiley Blackwell in 2017, provides a comprehensive overview of the various facets of the use of technology in teaching and learning an L2. This book has not been translated into Persian and no critical review has been published for it; accordingly, this study sought to both introduce and critically review this book. The current critical review revealed some advantages including comprehensiveness of the whole book, the expertise of the writers, up-to-dateness, content and format integrity, and the use of valid sources. The main criticisms are the exclusion of some of the very recent technologies, perhaps due to the ever-changing and exponentially volatile nature of the technological improvements and expansions, the introduction of too many technologies at the theoretical level without providing information about their practical use. Generally, the book is an invaluable and academically written source for L2 practitioners, postgraduate students, and researchers.

The purpose of this article is to study the question of rhythm in the Persian translations of the work of Christian Bobin, presented by Mahvash Ghavimi. In Bobin’ s writings, we meet people who seek happiness, but instead of fighting problems and changing conditions, they accept life as it is. After presenting the thought that Bobin confides to his readers in a simple and fluid style, we approach the question of rhythm as it is treated in the writings of Henri Meschonnic, a French translator. According to him, every text has its own rhythm which plays a crucial role in its significance. The translator must discover the factors involved in the significance of the text and recreate them in the translated text. We are then interested in studying the translation of two books of Bobin, entitled Geai and Isabelle Bruges, to see how the translator overcame the problems of recreating the rhythm.

Criticism is judging the merits and demerits of something and showing its weaknesses and strengths. Textbook evaluation, as a small step in learning and teaching process, can help teachers and learners find books that suit their needs and likes. In the present article, the book ‘ Educational Psychology’ (the 13th global edition) authored by Anita Woolfolk (2016) is reviewed and evaluated. This is a qualitative evaluation based on the writer’ s experience in teaching this source in postgraduate classes for several years. To do so, the formal characteristics and the content of the book and the degree of its success in fulfilling the objectives, which are mentioned in the introduction of the book, are examined. Although this book, like any other book, is not flawless, it can surely be recommended to those who are interested in the learning-teaching process. It is hoped that, via this article, this book would be read and used by more people in the scientific community of Iran.

This paper is an introduction to and a critical assessment of “ Marugoto” course-books comprised of 9 volumes for elementary and intermediate education of Japanese language which is provided by “ The Japan Foundation” based on the standards of this foundation, split into (Starter, Elementary, Pre-intermediate, and Intermediate) levels. This study is an attempt to identify the strengths and weaknesses of this series. This critical assessment is carried out from visual and content-based aspects using Razi’ s (2009) evaluation criteria. The results suggested that while having their strengths and advantages, the books suffer from a few shortcomings, which can be eliminated in future editions to achieve better results and to secure a spot as a relatively new textbook for teaching the Japanese language. However, the overall conclusion from the analysis is that despite a few problems, the strengths of the book exceed its weaknesses, and in conclusion, it can be used as a reliable source where the main aim of learning the Japanese language is acquiring speaking skills.

Despite all the valuable efforts made in the field of translation studies in Iran, there are still quite a few tangible gaps. The academic literature, usually consisting of a theoretical and a practical part, instead of establishing the role and responsibility of a translator as an agent who is in continuous interaction with the society, often tends to approach language as a non-social and abstract matter. As a result, translators trained in this educational system have an abstract perception of themselves and of the translation process. This article analyzes the theoretical part of the books “ A Prologue to the Bases and Techniques of Translation” by Kazem Lotfipour Saedi and “ Literary Translation” by Ali Akbar Aghili Ashtiani as two of the books in translation teaching that are used as academic references in Iranian universities, and studies the concordance of the theoretical part of the named books with contemporary approaches in teaching translation.

In the mid-twentieth century, critical pedagogy was at the forefront of educational theorists’ focus, and curriculum designers sought to combine critical pedagogy practices with university curricula. Therefore, by using quantitative method through a survey and an introspective longitudinal study, the present research was conducted to investigate the critical attitude of undergraduate (BA) and postgraduate (MA) students. Accordingly, a Critical Pedagogy Attitude Questionnaire, developed by Pishvaei and Kasaian (2013), was distributed among 164 male and female students (in the first and last semester of study). The participants were majoring in English translation and Applied Linguistics courses at four universities in Markazi province. The reliability of this questionnaire through Cronbach’ s alpha was. 93. Then, statistical tests such as the Mann-Whitney test and one-way ANOVA indicated that the students’ critical pedagogy attitudes did not significantly grow in the process of education from the first to the last semester. The results of this study are useful for students, professors, and curriculum designers. They also provide critical insight for EFL students.

Khayyam, a poet from the "saffron shores" with worldwide fame, is on the top of Russian poetry and literature because of his charming, thoughtful, and philosophical quatrains, along with other poets of the "ancient land" of Iran. The present article aims at introducing and criticizing the translations of Khayyam’ s quatrains into Russian and showing the influence of his poems and ideas on Russian translators and poets. Russian translators, Iranologists, diplomats, and poets played a significant role in introducing Khayyam to the Russian society. Book of poems of Toreverov, Chachikov, Surkov, Kedrin, Ivanov, Sannikov, Vinokurov, Plisetsky, Yesenin, and Gamzatov devoted some pages to Khayyam. Studies indicate that in addition to praising Khayyam, Russian poets sometimes began to express the idea of their work with a word from Khayyam as the epigraph of their poems. Studies indicate that for most thinkers, Khayyam’ s quatrains are the source of inspiration for philosophical and mystical ideas and a source for saturating the spiritual void, understanding the "mysteries of eternity", solving the riddle of the "ancient world" and cosmology. Investigating the poems studied in the article indicate that Khayyam’ s quatrains opened the mysterious doors of the universe to most Russian thinkers and readers and let them taste the wine of the universe, although some of them had different interpretations of Khayyam’ s poems due to contradictions in his poems.