PAZHUHESH-E ZABANHA-YE KHAREJI
Year:2005 | Volume:- | Issue:20 (Special Issue)|Papers Count:10

Across four tasks, the sensitivity of advanced Persian Learners of English as a Foreign Language (PLEFL) to the impact of thematic hierarchy on the choice of English sentence structure was tested. In recognition tasks, participants were presented with pairs of active and passive sentences constructed with the use of theme-experiencer (such as amuse) and experiencer-theme (such as praise) verbs. In the production tasks, participants were presented with sets of two nouns and a verb (including both theme-experiencer and experiencer-theme verbs) and requested to construct a sentence for each set. The dependent variable in all tasks was the syntactic form of the sentence preferred or produced by the participants. The results demonstrated that with theme-experiencer verbs, passives are more frequent. This indicates that PLEFL place the more prominent thematic roles in the initial position of a sentence. The consequences of the findings of this study for perspectives on ultimate attainment are discussed.

In analysing test results, most teachers tend to focus on the students actual test-scores as a reflection of their acquisition of the materials presented in a course. However, it is a fact that students usually employ certain skills, called test-taking strategies, when doing the items in a language test in order to improve their performance and therefore receive higher scores. The present study sets out to investigate the effects of applying test-taking strategies on the language test performance of Iranian undergraduate English majors. The data based on which the analyses of the hypotheses of the present study have been done was collected from 90 Iranian male and female undergraduates studying TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) or English language and literature. The instrument employed was a 60-item language achievement multiple-choice test. Besides, the subjects showed their knowledge and application of test-taking strategies by marking the items in a questionnaire specifically devised for this purpose in the present study. The analysis of the data collected showed that there was a high correlation between the subjects total scores in the achievement test and their scores in the questionnaire. Moreover, it was found that the subjects showed different degrees of tendency in using test-taking strategies in the various sections of the test.

This paper investigates the usefulness of a verbal protocol approach in examining the underlying construct of a cloze test, i. e. the reasons that a test writer had for deleting some lexical items from a passage to construct a cloze test. The informants were asked to think aloud while they were doing the cloze test. The observation of the informants verbalising their thoughts revealed inadequacies in using this approach. To compensate for this inadequacy, retrospection interviews in which the informants were asked about their choices after their verbal protocols, were conducted; The analyses of the informants think aloud and their retrospection showed that they could not verbalize all the mental processes they utilized in taking the test in their think aloud. The results, however, suggest verbal protocols as useful instruments for collecting a particular type of data which cannot be accessible in using other approaches.

TOEFL is widely used as a certificating device, and is strongly claimed accountable by the people who utilize it. However, there are indications of the vulnerability of TOEFL to the teaching of test taking strategies. The purpose of the present study is to provide empirical evidence that coaching toward TOEFL may invalidate its results as indicators of test-takers proficiency levels. To test the hypothesis, the scores of 75 subjects on a TOEFL and on a task-based test of language proficiency were compared. The subjects were selected from among those who attended coaching classes for TOEFL. The findings of this study revealed that coaching leads to spurious scores and consequently to unaccountability of TOEFL results. Theoretically, it is claimed that teaching toward task-based tests would not be harmful to pedagogy and learning, because performance on such tests are manifestation of the performance of test takers on real life tasks that they will be expected to perform. This contends that testing practitioners should move toward the use of more authentic and performance-based assessments to cause the least possible damage to teaching, learning, and decision-making processes. Also the implications of this study concerning the safety of coaching toward a particular task, domain, or subdomain in order to enhance students achievement on the one hand, and test validity on the other, are discussed.

Various researchers have made theoretical claims that feedback obtained through conversational interaction can facilitate language development. As for writing courses, written feedback has been proved to be of little help. Hence, the present study attempted to investigate student view on the implementation of dialog feedback and to trace any improvement in writing as a result of attending such conferences. The participants were 17 male and female Iranian EFL undergraduates. Having been trained, the participants were required to offer their comments on their peers writing. Reports indicated that the students looked at such dialogs differently, though a majority enjoyed them. No writing improvement was observed!

The present study was carried out with the aim of examining Farsi ostensible invitations in terms of the universals of pragmatics. To this end, 45 field workers observed and reported 566 ostensible and 607 genuine invitations. In addition, 34 undergraduate students were interviewed and afforded 68 ostensible and 68 genuine invitations. 41 pairs of friends were also interviewed and afforded 41 ostensible invitations. The results of the data analysis revealed that Farsi ostensible invitations go by the universal norms that affect language use.

Both The Sound and The Fury and The Blind Owl share a common theme. The main justification for this thematic analogue is Carl Gustav Jungs theory of "Collective Unconscious", Vladimir Propps Morphology of Russian Fairy Tales and what Claude Levi- Strauss tried to find in the system of world literature. By discovering the underlying structure of myth, Levi- Strauss demonstrated universal themes in literary discourses. Therefore, similarity of themes between these world masterpieces is unconscious and Hedayat had not studied The Sound and The Fury. The author of this paper has conducted a metaphoric analysis of these novels and has come to the conclusion that by combinig the suggestion of a literary analogue, aspects of their superficial organizations may be illuminated. Although a love story on the surface level, the deep structure of both novels reveals the lament of both authors for the passage of time and consequently a socio-historic upheaval which totally transfonns cultural discourses in their respective societies.

This article, to some extent a response to Edward Saids Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism, concentrates on the dialectical attitudes towards the Orient in a number of English literary texts. Through a contrapuntal textual analysis, signs emerge of a stereotypical and often monolithic Orient represented within the framework of dominant discursive practices. Similar discursive practices also seem to influence a significant number of contemporary scholars and critics active in the field of English literature. This raises many questions concerning the binary opposition as well as what Bhabha terms the ambivalent relationship, between the West and its Other: is the portrayal of the Orient a relatively static or monolithic feature, and is it continually seen as a potential threat through transculturation or hybridity? These questions must be pursued in the context of the ideological position of both the writers themselves and the Orientalism of critics and theorists.

The Renaissance more than any other age deals with violence, crime, and punishment. In most of the plays of the age, especially the Jacobean plays there are two distinct types of criminals. One type is the tyrant, a man whose thirst for power propels him to exploit other individuals, he is also able to disguise his vicious actions under the robe of respectability. The other type of criminal is the avenger, an individual victimized and exploited by the tyrant. Bosola, the villain of the play - The Duchess of Malfi (which has been discussed in this paper) is an individual who has been a victim and feels he has not been paid for in gratitude. As an avenger, Bosola takes justice and law into his own hands, as the centre of justice itself is corrupted. In the process of taking revenge, Bosola undergoes a change as he evolves into an evil and degenerate man, and thereby Ioses his true identity. Thus,in order to fight the corrupted system, he thinks he ought to become a part of it.

A small town by the name of Salmas to the north west of Iran sinks into the earth as the result of devastating earthquake in 1930. There remains only one young man on the outskirts of the city. His name is Yoosef. In his desolation he remembers a schoolmate and a close friend who lives in Yerevan of Armenia. Her name is Loosick. He goes and finds her and makes plans for a union and married life. But this is impossible since Loosick is Armenian (Christian) and he is Muslim. In a short time, her parents decision leaves Loosick in the hands of an unwanted husband. Yoosef is therefore left once more alone and is nervous and anxious remembering the loss and the tremors of the lands. He decides to go and climb Mount Ararat and pay homage to the ark of Noah. He manages to climb but cannot reach to the peaks where the ark rests. Very tired, hungry and exhausted he falls down in the pitchy darkness of the night. He has a tulip in his hands, smile on his face and remains with splayed legs as a sign of infinite immensity and a victorious departure.