Parvaresh, V., Kassaian, Z., Ketabi, S., Saeedi, M.
Publication Date: 2009
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (20103778)39pp. 1060-1068
This case study investigates the effects of reactive focus on form through negotiation on the linguistic development of an adult EFL learner in an exclusive private EFL classroom. The findings revealed that in this classroom negotiated feedback occurred significantly more often than non-negotiated feedback. However, it was also found that in the long run the learner was significantly more successful in correcting his own errors when he had received nonnegotiated feedback than negotiated feedback. This study, therefore, argues that although negotiated feedback seems to be effective for some learners in the short run, it is non-negotiated feedback which seems to be more effective in the long run. This long lasting effect might be attributed to the impact of schooling system which is itself indicative of the dominant culture, or to the absence of other interlocutors in the course of interaction.
Iranian Journal Of Public Health (22516085)38(2)pp. 18-26
Background: Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) has been commercially used as an octane enhancer to replace tetraethyl lead in gasoline since 1979. The high mobility, water solubility, and resistance to natural attenuation associated with MTBE may result in contamination of ground and surface waters. In this investigation the degradation of aqueous MTBE at relatively high concentrations was studied by UV-vis/TiO2/O2 photocatalytic process. The effect of important operational parameters such as pH, oxygen flow, catalyst loading, and irradiation time were also studied. Methods: Concentration of MTBE and intermediates such as tert-butyl formate (TBF) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) were measured using a gas chromatograph equipped with flam ionization detector and combined with headspace sampler. Results: The time required for complete degradation increased from 15 to 150 min, when the initial concentration was increased from 10 to 500 mg/L. The first order rate constant for degradation of MTBE from the hydroxyl radical was estimated to be 0.266 to 0.033 min-1 as the concentration increased from 10 to 500 mg/L. Study on the overall mineralization monitored by total organic carbon (TOC) analysis showed that in the initial concentration of 100 mg/L MTBE, complete mineralization was obtained after 110 min under UV-vis/TiO2/O2 photocatalytic process. Conclusion: The data presented in this paper clearly indicate that UV/TiO2/O2 advanced oxidation process provides an efficient treatment alternative for the remediation of MTBE contaminated water.
Research in Contemporary World Literature/ Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji (25884131)(56)pp. 181-196
Paradise Lost incorporates many references to the East. The Orient figures prominently in the vast scope - the "imaginative geography" - of the poem. This paper attempts a survey of what, following Edward Said, has been termed orientalist discourse in Milton's epic poem. It is argued that this discourse has to be considered in the context of Milton's essentially religious and anti-monarchical stance. Associating the Orient with evil and the Satanic regime Paradise Lost cannot be wrested from latent orientalism but it is shown that issues such as aesthetic considerations, a cosmic setting, drawing on the authority of history, classicism, an encyclopedic scope, an essential antimonarchism and above all a profound process of displacement whereby comments on contemporary issues are displaced onto the Orient all help compound the representations of the East in this text. The result is an ambiguous and multi-faceted orientalist discourse.
Research in Contemporary World Literature/ Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji (25887092)(61)
This paper is an attempt to shed light on how Michael Ondaatje has tried to rewrite Western history in his Booker Prize-winning novel The English Patient (1992). In the light of Colonial and Postcolonial theories and Hayden White's theory of narrativity of history, which regards historical accounts as metaphorical statements, the researchers try to show how Ondaatje challenges the authenticity of history written by Westerners about the Orientals. Ondaatje, as a migrant postcolonial writer, breaks the long-imposed silence of the marginal people by giving them access to speech whereby to express their own perceptions of reality. He also gives them access to the medium of writing to break the monolithic status of Western historiography (also reflected in Western literary works). Moreover, Ondaatje blurs the borderline between history and fiction in The English Patient to challenge the pseudo-scientific status of history, and presents fiction as a medium through which history is rewritten from the perspective of the 'Other'.
In the scope of Literary Translation, the present article focuses on the benefits of translation which is technically referred to as translation gain. Defined as "translator's technique used to compensate for translation loss" (Note 1), translation gain has scarcely been a subject of heated debates among the authorities in the field of Literary Translation. The data for the present study was collected from the Armenian translation of 5 short stories written by a famous Armenian-American writer W. Saroyan (1908-1981). One of the main objectives of the study is that it covers translations into a language of limited diffusion-Armenian. The results of the study will come to show that in the course of recreating the original, the translator may add values to it either because s/he grasped the author's thought rather better or by taking advantage of the target language's neater and/or richer linguistic resources.
The current study sets out 1) to investigate the strategic needs of participants in reading literary and non-literary texts; and 2) to shed light on the differences of reading literary and non-literary texts. To achieve this aim, thirty participants read three literary and two non-literary texts and wrote down the questions for which they could not find any answer.Next, these questions were categorized in five groups: Scripturally implicit, textually implicit, textually explicit, linguistic and miscomprehension. The findings suggest that the dominant problem of participants lies in textually implicit aspects of the text. Finally, a Kruskal-Wallis test was applied in order to compare the frequency of question types across literary and non-literary texts. The difference of all question types proved to be statistically significant across both literary and non-literary texts.
This research is an attempt to find out if grouping learners, through using a placement test will significantly help students become more successful in learning English. 320 non-English major undergraduates studying at the University of Isfahan participated in this research. The final scores of 121 freshmen who attended their general English courses in homogenised classes were compared with those of 199 freshmen who did not undergo any placement procedure. The analysis of data suggested that grouping the learners and dividing them into different ability groups had a significant impact on the participants' academic success, in their course of general English. In addition, the results suggested that ability grouping provides sufficient ground for methodological decisions and hence sequencing of teaching materials and procedures.
Research in Contemporary World Literature/ Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji (25887092)(62)pp. 7-7
In the present paper, syntactic omission convections in English are investigated on the basis of Dixon (2005) in translations from Persian for their being rendered explicit through translation. The data of the study entails Persian literary texts from different literary genres, namely fiction, poetry, and drama. The study is in line with that carried out by Olahan (2001) which explored syntactic omission conventions in the translated English corpora of BNC and TEC. The present research is an attempt to investigate the findings presented by Olahan yet across three literary genres and to inspect the behavior of optional syntactic explicitation pertaining to fiction, poetry, and drama translations. The results of the study revealed that explicitation of syntactic optional structures is a prevalent norm in modern Persian-English translations of literary texts and that among the proposed conventions, explicitation of the complementiser THAT followed by that of relative pronouns proves the most frequent in all literary genres; yet, in other sub-categories, our findings do not confirm Olahan's. The findings reveal that explicitation is applied as a literary device in literary translation.
The present study aimed to explore how tolerant of ambiguity Iranian EFL learners at university level are and if gender plays a role in this regard. To this end, upon filling in the revised SLTAS scale of ambiguity tolerance 194 male and female Iranian teacher trainees were assigned to three ambiguity tolerance groups; namely, high, moderate and low. Cluster analysis of the SLTAS scores indicated that Iranian EFL learners were mostly moderate as far as tolerance of ambiguity was concerned. Examining the gender differences through an independent sample t-test manifested that female participants were less tolerant of ambiguity than their male peers. Also, the differences between the expected and observed number of participants categorized in the three AT groups were non-significant undermining the role of gender as a moderator variable in assigning participants to AT groups and further approving of SLTAS validity. Implications for classroom practice are presented in the light of findings. The results are helpful in syllabus design and teaching methodology.
