Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly
Volume:6 Issue: 1, Spring 2014

Dependence on computer and internet has given birth to digital literacy. However, research into its influences on the reading process is still in its infancy. To fill the gap, this study was designed to investigate the ways in which text presentation mode (paper vs. digital) affects reading comprehension, as well as reading attitudes. To this end, a sample of 30 male and female English major students doing their Master’s (MA) participated in this study. Their reading comprehension was investigated by reference to the mode of text presentation, and their attitude towards either text type was examined through a self-assessment checklist. Results of the statistical Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed a stronger preference for the paper-based texts, and an undifferentiated application of the same traditional method to all reading tasks. In addition, higher reading comprehension scores were obtained for paperbased texts, with male participants outperforming their female counterparts. The findings, providing further support for the significance of the mediating tools in the activity theory, imply that the digitalization of texts influences not only the nature of external behavior, but also of the mental functioning of individuals.

This contrastive study, in the first place, examined the generic structure and, in the second place, explored the face theory proposed by Arundale (2006) in 140 doctoral dissertation acknowledgments written by native speakers of Persian (NSP) and native speakers of English (NSE) in 7 disciplines representing soft sciences to find out what discourse genre components writers employ to articulate the communicative purpose of these acknowledgments. The results of the first phase of the study revealed four moves and a number of constituting steps. Careful surveillance uncovered an obligatory acknowledging move framed by three optional resonating, disclaimer and declaration moves. The findings related to the second phase of the study discovered that, approximately, majority of the moves and steps exploited by the two groups function as connection face except for the disclaimer move voiced as separation face. Persian writers, guided by their different cultural and literacy practices, utilized this move more than English writers. The study provided valuable information about the academic values, socio-cultural practices, and personal identity of the writer encoded in the rhetorical and organizational components of this genre.

The present study explored the rhetorical representation of authorial identity signaled by interactive/interactional metadiscourse strategies and integral/non-integral citation patterns in international and Iranian local research article discussion sections. The study also examined variation in meta-discourse and citation resources across three sub-disciplines of Language Testing, English Language Teaching, and Discourse Analysis. To this end, a representative sample of 60 discussion sections of articles published in three prestigious international journals and three well-accredited Iranian local journals was collected. The comparisons revealed that Iranian local articles used a greater number of interactive meta-discourse strategies, whereas international articles tended to employ more interactional meta-discourse markers. In the interaction between authorial identity and citation perspectives, it was demonstrated that Iranian local articles employed more integral citation resources, while their international counterparts utilized more non-integral citation patterns. These differences can be attributed to some other factors elaborated on in the paper Furthermore, the findings showed sub-disciplinary variation in the use of interactional metadiscourse strategies and non-integral citation patterns in international RAs. This can be attributed to their distinctive communicative purposes, target readership, scope of investigation, and final research products. The study concludes with some implications for post-graduate students to equip themselves with both macro-level generic and micro-level discoursal properties required for writing research article discussion sections, and, accordingly manifesting their authorial identity.

The necessity and importance of teaching pragmatics has been highlighted by many researchers (e.g. Rose & Kasper, 2001). Due to the consensus over the need to teach pragmatic competence, the main issue now centers on the question of how we should teach this competence in the most effective way. Consistent with this line of research, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of deductive, inductive, and L1- based consciousness-raising instructional tasks on EFL learner's acquisition of the request speech act during a sevenweek instruction period. The results obtained through a written DCT administered to 140 EFL learners indicated that instruction had a significantly positive effect on learner's acquisition of the request speech act. The comparison of the task types demonstrated that, all in all, the deductive task was the most effective one. Furthermore, the results showed that the learners were generally receptive to L1-based awarenessraising tasks and that these tasks were more effective than inductive tasks. This study suggests that consciousness-raising instructional tasks could be utilized in raising students’ sociopragmatic awareness and be applied in helping them develop their interlanguage pragmatics.

The present study explored the intensity level of authorial voice in relation to the quality of argumentative writing. 42 undergraduate learners of English as a foreign language (36 girls and 6 boys) spent 45 minutes to individually complete inclass position-taking writing tasks for three weeks. Their overall academic writing quality scores assigned based on portfolio assessment were studied in relation to their voice expression quantified using a voice intensity rating scale(VIRS). Findings indicated that, among the components of authorial voice, only “assertiveness” showed a positive moderate relationship with academic writing quality (r=0.45, p≤ 0.05). In the follow-up qualitative analyses of voiceexpression strategies, interviews with participants whose voice intensity had been rated either as the strongest or as the weakest showed nine strategies for voice expression. At the sentence-level, high-voice participants most frequently used intensifiers to express assertiveness, while low-voice writers tried to use other lexico-grammatical tools. At the text-level, both high-voice and low-voice participants were concerned about the effect of the topic on their voice expression. The findings imply that undergraduate English as a foreign language writers do try to express voice and that the required strategies can be one of the targets of EFL writing research and instruction.

In an effort to expand the disciplinary discussions on transfer in L2 writing and because most studies have focused on transfer as reuse and not as an adequate adaptation of writing knowledge in new contexts, the present study as the first of its kind aimed to explore the issue of adaptive transfer in English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) writing course. The study thus focused on types of adaptive transfer across disciplines and the processes involved in achieving them. The data were collected through interviews conducted on writing samples both from the participant's EGAP class and their other courses in the university (non EGAP). The results showed five categories of adaptive transfer including 'organizing, grammar refining, rephrasing, metaphorizing, and resource using'. Also, the analysis of the data demonstrated a variety of processes involved in the accomplishment of adaptive transfer, which all pointed to the multidimensionality of evaluation and re-evaluation that the writers conducted to achieve their composing potential. Additionally, the results revealed slight disciplinary inconsistency for the categories of adaptive transfer detected, with the English Language enjoying the highest and Electrical Engineering the lowest frequency of such transfer. The results imply that EGAP classes can create a directive condition for the enhancement of learning transfer.