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Language Horizons - Volume:3 Issue: 1, Spring and Summer 2019

Journal of Language Horizons
Volume:3 Issue: 1, Spring and Summer 2019

  • تاریخ انتشار: 1398/04/10
  • تعداد عناوین: 12
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  • Nahid Mohammadi *, Anis Kalantari Pages 9-20
    The oppression of women, as the subordinate second sex, and the exploitation of the environment have been the focus of most ecofeminist studies. In this study, the authors will discuss the patriarchal injustice suppressing women and the environment in an 18th-century literary text, Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (1719). Through the prism of cultural ecofeminism, this article makes an effort to illustrate the formation and also interrelatedness of two main long-held cultural dichotomies: the sexist-oriented privilege of male over female and the anthropocentric privilege of human over nonhuman in the microcosmic literary scope of the 18th-century English literature. From this regard, the feminist-oriented ecological issues will be discussed according to Val Plumwood’s distinction of cultural ecofeminism. Within this theoretical framework, we try to demonstrate how the elements of a patriarchal system shape all feminine subjectivities. The present article also shows how Nature herself, as an objection to the patriarchal culture, acts as the major supporter of women throughout The Rape of the Lock.
    Keywords: The Rape of the Lock, cultural ecofeminism, Women, Nature, Patriarchy, the 18th-century English literature
  • Rasoul Mohammad Hosseinpur *, Zeynab Mosavy Pages 21-41
    The present study investigated the speech act of gratitude in the context of Instagram as one of the most popular social networks. It sought to consider English and Persian users’ utilization of gratitude strategies in terms of employment of politeness strategies, intensifiers, interjections, and gender difference. To this end, 200 English Instagram posts along with 200 Persian Instagram posts were investigated. Contrary to previous findings that indicated different performances by English and Persian language speakers in real-life situations, the results of this study, after performing chi-square tests, suggested no significant difference between English and Persian users in terms of their utilization of politeness strategies, intensifiers, and interjections. Regarding gender difference, which addressed the use of both gratitude and politeness strategies for each language, for both nationalities, no significant difference was observed between female and male users within the context of Instagram. The finding may signify the emergence of a new genre of language belonging to social networks in general and Instagram in particular.
    Keywords: Gratitude, Politeness Strategies, intensifiers, interjections, Instagram
  • Abbas Ali Rezaee *, Mahsa Ghanbarpoor Pages 43-69
    In search of a more in-depth grasp of the process and practice of dynamic assessment (DA) in second language acquisition (SLA), the present study adopted a qualitative meta-synthesis methodology and identified a number of synoptic accounts and themes pertinent to the practical implementation of DA and the philosophical worldview adopted towards it. The overarching inferences made based on the systematic review of 40 peer-reviewed, primary studies, which met certain predetermined criteria for selection and inclusion in the data set, emanated a shared set of two primary and two secondary themes. Expounding upon the dual function of DA in terms of both diagnosing and developing learners’ abilities and elucidating how DA, formative assessment, and scaffolding are different, the two primary themes reflect on commonalities dissected across the 40 selected primary studies on DA, respectively. The two secondary themes give fresh insights into the nature of DA by hailing DA as an assessment tool that can ameliorate fairness in education and explaining how DA is in line with experientialism and pragmatic worldviews. Therefore, the established primary themes can shed light on further dimensions of DA implementation in language pedagogy as well as its practical application guidelines, and the secondary themes can reflect on the way fairness, validity, reliability, and generalizability in DA can be revisited.
    Keywords: qualitative meta-synthesis, classroom assessment, sociocultural patterns, alternative assessment, dynamic assessment
  • Amir Hossein Shahballa, Behzad Ghonsooly *, Hosein Karami Pages 71-92
    Multiple-choice tests do not assess examinees’ knowledge in accord with reality. In fact, the partial knowledge of examinees is not assessed. Providing a new approach to the assessment of reading comprehension in the framework of fuzzy logic, this study aims to measure this partial knowledge. In this approach, participants have to choose as many correct options as there are considering the stem. Therefore, the correct answer to each question can range from one option to all options. For the first session, an expository and an argumentative genre, and for the second session, the reading section of a TOEFL test was used. The results showed that the approach is fairer as it considers the partial knowledge of the examinees while in other common multiple-choice tests this is ignored. Also, the use of idea units as the units comprising a text gives us clues regarding the degree of difficulty of different parts of a text as well as clues about why misunderstanding may occur of the same text among different people.
    Keywords: Reading comprehension, Fuzzy Logic, Multiple-choice tests, Partial knowledge, Fair assessment
  • Maryam Meshkat *, Roqayeh Mohammadpour Pages 93-113
    Mobile technology is now being widely used to assist language learning and teaching. This study was designed and conducted to investigate the impact of a reading application on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension and reading self-efficacy. To this end, 56 EFL learners of a private institute in Iran were selected and assigned to one experimental and one control group. The learners in the experimental group read 10 passages independently using the reading application to help them find meanings and understand the text. The learners in the control group carried out the same process with the same reading passages with the teacher assisting them with the comprehension of vocabulary and the passage. The learners in both groups were given a reading test from Preliminary English Test (PET) and The Reading Self-efficacy Scale both before and after the treatment. The results of one-way between-groups MANOVA revealed that independent reading using the reading application positively and significantly affected the learners' reading comprehension and reading self-efficacy. The results of this study can be explained through the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and have implications for teachers and students in improving reading and self-efficacy.
    Keywords: reading applications, Reading comprehension, reading self-efficacy, vocabulary, mobile assisted language learning
  • Farzaneh Doosti, Amir Ali Nojoumian * Pages 115-137
    Drawing from the mainly Bakhtinian theories of the grotesque and its further readings by Kristeva, Foucault, and Bhabha, the present paper tends to examine the representation of “feminine grotesque” in one of the less discussed novels of Post-millennial Muslim diaspora, Leila Aboulela’s The Kindness of Enemies (2015). Written in response to the Islamophobic aftermath of the 9/11 and London bombings, Aboulela’s postmillennial fiction is often read as an instance of Islamic Postcolonialism, in the shade of which the story’s manifestly corpographic quality is mainly neglected by the critics. An offspring of miscegenation between a Muslim African and a white non-Muslim Russian, Aboulela’s female protagonist Natasha Hussein reconfigures diasporic hybridity as seminally “monstrous,” and accordingly proposes a synthesis between the feminine abject and Muslim monstrosity. The Bakhtinian grotesque is exemplarily revitalized in Natasha’s abject body at different strata, which turns her body mass from a definite individual figure to a becoming political body in a network of sociocultural and religious forces. In her struggle to adjust with space through the Sufi practice of zikr, she is both metamorphosed and proposed to the West as an alternative model of embodied Muslim subjectivity which is more willing to tolerate and to negotiate.
    Keywords: Muslim Diaspora, Corpography, Gyno-Grotesque, Diasporic Body, Muslim Monstrosity, Islamophobia
  • Mahdieh Kor, Marjan Vosoughi *, Minoo Alemi Pages 139-167
    The present study aimed at investigating the perceptions of EFL teachers about students’ misbehavior in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom contexts. Moreover, the study sought to probe what strategies EFL and ESL teachers use to deal with students’ misbehavior. Participants included 10 teachers in EFL classes in Iran and 12 teachers in ESL classes in the Philippines. Qualitative data were collected through conducting interviews with the invited teachers and observing their classrooms for four sessions. Data were analyzed using the grounded theory (GT) method. The initial analysis of the data revealed that English language teachers in this study did not perceive misbehavior differently from the existing definitions in the literature. To them, misbehavior in all language classes could be defined as an unusual and unexpected behavior that would lead to disorder in the process of teaching and learning. The Filipino and Iranian teachers as two example cases of ESL versus EFL contexts, respectively, utilized three types of strategies to deal with students’ misbehavior: 1) rule system, 2) reward system, and 3) personal encounter strategies for which clarifications were given in each context. Based on the analysis, it was found that the Filipino and Iranian teachers had more or less similar perceptions of learners’ misbehavior. This article has numerous implications regarding classroom management as inspired by language learning contexts for a successful social interaction between and among language learners and their teachers in two diverse contexts (EFL vs. ESL).
    Keywords: Misbehavior, classroom management, Managerial Strategies, ESL settings, EFL settings
  • Hamid Marashi *, Massoomeh Rahimpanah Pages 169-186
    This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of Dogme ELT on EFL learners’ reading comprehension. Accordingly, 60 upper-intermediate female and male EFL learners were selected from among a total number of 92 through their performance on a piloted sample First Certificate in English (FCE) test. Based on the results, the students were randomly assigned to an experimental and control group with 30 participants in each. Both groups underwent the same amount of teaching time which comprised teaching reading comprehension based on Dogme ELT for the first group and teaching reading comprehension based on the general guidelines of the language school for the control group. A posttest (another sample FCE reading comprehension) was administered at the end of the treatment to both groups and their mean scores on the test were compared through an independent samples t-test. The resultled to the rejection of the null hypothesis, thereby demonstrating that the learners in the experimental group benefited significantly more than those in the control group in terms of improving their reading comprehension. In other words, Dogme ELT proved beneficial for teaching reading. Based on the findings of this study which reaffirm the results of similar studies in other countries, there seems to be ample evidence supporting the promotion and application of Dogme ELT in reading classes in the Iranian context.
    Keywords: ELT, innovative methods, Dogme ELT, Reading, course books
  • Abdoreza Seyari, Mohammad Sadegh Bagheri * Pages 187-205
    Forensic linguistics tackles legal ends through linguistic means and it has established a sublime place for itself in international academic centers. In the past 10 years, some studies have been conducted on forensic linguistics in Iran and it has been approved by the ministry of education as a two-unit course at PhD level in Linguistics programs and it is offered in the field of Criminology at PhD level at Iran’s Police Academy; however, it has room for advancement in a range of domains. This research aimed to study the perspective and functions of forensic linguistics in Iran. The research rationale lay in the fact that the exigencies of the era we live in prompt us to practice majors that can practically serve the current and future Iranian society. The participants of this qualitative study were 13 university lecturers in TEFL and law. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. To meet the aims of the study, the research provided an introduction to the history and development of forensic linguistics and highlighted its perspectives in Iran. The data were analyzed based on the codes derived from the questionnaires and interviews. The findings showed that all the participants deemed the localization of forensic linguistics as quintessential in Iran and provided some suggestions for the areas in which this field of study can serve great purposes. The findings of this research can be suitable for those involved in language- and law-related research. Further research can be carried out on teaching, learning, assessment and materials development for forensic linguistics in the Iranian academic setting.
    Keywords: forensic linguistics, Iranian academic setting, localization, Perspective, Research
  • Seyed Reza Dashtestani * Pages 207-224
    Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have been used in the educational context of Iran since 2009 and formally introduced to the educational context of Iran by the Iranian Ministry of Education in 2011. This study sets out to investigate how Iranian EFL teachers use IWBs in the classroom and what difficulties and challenges they may encounter when they use this technology. To this end, a total of 71 Iranian EFL teachers who taught EFL at secondary schools participated in the study. A questionnaire and interviews were developed as the instruments. The findings revealed the positive views and perspectives of teachers about the use of IWBs, while several curricular, training, pragmatic, and infrastructural obstacles and challenges were also reported. The results also showed that the teachers used IWBs in a limited way and mostly underused them. The IWBs were mainly utilized as a means to connecting to the Internet or showing videos and pictures occasionally. The teachers believed that the IWBs can be employed to teach different language skills and sub-skills. The teachers deemed some measures such as continuous training, the change of the traditional and rigid curricula, and support from educational directors and planners as important and necessary. The study has implications for the proper use of IWBs and the implementation of IWB-based teacher training in EFL instruction in different parts of the world.
    Keywords: Interactive Whiteboard, Schools, EFL, Training, challenges, Language Skills
  • Afsaneh Asghari Astaneh, Behzad Pourgharib *, Abdolbaghi Rezaei Talar Poshti Pages 225-241
    The history of literary adaptation is as long as the history of cinema itself. Given the undeniable fact that literary classics guaranteed a large number of viewers, it is no surprise that the first filmmakers turned to literature to gain their materials for the screen. Since the development of the field called adaptation studies, the relation between cinema and literature has been analyzed through numerous approaches. One of the most recent theories which can shed light on the unstudied interaction between the two sides from new perspective is dialogism as developed by the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin. The present paper is set to perform a comparative analysis of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and its cinematic adaptation, Biganeh (Stranger), directed by Bahram Tavakoli. The research takes Bakhtin’s notions of unfinalizability and chronotope as two key constituents of dialogism to investigate changes the Iranian director has made in his version of the play. The study found that a literary work is open to changes if the adapter seeks to challenge it in an innovative way. It is in this unfinalized, dialogic process that new meanings are created. Thus, Tavakoli’s film proves that a classic play is both worthy and capable of being adapted for modern audiences if the filmmaker goes beyond common oversimplifications and represents unresolved tensions which lie beneath the veneer of the play.
    Keywords: Dialogism, Adaptation Studies, A Streetcar Named Desire, Biganeh, Unfinalizability, Chronotope
  • Zahra Asadi Vahdat, Kobra Tavassoli * Pages 243-267
    Due to the significance of the methods and techniques teachers use to engage learners in the learning process, many studies have been conducted on them. Accordingly, this study aimed at finding out the impact of two techniques, task repetition and elicitation, on EFL learners’ expository and descriptive writing ability. For this purpose, seventy 10th-grade female students in four intact classes were selected based on convenience sampling. First, Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was used to check their homogeneity and 56 who were in the acceptable range were selected. The classes were then randomly divided into two experimental groups, task repetition group (TG) and elicitation techniques group (EG), each comprising two classes. To measure the learners’ writing ability, two pretests of expository and descriptive writing were administered to both groups. During the study, TG received expository and descriptive topics to write about and one week later, the same topics were offered to be written about again. In EG, each session the participants received a writing task and the teacher used question and answer about the topics before learners were assigned to write about them. These were done several times during the study in each group. At the end, two posttests of expository and descriptive writing similar to the pretests were administered. The results of repeated-measures two-way ANOVA and MANOVA showed that both task repetition and elicitation techniques had positive effects on expository and descriptive writing of EFL learners; however, TG outperformed EG in their expository writing. Further conclusions are discussed.
    Keywords: descriptive writing, Elicitation techniques, Expository writing, Task repetition, Writing