Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly
Volume:3 Issue: 1, Spring 2011

The implicit rhetorical features of academic writing which has so far eluded a comprehensive systematic characterization have made teaching it a challenging task for a large group of practitioners in academic setting. One such feature of academic writing susceptible to cultural mentalities is metadiscourse marking, which is supposed to be one of the important rhetorical aspects in the writing process. Therefore, through analyzing interactive and interactional metadiscourse strategies use, this study makes an attempt to find out the normal metadiscursive distribution in the various cognitive-generic structures within the socio-genreic structure of research articles (RAs). For the purpose of this study, a small corpus of 54 research articles from social and natural sciences was selected for a close manual qualitative analysis. It appeared that, though globally similar in many ways, different IMRD sections (i.e. Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion) of RAs which follow different cognitive genre types (i.e. conviction, description, argumentation, etc.) use interactive and interactional strategies differently. The findings are analyzed and implications are drawn for the teachers and learners of writing research articles in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes. It is argued that without such characterizations the writers from different nationalities might generalize the norms of their own culture, which are in most cases inconsistent with the conventions of English language.

Every happening in one's life may be regarded by her/him as a leading phenomenon to other happenings. This leading phenomenon which can anticipate the subsequent happenings is called SIGN. Signs are unique for every group of human being and hence culture-specific. This is even true for every individual. Signs permeate in every aspect of universe. Among these fields, children's literature is studied in this article, especially in the field of translating this kind of literature which consists of transferring cultural and visual aspects.According to the model of 'Semiotic Entity as a Unit of Translation', proposed by Hatim and Mason (1990), this article aims at identifying the process of translating cultural signs in children's picture books. Also this article investigates a) The relationship between the words and pictures as two aspects of semiotics in children's picture books b) The process of transferring this relationship into the target language and c) According to the concept of culture specific "Horizontal elongation" proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006), the direction of the ‘given’ and ‘new’ information in visual communication (here in pictures) is analyzed in two Western and Persian cultures. To achieve these aims, one of Silverstein's poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends collection and its Persian translations by Hirmandi (2010) and Morad Hosseini (2007) were analyzed. The results showed that both translators had identified the semiotic entity in "Identification" procedure but had failed to successfully transfer the intentions of the message. In addition none of the translators had respected the relationship of complementary aspects of words and the picture. In terms of "horizontal elongation", as there were no contributing art directors in both translations to manage the culture specific directions, the message which is emitted by this visual aspect, is not conveyed in the translated texts.It is suggested that translators get specialized acquaintance with the art of illustration and visual literacy in children’s literature to make a better interpretation of picture books and publishers use the art directors as the managers of their artworks.

Audiovisual material accompanied by interlingual subtitles is a powerful pedagogical tool which can help improve the vocabulary learning of second-language learners. This study was intended to determine whether or not the mode (standard and reversed) of subtitling affects the incidental vocabulary acquisition of Iranian L2 learners while watching TV programs. Forty-five participants were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions: (a) watching an English movie with original soundtracks and without subtitles (non-subtitling), (b) watching the same movie with foreign language in sound track and native language in subtitles (standard subtitling), and (c) watching the movie with foreign language in subtitles and native language in sound track (reversed subtitling). The study was carried out using a 15-minute-long episode of an animated cartoon about a group of ants trying to confront grasshoppers. The results were clearly suggestive of the paramount and fundamental role of subtitling mode in learning vocabulary. Many of the studies done in the same field mainly have shown the effects of subtitling on the education of the different components of EFL/ESL one way or another. However, unlike many studies, this study enjoying a controlling non-subtitling group demonstrated the relative superiority of reversed subtitled TV programs over standard subtitled and non-subtitled TV programs in terms of enhancing reader's learning of unknown words. It can have implications for language teachers to take into consideration the incorporation of subtitled films into their materials and classrooms.

This study sought to explore the possible relationship between reading anxiety and reading proficiency and also between reading anxiety and language learners’ use of reading strategies. The majority of studies on language anxiety have been quantitative to date. This study was conducted in two phases. The first phase was quantitative, and the second consisted of a series of case studies using introspection and think-aloud protocols. The statistical phase aimed to study the relationship between reading anxiety and reading proficiency. The FLRAS questionnaire was administered to two groups of pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate Iranian EFL learners, studying in a private language school, in order to measure their foreign language reading anxiety and correlate it with their reading proficiency. In the qualitative part of the study, the think-aloud procedure was employed to examine the possible link between reading anxiety and reading strategy use. The verbal reports of four informants, selected from the population of participants in the first phase, were analyzed using a defined classificatory scheme of processing strategies. The results of the analyses suggest that 1) there is no significant relationship between reading anxiety and ability in the reading skill, and 2) reading anxiety seems to affect learners’ reading style and preference for certain types of strategies.

With the beginning of the 19th century, England entered into a transitional period. Sociologists believe that in each era of transformation, the ruling class tries to establish its own values, but some resistance to these new values is inevitable. Thomas Hardy's novels in general, and Under the Greenwood Tree specifically, are no exception. Based on these notions, this paper tries to interpret Under the Greenwood Tree. Much of the criticism of Hardy's work insists on the point that the created characters in his work along with their new ideas emphasize Hardy's attempts in standing against the ideological discourses of the middle-class. Under the light of Althusser's theory of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) and Antonio Gramsci's notion of hegemony, Hardy can be considered as a true subject of his society, one who tries to strengthen the pillars of his society through depicting characters who have to be in the mainstream of the current ideological discourses of his age. Therefore, dealing with various aspects of this novel, this study tries to see how Louis Althusser's notions can help us to understand Hardy himself, his characters as well as the era in which he lived and wrote.

This article, first, examined the role of EFL university student's critical thinking (CT) in their self-efficacy beliefs. Second, the role of gender as a moderating factor in the relationship between student's CT and self-efficacy beliefs was investigated. Third, the difference between females and males regarding their CT and efficacy beliefs was studied. To attain the goals of the research, 86 EFL students sat through “Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal” (Form A) and “Learner's Sense of Efficacy Survey”. The findings of the study indicated that there is a significant relationship between EFL learner's CT and their self-efficacy beliefs and among the constructs of CT, Interpretation had the highest relationship with efficacy beliefs. The results also revealed that gender does not moderate the relationship between CT and self-efficacy. Furthermore, it was found that there is no significant difference between males and females regarding their levels of CT and self-efficacy beliefs.

Following innovations in intelligence and its radical changes from a unitary concept (IQ) to a multi-dimensional conceptualization, i.e. multiple intelligences and the need to design classroom activities based on the L2 learners’ cognitive styles, this study examined the impact of linguistic intelligence and emotional intelligence on the reading comprehension ability of the Iranian EFL learners. Data was gathered through two questionnaires and a reading test and analyzed through two-way ANOVA and Multiple Regression. The results revealed that the students with a high level of linguistic intelligence showed a higher reading ability than those with a lower level of linguistic intelligence. The results, however, showed no significant difference among the students with different degrees of emotional intelligence. Moreover, the results indicated that linguistic intelligence is a relatively strong predictor of reading performance, accounting for more than 40% of the variance observed in the students’ performance on the reading comprehension test.