Journal of Language and Translation
Volume:3 Issue: 2, Summer 2013

This study investigated how awareness affected learners’ intake and production in relation to their cognitive styles. It is assumed that learners’ cognitive styles may affect their ability to notice particular features in the input and, consequently, their intake and production. Adult learners of English were exposed to four English structures through four sets of problem-solving tasks, followed by posttest assessment tests. The participants were asked to think aloud while performing the problem-solving tasks, and their voices were recorded. These online think-aloud protocols, along with postexposure questionnaires, were used to assess the three levels of awareness. Learners’ cognitive styles were determined using the Ehrman and Leaver Learning Styles Questionnaire. Results indicated that (1) cognitive styles did not have any significant impact on levels of awareness reported in the think-alouds; (2) cognitive styles did not significantly affect the intake of the target structures; and (3) cognitive styles were not significantly related to the production of the target structures.

The idea is growing among educators that thinking skill needs to be given a direct attention. On one hand, critical thinking is supposed to broaden students’ thinking in all regards (Schafersman, 1991); and on the other hand learners’ attitudes towards the second language can affect both their performance in the class and their final accomplishment. To this end, the present study started with the question of whether the application of critical thinking ability to English classes could affect learners’ second language attitudes. The study was designed and conducted at an English language Institute. 4 classes were selected randomly (2 female and 2 male classes). They were divided into two experimental and control groups. In experimental classes learners practiced critical thinking skills, which was absent in the control group. Critical thinking principles were applied through 21 strategies developed by Ennis (2011). FLAGS (Foreign Language Attitudes and Goals Survey) questionnaire (Eva Cid, Gisela Gran˜ena, Elsa Tragant, 2009) was given to students, both at the beginning and at the end of the semester, which were considered as the pre and post-tests for statistical computations. The results revealed a significantly higher second language attitude in participants who went through critical thinking instruction. In addition, applying critical thinking skills in the class affected students’ level of goal orientation in terms of learning a second language. The research encourages English language teachers to incorporate critical thinking skills into their instructions.

Translation of idioms seems to be complicated for most translators since the meaning of idioms is difficult and sometimes impossible to be deduced from the meaning of their individual components. Considering the difficulties of translation of idioms and also the specific constraints of subtitling such as space and time limits, this research studied the strategies employed in translation of idioms in English subtitles of two Persian television series: Madâr-e Sefr Daraje ‘Zero Point Orbit’ and Shab-e-Dahom ‘The Tenth Night’ both directed by Hassan Fathi. A total of 50 idioms from each of these films were analyzed based on the strategies suggested by Baker (1992) for translating idioms. The frequency and percentage of strategies applied were calculated and the results indicated that the strategy of paraphrase was the most frequently used strategy in translation of idioms by 72% of the total occurrence. 8% of idioms were omitted totally, and the strategy of using an idiom of similar meaning and form was not employed at all. Therefore, it can be suggested that the idiomaticity of the SL was avoided by translators as they paraphrased or omitted SL idioms instead of using equivalent idioms in the TL.13% of idioms were translated by using an idiom of similar meaning with dissimilar form. 5% of idioms were translated by using false form of target language idioms and 2% of idioms were translated in false way.

Over the recent years, the study of language learning strategies has received much attention worldwide in general, and in Iran in particular. Many scholars have tried to investigate the function of language learning strategies in EFL learning and teaching. Not enough attention, however, has been paid to language skills, especially speaking skill, in Iran. Therefore, the present study aimed at shedding some light on language learning strategy and speaking, through answering the two research questions: 1. What Language Learning Strategies are used by successful language learners? 2. Does instructing Language Learning Strategies used by successful learners to less successful learners have any significant effect on developing their speaking ability? To collect information, Oxford's (1990) SILL, Naiman's (1978) GLL questionnaires, along with the two proficiency tests including TOEFL and IELTS were utilized. The results revealed that successful language learners use a variety of strategies; memory strategies being the most frequently used strategy, and metacognitive strategies being the least frequently used ones. T -test was used to test the hypotheses, and it was revealed that instructing learning strategies to less successful learners significantly affects their speaking ability.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the comparative effect of using electronic short story books and traditional printed texts on EFL learners’ reading comprehension. For that purpose, ninety female learners ranging in age between fifteen and thirty five sat for the language proficiency test
(PET, 2009) as the test of homogeneity and consequently sixty students were selected based on their obtained scores in the test and were randomly assigned into two groups to receive two kinds of instructional procedures including electronic and traditional short story readings. One group was required to read four electronic short story books and the other group read the same short stories in the printed version. For the purpose of the study, the researchers used twenty four open-ended comprehension questions which were answered by the students in the two groups in order to measure their reading comprehension of all four short story books. After that, a two-tailed test of significance (t-test) was run between the obtained means of the two groups on the open-ended comprehension questions to determine whether there is any significant difference between the performances of the two groups. The result revealed that there was a significant difference between the two groups with the electronic group outperforming the non-electronic one.

Literatures of various cultures interfere with one another so that each of them may become part of another’s literary polysystem. Accordingly, the researchers, in this study, attempted to recognize what position Persian literary polysystem allowed English literature in particular Persian translations of English modern short stories to occupy during 1990-2005. This study also intended to find out the reasons for occupying such a position either central or peripheral. It employed Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory as the theoretical framework. In order to collect data, the researchers interviewed seven Persian experts; translators, fiction writers, critics, and literary competition judges. To analyze the data, this study utilized Grounded Theory. The researchers used X-Sight software to conduct a more organized analysis, and NodeXL software to illustrate the relationship among different agents of Persian literary polysystem.

This study investigated the relative effects of deductive and inductive form-focused instruction (FFI) on the acquisition of 4 non-generic definite article uses(cultural, situational, structural, and textual) as assessed by explicit and implicit outcome measures. The tests utilized to assess EFL learner's acquisition of definite article uses were timed and untimed grammaticality judgment tests. A pretest and two posttests were conducted immediately and four weeks after the instructional interventions. Durable effects of FFI on intermediate Iranian learner's acquisition were found for different uses of definite article. In particular, the present study found that deductive and inductive FFI positively facilitates the development of explicit and implicit knowledge of non-generic definite article, both immediately after the instruction and, marginally decreasing, over time. Moreover, the findings indicated different difficulty levels for the 4 uses of definite article, with cultural use being the most difficult one followed in the order by situational, structural, and textual uses. This study’s findings contribute to our understanding of the efficacy of deductive and inductive FFI on EFL learners’ controlled (explicit) and spontaneous (implicit) use of a non-salient language forms at intermediate stages of L2 acquisition.

Obviously, learning environment plays a crucial role in how second language or a foreign language is learned. In this regard, the importance of interaction for L2 learning has been emphasized. The current study investigated teacher's interactional moves (IM) and learner's uptake in EFL classrooms systematically. To meet this end, four EFL contexts of speaking and listening courses for English majors were selected to determine the effects of IMs on learner's uptake. The data were drawn from the transcripts of audio recorded classroom interactions made in four EFL classrooms at the intermediate level, totaling 64 hours and including 856 error sequences in the experimental group and 1220 error sequences in the control group. The 2076 error sequences were then coded in accordance with the categories identified by Lyster & Ranta’s (1997) model of IM in response to the students’ erroneous utterances. Twelve weeks of listening and speaking classroom interactions data with 64 participants during a whole semester were analyzed. The statistical analyses performed on the data were a number of non-parametric correlation analyses to check the correlation between IMs and learners’ uptake, and then a profile analysis was performed to compare the performance of the learners in two groups in terms of receiving or not receiving the systematic IM during a whole semester. Later, a one-way ANOVA was run to establish the differences between students’ scores on the three progress tests, and finally, t-test procedures were used to compare the performance of learners in both groups. The results showed that IM significantly improved learners’ performance in EFL classrooms. The findings of the current study offer certain implications for EFL teachers, learners, teacher training programs, syllabus designers and materials developers.

This study is the result of an attempt to investigate the differences between the Persian translated drama text (page) of each English drama text with its performance on the stage (stage) in Iran. In other words, the present researchers tried to find the implemented changes in page which make it real on the stage in the target language and culture in order to show that in drama translating and conducting it on the stage two different systems are at work: the literary system and the theatrical system. The Kowzan’s model (cited in Robert, 2009) has been chosen as the framework for this study. It introduces thirteen basic theatrical features which are used as the criterion for the comparison between the pages and stages. Five English drama texts, five translated drama texts (pages), and their stage performances (stages) in Iran were selected. After the analysis, the researchers found that most of the changes were in the systems word and movement. So, finding a stage performance different in some ways from its translated drama text is not the cause for the non-performability of that text, rather, it is because of the nature of the stage.