Journal of Language and Translation
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Spring 2019

The present Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) study aimed to explore the probable ideological manipu- lations exerted in three translations of an English political book entitled The Coup by Ervand Abraha- mian. This comparative qualitative study was conducted based on Farahzad‘s three-dimensional CDA model. The textual, paratextual, and semiotic aspects were critically scrutinized in the text of the three translations (TT1, TT2, and TT3). The findings revealed that TT1 utilized more kinds of manipulations (lexical choices, nominalization, and paratextual level) and less foreignization compared to the other two translations. Considering the amount of lexical choices, addition, and foreignization, TT3 was ranked the second; at the semiotic level, the third translator exercised greater manipulations in comparison to the first one. For TT2, however, only in terms of deletion, passivization, and covering page significant changes could be spotted. TT2‘s stance was apparently similar to that of the original author through adopting more neutral vocabulary items, passive structures, and a less neutral cover picture. As the findings of the present study illustrated, translators can achieve certain ideological goals by employing a myriad of dis- cursive strategies and structures. The findings are discussed in light of the implications of multimodal analysis of multiple translations for political translation theory and practice.

The present study was carried out with the purpose of examining the role of metaphorical language in the critical discourse analysis (CDA) of political texts based on the CDA framework and attitudinal model of appraisal theory. According to CDA, the categories of deception, power relations, manipulation, authority, legitimation, and ideology were considered in the analysis of the texts and, concerning attitudinal resources, judgment, appreciation, and affect were gauged. The corpus of this study consisted of different editorial ar- ticles in Western political magazines on the relations between the I.R. of Iran and the West in the time span of 2010-2017. The results of both content analysis and chi-square test tended to approve the significant use of metaphors in the texts with regard to both discursive and attitudinal resources. Regarding the former, de- ception, power relations, manipulation, and authority gained the highest frequency while with respect to the latter, judgment and appreciation were implemented more frequently. The significance of the findings is discussed in light of CDA and appraisal theory and relevant implications are presented in the paper.

This qualitative study aimed at exploring the causes of writing anxiety from an expansive learning perspec- tive. Given the centrality of writing for both EFL learners and teachers, writing anxiety was explored through a longitudinal study spanning two years with 25 EFL learners and teachers who participated by providing comments, diaries, and documents. The participants were also observed and interviewed follow- ing Mwanza's model as a guide. The obtained data in the whole process was constantly thematized by means of a qualitative software, NVIVO 10. The main themes on writing anxiety were extracted from teachers and learners by applying contradictions as a principle of expansive learning theory. To help learn- ers become transformative agents of anxiety, an intervention process was carried out in the form of an online collaborative writing task. The findings recommend applying contradictions as an initiative point for problem-solving and a driving impellent of activity which may lead to expansive learning. Besides, the dy- namic and developmental process is hoped to help learners expand and transform their writing anxiety. Con- tradictions may also become an initiation for future studies on language learning.

The study of individual difference variables in the realm of written feedback is one of the significant lines of research which has been reinvigorated in the last few years. These variables are believed to affect both students’ engagement with feedback and their writing improvement. The present correlational study investi- gated the relationship between EFL students’ implicit theories of writing intelligence, writing motivation and attitudes toward written feedback. In so doing, 110 intermediate English language learners took three questionnaires, namely Implicit Theories of Writing Intelligence, Orientation toward Corrective Feedback, and Writing Motivation. The findings of the present study indicated that EFL students’ incremental theory of writing intelligence positively correlated with their writing motivation and feedback seeking orientation. On the other hand, EFL students’ entity theory of writing intelligence negatively correlated with their writ- ing motivation and positively correlated with their feedback avoiding orientation. In other words, those EFL learners who believed in the plasticity of their cognitive abilities were of higher writing motivation and feedback seeking orientation levels than those participants who believed that their writing ability was a fixed entity, which could not be extended.

The present study aimed at finding Catford‟s category shifts applied in the Persian translation of Charles Dickens‟ novel Great Expectations to determine the most frequently used category shift and to check whether there is a significant difference between category shifts in the translation. To this end, 200 simple declarative sentences from the first 20 chapters of the novel (10 sentences from each chapter) and their Per- sian translations by Fateme Amini were chosen. Then, types of category shift according to Catford‟s shift model were found and the frequency and percentage of each category was calculated. Finally, a chi-square test for the goodness of fit was administered to investigate the possibility of the existence of significant dif- ference between the applied category shifts in the translation. The results revealed that while all Catford‟s category shifts (i.e. structure, unit, intra-system, and class shift) were applied in translation, structure shift was the most frequent observed shift (102 cases out of 211 total cases, i.e., 48.34 percent) in the translation. Also, the difference between the used category shifts in the translation was not statistically significant.

This study was a Persian-English comparative translation investigation on the selected poems of Forough- Farrokhzad, an influential contemporary Iranian poet. Two English translations were analyzed: one by a native Persian speaker, Sholeh Wolpé, an Iranian poet and translator, and the other by a non-native Persian speaker, Jascha Kessler, an American poet, writer and translator. The translations were reviewed according to Vinay and Darbelnet’s(1995) model which identifies two general translation strategies: direct and oblique, resembling literal versus free classifications, respectively, along with their supplementary proce- dures in order to investigate the frequency of the application of each procedure by the two translators. After situating every line of the poems in the related categories, the number of times each procedure was em- ployed was examined. The findings indicated that both translators used the oblique strategy more than the direct one. The non-native translator, however, used the oblique strategy considerably more frequently com- pared to the native translator. Finally, new procedures called complementary procedures were proposed by the researchers to be added to Vinay and Darbelnet’s (1995) model in order to fill the gaps in the application of strategies and procedures to the poems of Forough Farrokhzad and probably other poems.

Semantic network approaches view organization or representation of internal lexicon in the form of either spreading or hierarchical system identified, respectively, as Spreading Activation Model (SAM) and Hi- erarchical Network Model (HNM). However, the validity of either model is amongst the intact issues in the literature which can be studied through basing the instruction compatible with the principles of each model. In a bid to fill this gap, this study was designed to empirically verify the effectiveness of SAM compared to HNM in both developing and retention rate of vocabulary knowledge. To this end, 67 Ira- nian EFL learners were divided into two experimental groups (34 and 33) and one was exposed to HNM- based while the other to SAM-based vocabulary instruction for 10 sessions. In the light of group- comparison experimental design, the participants' both immediate achievement and long-term storage were measured through an immediate and a delayed post-tests, respectively. The parametric statistical analyses showed that the group being exposed to HNM-based instruction outperformed the other group in both the immediate and delayed post-tests. The findings bear two distinct messages: yielding support to more validity of HNM as a model of internal lexicon organization and supporting the educational implica- tions of cognitively compatible instruction of language components.

The aim of this research was an investigation into norm extraction regarding the domestication and foreigni- zation of culture specific items (CSIs) in the children‟s literature in the last four years (from 1393 to 1396). The corpus of this study was 8 English children‟s books with their Persian translated versions. The theoreti- cal framework of the research was associated with the Venuti translation strategies which are called domes- tication and foreignization. In order to identify the CSIs in the SL, the researcher used the taxonomies of culture-specific items of Espindola and Vasconcellos and Newmark and in order to associate each strategy with domestication or foreignization, the researcher has collected some procedures proposed by Aixelá, Vi- nay and Darbelnet and Newmark. The collected data from these books and their translations were inserted in tables and their strategies were identified by the use of the mentioned models. The findings of this research evinced that the strategies of domestication with 84.9% dominated the strategies of foreignization with 15%. As a conclusion the strategies which were regarded as the extracted norms were specified.

The present corpus-driven study addresses the current situation of translation criticisms published in print or online in the Iranian media. A sample of 17 criticisms (roughly 68,000 words altogether) from a variety of valid media outlets was compiled. Having been categorized into those with, and those without an ex- plicit theoretical framework, the criticisms were examined on two levels: firstly, on a micro-textual level to ascertain their degree of subjectivity as well as the general features and secondly, on a macro-textual level, the aim of which was to find out the overall organizational pattern(s). The results showed that only 17 percent of the criticisms had been carried out within an explicit theoretical framework. The micro- textual analysis indicated that, despite being unsystematic, the criticisms‟ degree of subjectivity is rela- tively low: 0.81 percent in the first and 2.8 percent in the second category. The macro-structural analysis revealed interesting similarities and differences within and between the two categories, most strikingly the resemblance between the macro-textual structure of criticisms with an explicit framework and that of academic papers. The findings of this study might contribute to the literature on translation criticism and review in terms of both theory and practice.

Many studies can be found on translation teaching and students' perceptions of different classroom prac- tices. However, few studies have focused on how translator trainers view the task at hand. In the present study, the researchers aimed to explore the challenges translator trainers faced during the act of teaching translation. The method applied in this research was ethnography. The participants were two female trans- lator trainers who were teaching translation courses at one of the state universities in Isfahan. The re- searchers participated in their classes and closely observed translation courses for six months. In the field work, three different sources of information were used: the researchers’ field notes, the participants' dia- ries, and interviews. The challenges discovered are as follow: dictionary use, finding an equivalent and word selection, lack of facilities, students' reluctance, demotivation, and high expectation, unexpected situations, content knowledge and general information, students' general English proficiency, know-it-all students. At the end of this study, some implications and recommendations for further research were pro- posed to help experts in the field.