PAZHUHESH-E ZABANHA-YE KHAREJI
Year:2009 | Volume:- | Issue:49 (SPECIAL ISSUE ENGLISH)|Papers Count:15

Since its birth in ancient Greece, tragedy as an important dramatic form has always attracted the attention of those who have a tragic sense of life. Although many scholars of tragedy put forward a bleak view regarding the possibility for the continuance of tragedy in modern times, two great dramatists, Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov, showed that tragedy can still be created in modern times provided that writers can adjust their tragic visions with the spirit of their age. This paper is an attempt to analyze the ways in which Ibsen and Chekhov portrayed the tragedy of man in the modern world in plays like The Wild Duck and The Seagull which deal with new tragic themes and concepts. The present article would also offer a brief glance at Greek tragedy to examine the relationship between these modern works and those of the ancient past.

The present research was an attempt to provide new evidence for the efficacy of task-based techniques to speaking proficiency development. The primary focus of the study was to investigate the effects of task-based techniques on speaking proficiency development. In the second place, it tried to scrutinize the effect of gender on speaking proficiency development under task-based principles of language teaching. In better words, the study is an attempt to find out which gender group would become more proficient in speaking after the task-based course came to an end. The study also tried to put possible different effects of task-based approach on foreign language learners of different levels of language proficiency under focus. Accordingly, the participants were categorized into two categories of 81, as the control and the experimental groups of the study. In continuation, each category was divided into two groups of males and females and finally, each male and female group of each category was classified into two classes of intermediate and advanced. In this way, each of the control and the experimental group contained some intermediate and some advanced male and female language learners .In order to determine whether task-based techniques to teaching speaking were effective and also to figure out which gender and proficiency level had a higher degree of improvement in speaking under task-based approach, a set of independent sample t-tests were conducted. Furthermore, in order to comment on the possible interaction between gender and different levels of language proficiency, a two-way ANOVA (MANOVA) was also conducted. It was found that the students of the experimental group, who experienced task-based principles of teaching speaking, performed remarkably better than those of the control group on the final speaking post-test. It was also concluded that gender was not a determining factor in speaking development under task-based approach but difference in language proficiency levels was shown to be an influential factor in speaking development since advanced language learners of the experimental group had performed ostensibly better than those of intermediate learners of the same group on the final speaking post-test. Ultimately, it was deduced that there was not a meaningful interaction between gender and different levels of language proficiency for a better development of speaking ability. In other words, it was not possible to determine a specific pattern of interaction between them by their simultaneous presence in the study.

The actual classroom implementation and the possible final outcomes of the genrebased approach to writing instruction have not been fully explored yet. The present quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of genre-based instruction on qualitative and quantitative aspects of a group of EFL learners' writing performance on a letter-writing task. 140 EFL learners (26 male and 114 female) studying English for a BA degree at two major universities in Iran participated in the study. Half of the learners (the experimental group, n=70) were taught how to write a letter of application through a genre-based technique involving the presentation of the genre moves of job application letters. The rest of the participants did not take this treatment. Indices such as the number of words written per application, the amount of time spent, and EFL teachers' evaluations of writing quality were used to compare the performance of the experimental and the control group. The results of data analyses and mean comparisons revealed highly significant changes in the quality of writing as a result of genre-based instruction. The quantitative aspects, however, were not significantly affected by the instruction. Based on the results of the study and the review of the related literature, major merits and demerits of the GBI approach are discussed. The results support and offer guidelines for the application of the findings of genre studies in EFL writing classes.

To investigate the effect of three modes of subtitling on vocabulary recognition, 97 participants in three groups at Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin were presented with the same film but using different ways of subtitling. To compare the participants' vocabulary recognition, a one-way ANOVA was run. Results indicated that although the difference between the bimodal and standard groups was not statistically significant, both groups were significantly better than the reversed subtitling group. Another one-way ANOVA was used to compare the learners' vocabulary recall. Analyses showed that bimodal subtitling was significantly more effective than standard subtitling, which in turn, was significantly more effective than reversed subtitling. The findings of the present study can have theoretical and practical implications for both vocabulary recognition and recall.

The present paper investigated the effectiveness of concept mapping as a learning strategy on EFL students’ self-regulation (metacognitive self-regulation, time and study environment, effort regulation, peer learning, and help seeking). Sixty university students participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups, each including thirty students. They were at the intermediate level of English proficiency and studying English either Translation or Literature. Their language proficiency was determined by the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) (Corrigan, 1979). The instrument to collect data on the students’ selfregulation was the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) (Printrich et al., 1991). The findings revealed that students gained higher self-regulation in writing tasks as the result of the explicit instruction of the concept mapping strategy. The findings have implications for pedagogy as well as for research.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of genre and text authenticity on the performance of EFL students in C-tests. Bachman's model of language ability and test method facets provided the theoretical framework for this research. The focus of the study was on the nature of input and expected response by considering genre and text authenticity in C-tests. The participants were 120 senior students majoring in English language translation who were screened from a larger pool of subjects based on their performances on a retired TOEFL test (Sharpe, 2001). The instrumentation included four tailored C-tests based on two different genres (political vs. literary) and two kinds of texts, i.e. authentic and inauthentic texts. The C-tests were administered to four homogenized groups each comprising 30 subjects. Data were analyzed through two-way analysis of variance and post hoc Scheffe tests. The results showed a significant effect of genre and text authenticity on the C-test performances of the participants. However, the interaction between genre and text authenticity did not prove to be significant .The findings provided data to support two aspects of Bachman's model ; the effect of the nature of input and the nature of the expected response on Ctests. The findings make it clear that genre and text authenticity can be considered as test method facets or 'specific aspects of test method' (Bachman, 1995 : 115) in the C-tests.

Causative constructions are of great importance in typological studies of language. Therefore, the basic concern of the authors in this article has been primarily with the typology of causative constructions in Persian based on Comrie’s typological framework. On the other hand, causation plays a central role in everyday human experience. So, it can be considered as one of the integral parts of human cognition or according to Lakoff a notion that exists in our mind (thought). The results indicate that Comrie’s classification of causatives (morphological, lexical and analytic) is functionable in Persian. Moreover, the analysis reveals that in Persian, in addition to three types introduced by Comrie, there is another causative referred to in this article "discoursal causative". All in all, the paper pursues that causation is a mental process. In fact, the idea that human beings interpret and conceptualize causative constructions by the help of general functions of the mind is suggested.

This study examines differences in non-native EFL teachers’ beliefs about grammar and teaching grammar. The differences were sought across teachers’ work environmentprivate school versus state schools-, degree, gender, and teaching experience. A sample of 130 EFL teachers teaching at junior high school, high schools, and private language institutes were randomly selected. The sample consisted of EFL teachers with different degrees, teaching experience, and gender. A grammar belief questionnaire consisting of five main categories (25 items) was administered. The results showed significant differences between school teachers and institute language teachers in their cognition and practice. The observed differences were also significant for teachers with BA degree, MA degree and teaching experience. However, teachers’ beliefs did not significantly differ in genders. All in all, the results showed that teachers’ characteristics influenced some aspects of their cognition and teaching practices as related to grammar. The implications for teaching and teacher education are discussed, in this article.