International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print)

ISSN 2200-3452 (Online)

Pioneering in Language & Literature Discovery

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International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature

All papers on which this is printed in this book meet the minimum requirements of "Australian International Academic Centre and National Library of Australia". All papers published in this book are accessible online. Editors-in-Chief

• Professor Jayakaran Mukundan, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia • Associate Professor John I. Liontas, University of South Florida, USA • Assistant Professor Zosia Golebiowski, Deakin University, Melbourne campus, Australia

Managing Editor Seyed Ali Rezvani Kalajahi Journal Information ISSN 2200-3592 (Print) ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) ISBN: 978 -600-5361-84-1 Website: www.ijalel.org E-mail: editor@ijalel.org Publisher Australian International Academic Centre PTY. LTD. 59/48 Eucalyptus Drive Maidstone, VIC 3012 Australia Phone: +61 3 9028 6880 Website: http://www.aiac.org.au Hardcopy Provider Digital Print Australia 135 Gilles Street, Adelaide South Australia 5000 Australia Phone: +61 (0)8 8232 3404 Website: www.digitalprintaustralia.com Hoormazd Press Inc. also provides hardcopies of IJALEL.

2012 – 2013 © IJALEL No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photo print, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.

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Editors-in-Chief Professor Jayakaran Mukundan, ELT University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Associate Professor John I. Liontas, TESOL University of South Florida, USA

Asst. Prof. Zosia Golebiowski, TESOL Deakin University, Melbourne Campus, Australia

Managing Editor Seyed Ali Rezvani Kalajahi, TESL, AIAC, Australia

Senior Associate Editors Professor Hossein Farhadi, Assessment University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

Professor Haifa Al-Buainain, Applied Linguistics Qatar University, Qatar

Professor. Ali Miremadi, Language, Linguistics California State University, USA

Associate Professor Yuko Goto Butler, Educational Linguistics University of Pennsylvania, USA

Professor Kazem Lotfipour-Saedi Ottawa University, Canada

Associate Professor Kimberley Brown, Applied Linguistics Portland State University, USA

Professor Mohammad Ziahosseini, Linguistics Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

Associate Professor Mojgan Rashtchi, Applied Linguistics IAU North Tehran Branch, Iran

Professor Farzad Sharifian, Applied Linguistics Monash University, Australia

Associate Professor Parviz Maftoon, TEFL IAU, Science & Research Branch, Tehran, Iran

Professor Biook Behnam, ELT IAU Tabriz, Iran

Associate Professor María-Isabel González-Cruz, English Studies University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Spain

Professor Juliane House, Applied Linguistics University of Hamburg, Germany

Associate Professor John W. Schwieter, Linguistics Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Associate Professor Huai-zhou Mao, Applied Linguistics Changji University, China

Associate Professor Moussa Ahmadfian, English Literature Arak University, Arak, Iran

Professor Zdenka Gadusova, Foreign Language Teaching Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia

Associate Professor Zia Tajeddin, Applied Linguistics Allameh Tabataba'i University,Tehran, Iran

Professor Simin Karimi, Linguistics University of Arizona, USA

Associate Professor Christina Alm-Arvius, Linguistics Stockholm University, Sweden

Professor Mats Oscarson, English Language Education University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Associate Professor Wan Roselezam Wan Yahya, Literature University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Professor Meixia Li, Linguistics Beijing International Studies University, China

Associate Professor leyli Jamali, English Literature IAU Tabriz, Iran

Professor Ruzy Suliza Hashim, English Literature Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia

Associate Professor Ali S. M. Al-Issa, Applied Linguistics Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

Professor Ruth Roux, Applied Linguistics El Colegio de Tamaulipas & Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, Mexico

Associate Professor Ahmad M. Al-Hassan, Applied Linguistics Petra University, Amman, Jordan

Professor Kourosh Lachini, Applied Linguistics University of Qatar, Qatar

Associate Professor Seyyed Ali Ostovar-Namaghi, TEFL Shahrood University of Technology, Iran

Professor Sebnem Toplu, English Literature Ege University, Turkey

Associate Professor Fatemeh Azizmohammadi, English Literature IAU Arak, Iran

Professor Eugenio Cianflone, TEFL University of Messina, Italy

Associate Professor Yolanda Gamboa, English Literature Florida Atlantic University, USA

Professor Roger Barnard, Applied Linguistics The University of Waikato, New Zealand

Professor Cem Alptekin, Applied Linguistics Bogaziçi University, Turkey

Associate Editors Dr. Christopher Conlan, Applied Linguistics Curtin University, Australia

Dr. Usaporn Sucaromana, TEFL Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand

Assistant Professor Massimiliano Spotti, Applied Linguistics Tilburg University, Netherlands

Assistant Professor Ramin Akbari, ELT Tarbiat Modares University, Iran Assistant Professor Anne Dragemark Oscarson, Language Assessment

University of Gothenburg, Sweden Assistant Professor Ahmed Gumaa Siddiek, ELT Shaqra University. KSA

Assistant Professor Ibrahim Abdel- Latif Shalabi, English Literature Isra University Amman, Jordan

Assistant Professor Franklin Thambi Jose, Applied Linguistics Eritrea Institute of Technology, Eritrea

Assistant Professor Saeed Yazdani, English Literature IAU Bushehr, Iran

Dr. Vahid Nimehchisalem, TESL University of Malaya, Malaysia

Assistant Professor Shaofeng Li, Applied Linguistics University of Auckland, New Zealand

Assistant Professor Natasha Pourdana, TEFL IAU Karaj, Iran

Assistant Professor Sasan Baleghizadeh, TEFL Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Assistant Professor Nooreen Noordin, TESL University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Assistant Professor Hossein Pirnajmuddin, English Literature University of Isfahan, Iran

Assistant Professor Nasrin Hadidi Tamjid, Applied Linguistics IAU, Tabriz, Iran

IJALEL Editorial Team

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Assistant Professor Javanshir Shibliyev, Linguistics Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus

Assistant Professor Roselan Baki, TESL University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Assistant Professor Masoud Zoghi, TESL IAU Ahar, Iran

Assistant Professor Md. Motiur Rahman, Applied Linguistics Qassim University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Assistant Professor Rachel Adams-Goertel, Composition & TESOL Pennsylvania State University, USA

Assistant Professor Yousef Tahaineh, Applied Linguistics Al-Balqa Applied University, Amman -Jordan

Assistant Professor Arshya Keyvanfar, TEFL IAU North Tehran Branch, Iran

Assistant Professor Efstathios (Stathis) Selimis, Psycholinguistics Technological Education Institute of Kalamata, Greece

Dr. Ferit Kılıçkaya, ELT Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Assistant Professor Abdul Qadir Khan, Applied Linguistics University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan

Assistant Professor Karim Sadeghi, TEFL Urmia University, Iran

Assistant Professor Irene Theodoropoulou, Applied Linguistics Qatar University, Qatar Assistant Professor Reza Kafipour, ELT

Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran Dr. Minoo Alemi, Applied Linguistics Sharif University of Technology, Iran

Assistant Professor Touran Ahour, TEFL IAU Tabriz, Iran

Assistant Professor Nader Assadi Aidinlou, Applied Linguistics IAU Ahar, Iran

Distinguished Advisors Professor Brian Tomlinson, Material Development Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

Professor Dan Douglas, Applied Linguistics Iowa State University, USA

Professor Alan Maley, Creative Writing Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

Professor Roger Nunn, Communication The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Professor Hossein Nassaji, Applied Linguistics University of Victoria, Canada

Professor Jalal Sokhanvar , English Literature Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Professor Susan Gass, Linguistics Michigan State University, USA

Professor Claire Kramsch, Applied Linguistics University of California, Berkeley, USA

Professor Charles Goodwin, Applied Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Advisors Dr. Ian Bruce, Discourse Analysis and Genre Studies The university of Waikato, New Zealand

Dr. Steve Neufeld, ELT Middle East Technical University, Cyprus

Dr. Kristina Smith, ELT Pearson Education , Turkey

Dr. Hassan Fartousi, English Studies University of Malaya, Malaysia

Dr. Shadi Khojasteh rad, Applied Linguistics University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Dr. Atieh Rafati, ELT & literature Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus

Dr. Saeed Kalajahi, English Literature IAU Tabriz, Iran

Dr. Majid Hamdani, Educational Technology University Technology of Malaysia, Malaysia

Dr. Meryem ÖZDEMİR, ELT Çukurova University, Turkey

Dr. Oytun Sözüdoğru, ELT University of York, UK

Reviewers Dr. Marilyn Lewis, Language Teaching DALSL, The University of Auckland, New Zealand

Dr. Helena I. R. Agustien, Applied Linguistics Semarang State University, Indonesia

Assistant Professor Omid Akbari, TESL Imam Reza International University, Iran

Assistant Professor Ali H. Al-Bulushi, Applied Linguistics Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

Assistant Professor Hassan Soleimani, Applied Linguistics Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Dr. Shannon Kelly Hillman, Applied Linguistics University of Hawaii, Hawaii

Assistant Professor Isa SPAHIU, Linguistics International Balkan University, Macedonia

Dr. Yasemin Aksoyalp, ELT Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

Assistant Professor Azadeh Nemati, ELT IAU, Jahrom, Iran

Dr. Ali KARAKAŞ, ELT University of Southampton, UK

Dr. İsmail Zeki Dikici, ELT Muğla University, Turkey

Dr. Ebrahim Samani, TESL University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Dr. Mahdi Alizadeh Ziaei, English Literature The university of Edinburgh, UK

Dr. Melchor Tatlonghari, TESOL The University of Santo Tomas , Manila, The Philippines

Dr. Ruzbeh Babaee, English Literature University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Dr. Bakhtiar Naghdipour, ELT Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus

Dr. Subhash Chandra, Corpus Linguistics Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), India

Dr. Bora DEMİR, ELT Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey

Dr. Hossein Saadabadi, TESL University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Dr. Kenan DİKİLİTAŞ, ELT Gediz University, Turkey

Dr. Haleh Zargarzadeh, English Literature Urmia University, Iran

Dr. Carlous Muluh Nkwetisama, ELT University of Maroua, Cameroon

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Dr. Orkun Janbay, ELT Izmir University, Turkey

Dr. Taher Bahrani, Applied Linguistics IAU Mahshahr, Iran

Dr. Tin T. Dang, Applied Linguistics Vietnam National University, Vietnam

Dr. Erdem AKBAS, ELT University of York, UK

Dr. Sardar M. Anwaruddin, TESOL University of Toronto, Canada

Dr. Saeed Rezaei, TEFL Allameh Tabataba’i University Tehran, Iran

Dr. Inayatullah Kakepoto, ELT Quaid-e-University of EST(Sindh), Pakistan

Dr. Jerome C. Bush, English Education Yeditepe University, Turkey

Dr. Gandhimathi Subramaniam, Language & Literature Anna University Coimbatore, India

Dr. Mohammad Javad Riasati, TESL IAU Shiraz, Iran

Editorial Assistants Dr. Ali Asghar Yousefi Azarfam, TESL, IAU Tabriz, Iran

Dr. Reza Vaseghi, TESL, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

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Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

A Study on College EFL Learning Community Based on QQ International WEI Li 1

The US and UK in the Eyes of English Majors in the Arab World Mais Qutami Suha Qutami 8

Language Varieties of the Abstracts in Journal Articles Written by Chinese and American Scholars: A Contrastive Corpus Analysis using the Gramulator

Danmin Ye Dongzhu Wang 15 The Impact of Planning on Accuracy and Complexity in Oral Production of Male and Female English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners

Morteza Bagheri Atefeh Hamrang 25 Minimizing Cyber-Plagiarism through Turnitin: Faculty’s & Students’ Perspectives

Holi Ibrahim Holi Ali 33 A Study of the Relationship between Persian and English Writing Skills among Adult EFL Learners in Iran

Azim Javadi-Safa Fereidoon Vahdany Masoud Khalili Sabet 43 Classroom Interactions in a Cooperative Translation Task

Hui-chuan Wang 53 Eugene O’Neill and the Celebration of The Other

Sayyed Rahim Moosavinia Yasaman Kocheili 59 Lacanian Orders in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night

Sima Farshid Bita Darabi 65 On Situating the Stance of Practice in SLA

Parviz Maftoon Nima Shakouri Ogholgol Nazari 71 Gender-based Study of Metadiscourse in Research Articles’ Rhetorical Sections

Mahin Yavari Alireza Fard Kashani 77 “Can Man Be Free If Woman Be A Slave?” A Study in Feminine Leadership in the Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley & Bole Butake

George EWANE NGIDE 89 The Importance of Culture in Translation: Should Culture be Translated?

Ahmad Al-Hassan 96 Negotiating Liminal Identities in Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

Susan Taha Alkarawi Ida Baizura Bahar 101 Task-based Cycle in Reading Comprehension Classes

Naemeh Nahavandi Jayakaran Mukundan 107

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The Effect of Verbal Intelligence on Knowledge of Lexicon Masoumeh Parsa Shahrokh Jahandar Morteza Khodabandehlou 114

Innovations and Reproduction in Second Language (L2) New Media: A Discursive- Semiotic Study of Selected SMS Text Messages in Nigeria

Tunde Opeibi Aina Oluwasola 122 Review of Studies on Corporate Annual Reports During 1990-2012

Atefeh Mobasher Afida Mohamad Ali Faiz Sathi Abdullah Chan Mei Yuit 133 The Iranian EFL Students’ and Teachers’ Perception of Using Persian in General English Classes

Seyed Mostafa Hashemi Masoud Khalili Sabet 142 Inchoative, a Third Voice (A Synchronic Study)

Mohammad Jafar Jabbari 153 James Joyce’s “An Encounter”: From the Perversion of an Escape to the Perversion of the Fatherhood

Omid Ghahreman Farideh Pourgiv 158 The Assessment of Defamiliarization in Forough Farrokhzad’s Poetry

Zahra Esmaeili Shima Ebrahimi 165 J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace: Eros, (Dis)grace, & the Body

Shadi Neimneh 172 The Predictor Factor of Reading Comprehension Performance in English as a Foreign Language: Breadth or Depth

Shima Kameli Ghazali Mustapha Salah Alyami 179 A Comparative Study of “Subtitled” vs. “Auditory” Documentaries Comprehension among Persian Speakers of English

Masoud Raee Sharif Maryam Ebrahimian 185 The Effect of Task-Related Emotional and Cognitive Involvement on Incidental Acquisition of Second Language Vocabulary

Massoud Rahimpour Parviz Ajideh Davoud Amini Farahman Farrokhi 193 Living Anonymity: Exile as Motif in Lenrie Peters’ He Walks Alone

Christopher Babatunde Ogunyemi Niyi Akingbe Adebola Abosede Otemuyiwa 204 Finding Ghosts in a “No Man’s Land”: Žižekian Subjects in Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy

Nafise Shajani 209 Critical Pedagogy of a Post-9/11 Muslim Memoir

Esmaeil Zeiny Jelodar Noraini Md. Yusof Ruzy Suliza Hashim Raihanah M.M 216 Nigerian Pidgin Variations in the Ikom-Ogoja Axis of Cross River State, Nigeria

Mercy Ugot Offiong Ani Offiong Oyo Ekpo Oyo 223

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

A Study on College EFL Learning Community Based on QQ International

WEI Li

Liaoning Police Academy No. 260 Yingping Road Ganjingzi District, Dalian 116036, China

Tel: 86-411-8672-9682 E-mail: weili1972@126.com

Received: 17-11- 2012 Accepted: 19-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.1 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.1 The research is financed by the Twelfth Five-year Plan for Educational Science Project of Liaoning Province (2012) No. JG12EB082J. Abstract An EFL Learning Community has been set up online via a free messaging tool QQ International to consolidate and apply the knowledge learnt in class. One sub-community aims at developing multicultural awareness while the other focuses on expertise training in English for the undergraduates in several universities. Our innovative approach is that the trainees interact with other participants with virtual icons, virtual roles and specific achievement goals according to curriculum-related scenarios. The project team utilized surveys and observations to analyze the advantages and disadvantages from different perspectives and gain further insight into the nature of member participation, knowledge application and learning interests. Results revealed that EFL Learning Community promoted learning interests and training efficiency, contributed to interprofessional collaboration and interpersonal cooperation, with the implication that levels of moderate anonymity are the most optimal for role-plays in a learning community both online and in real life. Keywords: EFL Learning Community, QQ International, designed scenarios, English learning, expertise training, multiculturalism 1. Introduction Technology revolutionizes learning. Professional Learning Community (PLC) emphasizes the process of learning for improvement and change in schools. A PLC consists of a group of people who take “an active, reflective, collaborative, learning-oriented and growth-promoting approach toward both the mysteries and the problems of teaching and learning” (Mitchell & Sackney, 2001). In most cases, participants involved in a PLC become more intellectually mature and responsible for their learning. They like to develop the capacity to care about the learning of their peers and are focused on collegiality and professionalism (Manzaro, 2003). Moreover, PLCs offer teachers the possibility to connect with one another within and across the school in order to improve students’ learning outcomes and their own professional learning (Roberts & Pruitt, 2009). Application of free online programs in after-class e-learning is one of the new trends in recent studies worldwide. The advantages of e-learning include substantial cost savings due to elimination of travel expenses, just-in-time access to timely information, higher retention of content through personalized learning, improved collaboration and interactivity among students, and online training is less intimidating than instructor-led courses (Karen, 2012). New technologies such as Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) and InfraRed allow mobile devices such as laptops and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to access information almost anywhere at any time. A Ubiquitous Learning Environment provides a student with a pervasive setting in which learning can take place, even if the student or learner may not realize that he or she is learning. Learners can use desktop computers, laptops, or mobile devices such as smart cell phones and PDAs (Abdulrahman, 2010). Studies on computer-assisted instruction in English as a Foreign Language (hereafter referred to as EFL) learning can be traced back to 2001 in Liaoning Police Academy when two multi-media classrooms were built with LAN and the Internet linking 160 computer terminals. EFL learning contains three-semester English for General Purpose (hereafter referred to as EGP) learning and two-semester English for Specific Purpose (hereafter referred to as ESP) learning. Virtual Policing in English (hereafter referred to as VPIE) training for ESP learning, characterized by role-playing of police officers and their service recipients in English, had been practiced on a platform developed with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 asp.net(c#) to improve the students’ professional skills until a free, more powerful software named QQ came to influence almost every Internet surfer in China around 2009. Part II of the essay describes the outline, purpose of the study, and the ingredients of the online Community. Part III expounds on the activities involved in the Community, one is for EGP learning and the other is for ESP training. Part IV discusses the findings, implications, limitations and future work of EFL Learning Community.

IJALEL 2 (2):1-7, 2013 2 2. Construction of EFL Learning Community 2.1 Program Outline Virtual Service Learning pedagogy has been conceived and implemented in view of the career focus and English level of the students in Liaoning Police Academy, the program focuses on curriculum learning, scenario-based training, reflections and assessment, aiming at improving their comprehensive English competence to facilitate students' proactive participation in the increasingly demanding work force and providing teachers an easy approach by taking advantages of free messaging online tools rather than a heavy technical workload. 2.2 Purpose of the Study Based on the results of scenario-based classroom training and the seamless English learning in the interactive cyberspace (Zhongwen, 2012; WEI, 2012), we want to probe into approaches of using free online tools to further interactions among students and teachers after class in view of, firstly, a common practice in most of the universities nowadays to shorten EFL instructional time on campus; secondly, an increasingly openness to the access to free online software for students and teachers as well; lastly and most importantly, an especially need to enhance learning interests and training efficiency in network environments. Online learning community is defined as “a group of people who communicate with each other across the Internet to share information, learn more about a topic, or work on a project of mutual interest” (Porter, 2004). The common features of an online learning community involve learners’ gathering, sharing information, collaborating on projects, and proactively participating, which foster cooperation and mutual support rather than encouraging competition found in other team environments such as traditional learning classes (Ziad, 2011). These characteristics make it an excellent supplement to instructional EFL learning. Figure 1 demonstrates the relationships between face-to-face instruction and EFL Learning Community under the framework of Virtual Service Learning:

Figure

Figure1. Models of Relationships of EFL Community Learning with Classroom Learning In order to help the students to develop active, collaborative and professional capabilities, we set up EFL Learning Community online, aiming at implementing the essence of professional learning communities and seeking answers to the following research questions: 1. How do the participants like the activities in the Community compared with conventional face-to-face learning

activities on campus? 2. How do they like the anonymous training and the authentic identity learning? 3. What does each member benefit as an individual and as a participant from the Community? 4. What role does the Community play in promoting their learning interests, motivations and efficiency? 5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Community from a participant’s perspective? 2.3 Tools and Resources QQ International 1.2 (hereafter referred to as QQi) is a multi-language instant messenger client that’s based on the platform of China’s hugely popular chat program QQ. Available in English, Japanese and French, QQi offers a bridge to connect with the existing 700 million Chinese accounts. One research indicates that the application of QQ chat software can stimulate students’ learning motivation and innovation ability, which greatly improves emotional communication between teachers and students; meanwhile, the students are encouraged to participate in follow-up sessions, and teachers are encouraged to build their skills and confidence for teaching (Xingang et al, 2010). Another study combines Blog with QQ group to construct the collaborative learning platform, analyzing the function of the collaborative learning platform, and discusses the implementation process of the platform in the teaching (Qi & Pingguang, 2012). But there are very few studies on the application of QQi in EFL learning. We take advantage of typing and voice chat on QQi with other useful tools applied in EFL Learning Community as listed in Table 1 (Zhongwen, 2013):

After-class EFL Learning Community

EGP Learning

ESP Training

(With the knowledge learnt in)

The previous

class

(Ready & motivated

for) The next class

Mentors

Trainees

IJALEL 2 (2):1-7, 2013 3 Table 1. Functions of QQi Used in EFL Learning Community

Functions of QQi used in EFL Learning Community to Advantages Typing, Voice or Video Call

communicate with members, learn and train free and at the participant’s choice

Smart Friend Finder find more participants worldwide and directly

Send Files send files instantaneously to another QQ user more quickly and conveniently

Invite Contacts join the current discussion with more participants in a discussion

Discussions show a model training to the whole group

Qzone keep the trainee’s homework, messages, feedbacks to be assessed by other participants

Screen Capture send a screenshot to his or her Qzone to be the evidence of online activities

Message History check discussion contents to be assessed in language proficiency

Translator translate Chinese or English to improve English competence In addition to the Internet resources and the references for the college English textbooks, Multicultural Network for Policing, consisting of STARS model curriculum learning, scenario-based training, student-centered reflections and assessment, was designed and available. Learning resources cover college English involving almost every sphere of human life and English for policing including police administration, police training, criminal technology, criminal investigation, criminal justice, traffic control, cyber crime investigation and international liaison in the form of speaking, listening, writing, reading and translating. Training resources mainly contain scenarios designed in accordance with language points learnt in each unit with characteristics of being vocation-related and multi-disciplinary, curriculum connected, holistic and complete, authentic and complicated. Student-centered reflections are done through various channels like online forum, appeals and surveys to make their comments, suggestions, criticism or reflections conveyed and taken into account. Assessment is a tertiary indexed and quantitative evaluation system to grade a student’s performance from 1. Motivation and prospect (weight 0.05), 2. Learning (weight 0.20), 3. Training (weight 0.20), 4. Forum participation (weight 0.05), 5. Reflections (weight 0.05), 6. Homework (weight 0.15), 7. Quiz and test (weight 0.20) and 8. Self-assessment and assessment by others (weight 0.10) (Zhongwen, 2013). 2.4 Members of the Community English is the exclusive communicative language for the Community, students from the Academy and four other universities are classified as trainees while English teachers, major course teachers, foreign teachers and police experts are referred to as mentors, whose responsibilities are to cooperate with, supervise and help the trainees in their English learning, expertise training and evaluate the trainees’ performance in the Community. 3. Activities in EFL Learning Community A trainee can study by himself in the Community, practicing with the computer, seeking assistance independently from a mentor, but for most of the time, a trainee is supposed to be a member of the Community by participating activities to interact with other members to better his or her team spirits, interpersonal skills and professional service qualities in English. 3.1 Growing-up Group for EGP Learning: from the Perspective of Multiculturalism Linguistic, cultural, technological and other factors affect interactions in online exchanges in the global age (Kirk, 2007). The author registered a number on QQi as the administrator of the group named Growing-up, aiming at constructing a seamless English learning space to enhance the students’ multicultural awareness and professional competence through cultural immersion, interpersonal communication, information sharing, hot issue discussion and problem resolution. The number is distributed among the trainees and mentors to be approved by the administrator when they apply to join the group with a net-name to take part in: Topic Discussion to strengthen the learning of EGP language points: topics generally derive from the text learnt on the previous class, a case in point is the controversial issue of the contradiction between Chinese and Western learning styles in a text entitled Learning, Chinese Style. To help the students understand different learning systems and educational concepts, the mentors held a heated discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of each system and the appropriate ways we should take in view of the new trend of education development. The administrator uploaded materials about Chinese learning styles and Western learning styles for references as shown in Figure 2. Members of the group had a debate on the issue from different perspectives with the knowledge learnt and the materials available through literal or verbal interactions with people from diverse backgrounds, the trainees and the mentors had deep insights into the sources of two educational systems and the practice of two learning styles, citing grounds of their arguments from the text, the Internet, uploaded files, famous quotations or their personal experiences.

IJALEL 2 (2):1-7, 2013 4

Figure 2. Materials Uploaded for a Discussion on Cultural Diversity

Pop Vane to improve multicultural awareness: to arouse the students’ passion for English learning and multicultural awareness, a learning assistant in charge of introducing foreign pop music and movie hits uploads excellent videos or PPT of foreign songs and movies on a weekly basis. He is a student with huge zest for English and foreign cultures, actively shouldering the task of helping group members to improve interests in English through keeping abreast of Western entertainment trends. He has shared with other group members 11 beautiful songs and 11 delicate PPT to match with video image, such as Boyzone, Angel, and Mariah Carey. The pop culture is the vane and pace of a culture, to appreciate the music and movies from other cultural backgrounds is an efficient strategy and a shortcut to increase multicultural awareness among foreign language learners. Culture Forum to experience cultural diversity: group members including students from Liaoning Police Academy, Nanjing Normal University, Sichuan University, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian Medicine University, learning assistants and foreign teachers or experts constitute a cultural mosaic. Exchanges and cooperation are carried out through chatting room for an open discussion, E-mail system for a private communication, and group sharing for collective exploration. Every member is free to select ways and topics to express, convey or criticize a viewpoint on My Fashion View, The American Dream, The Native Speaker’s Situation, The Virtual Life, The Creativity and Imagination etc. These activities can not only render the learners opportunities to express their attitudes toward foreign cultures, but also help them to understand our own culture from foreigners’ perspectives. A culture panorama presented with IT technologies is appealing to the participants and nurturing the soil of language learning. 3.2 VPIE Group for ESP Training: from the Perspective of Learning by Doing VPIE is a trainee-centered police service simulation English learning and training program in which participants conceive, develop and manage virtual police organizations to fulfill their duties and services on a global basis utilizing various web-mediated technologies (Zhongwen, 2007). VPIE emphasizes project-based collaborative learning and training to enhance the trainee’s vocational skills and career success by experiencing potential working roles with sustained interests. With some basic terms and expressions on a specific police work, members of the Community can login VPIE group via QQi in which they select a role from the Scenario Base and fulfill a specific task with an icon and a character name, the characters are generally two types, one is police officer with detailed field title, a traffic police officer, a detective, a dispatcher, a patrol officer and so on; the other type is police work recipient, a criminal, a suspect, a witness, a victim, a reporter or a visitor. The feature of this training is anonymous in name, tile, and icon to carry out a designed scenario. An implementation example of VPIE Community training can be illustrated through the online activities after the learning of Unit 4 Criminal Investigation of English for Elite Police (Zhongwen, 2009). Classroom learning includes explanation, listening comprehension, speaking practice, writing, translating and reading of the contents on criminal investigation, 110 dispatching, answering to a crime reporting, establishing a criminal case, questioning a witness, and interrogating a suspect. A trainee logins the group and finds at least one partner to start the training according to five scenarios, one of which is entitled Questioning a Witness of a Robbery as shown in Table 2: Table 2. Scenario of Questioning a Witness of a Robbery

Title Questioning a Witness of a Robbery

(basic information a police officer needs to get from a witness of a criminal case) (5minutes)

Setting 1. Place: At the crime scene of the robbery, Beach Road, Dalian 2. Time: 18:30

IJALEL 2 (2):1-7, 2013 5

A trainee above QQ level 16 (those with level less than 16 are not allowed to choose an icon from the local pictures) can sign in the VPIE group with the registered QQ number and the password, change the icon, nickname with the icons and characters in Table 2. Figure 3 shows a trainee acting the police officer first typed, then had a voice chat with another member acting the witness：

Figure 3. The “Police Officer” Is Questioning the “Witness” through Typing and Voice Chat via QQi

Voice chat is strongly encouraged to practice oral English while video chat is not recommended as anonymity can reduce the inhibition that impedes language learning (YaChun & MauTsuen, 2008)) and can be beneficial to some students, Asian students in particular suffer from performance anxiety in real life (Hundsberger, 2009). Participants can also upload files, insert images, draw a picture, capture the screen and send it to other members, participate a group discussion or forum, keep files and references at each one’s Qzone. Mentors evaluate each trainee in accordance with the quantitative assessment standards in the scenario, their average performance in several virtual policing training. All members are free to shift from one group to the other, sharing information, discussing questions, providing feedbacks, resolving conflicts in the integrated EFL Learning Community with the common goal of supporting English competence and professional skills advancement. 4. Results and Implications In Nov. 2012, the five research questions of this study were answered anonymously by 30 undergraduates majoring in Social Order of grade 2011in their classroom after two-semester implementation of Virtual Service Learning pedagogy, who have been practicing scenario-based role-plays designed in accordance with the language point learnt in their college English textbooks either in the classroom or in the multimedia sound lab with LAN computer terminals enabling the students to interact with icons in a group; meanwhile the same survey was conducted among EFL Learning Community trainees online after 8-month practice. The survey results are presented in Table 3 below:

Characters 1. A police officer 2. The witness: an Australian learning Chinese in Dalian

3. The victim: a young lady 4. Two suspects

Plots An overseas student has just witnessed a robbery on the Beach Road; a young lady was robbed by two tall bald-headed men in sunglasses and with a knife. She was so scared that she couldn’t recall any more details at the moment.

Objectives 1. Make sure about the identity of the witness. 2. Get the as much information as possible about the two suspects.

Assessment 1. English proficiency (0.45) 2. Key words and expressions (0.20) 3. Objectives achievement (0.15) 4. Professional skills (0.10) 5. Self-improvement (0.10)

References

1. Questioning a witness: I understand you were the key witness for the robbery. Are you okay to answer some questions for me? I will need to get a statement from you. Was he carrying a weapon? What makes you say that? Can you describe him for me? I just want to get your name and phone number. If you think of anything else, please notify us. 2. Describing a suspect: He was wearing sunglasses. He had a mustache. She was dressed in black. She had a baseball cap on. Hair: short, long, shoulder length, curly, straight, spiky, brown, blond, black, red, in a ponytail 3. Background information: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/13360/05.pdf?sequence=10

IJALEL 2 (2):1-7, 2013 6 Table 3. The Survey Results

Questions on 1.ways of learning： A. online B. face-to-face C. both

2. identity preference A. anonymous B. real

3. the benefit as A. an individual B. a participant

4. the contribution to A. learning interests B. motivations C. efficiency

Answers of the students in the classroom

A. 3% B. 50% C. 47%

A. 96% B. 4%

A. 50% B. 50%

A. 43% B. 3% C. 54%

Answers of the EFL Learning Community trainees online

A. 60% B. 20% C. 20%

A. 20% B. 80%

A. 0 B. 100%

A. 60% B. 20% C. 20%

The answers to the five research questions for this study can be summarized as: 1. Learning ways of the students are influenced greatly by their habits, guidance of their teachers or tutors, and

technology factors; independence and individuality should be taken into account when it comes to introducing a new learning model, transformation or combination of the traditional and the new learning methods is necessary, hybrid model seems more acceptable to most of the students.

2. Most of the students take a moderate attitude toward the exposure of their identity in a learning community both online and in real life; that is, in a face-to-face instructional background they prefer to hide their identity while in the virtual community online they tend to have their real identity revealed to some extent rather than completely concealed. The students are willing or compelled to speak English in class, because the majority of people experience communication apprehension when speaking to a group of people in a formal setting (Khairi & Nurul, 2010), under such circumstances, students normally seek ways of hiding their identity like using icons or titles to play roles on computers in the multimedia sound lab rather than further expose their identity like speaking in front of the class. For those online learners, they don’t experience such anxieties because they play the roles in a relaxed state, without so much pressure to speak at a definite time, without so many audiences sensing his or her mistakes, when they speak, they would rather let their identity known to other participants especially for those students with higher level of English proficiency to fully display their potentials. This finding seems to confirm with the past research which has consistently demonstrated that levels of moderate anxiety (versus low or high anxiety) are the most optimal for tasks such as test- taking (Edward, 1999).

3. In an online learning community, most of the participants tend to play a part in collaborative and cooperative activities; knowledge is shared or transmitted among learners as they work towards common learning goals, for example, a shared understanding of the subject at hand or a solution to a problem. Learners are not passive receptacles but are active in their process of knowledge acquisition as they participate in discussions, search for information, and exchange opinions with their peers, for knowledge is co-created and shared among peers, not owned by one particular learner after obtaining it from the course materials or instructor (Brindley et al, 2009). While in a classroom learning process, students can memorize, analyze and question independently or get involved in collective activities organized by the teacher.

4. Learning interests and efficiency are improved in EFL Learning Community; their interests are aroused to interact with “mysterious” partners, whose personality, language fluency is there for him or her to explore. As Confucius said that “learning knowledge is inferior to loving it, loving the knowledge is inferior to enjoying it”, another influential philosopher in the Chinese history, Xun Zi, also believed that “Hearing knowledge is better than ignoring it, seeing knowledge is better than hearing it, understanding knowledge is better than seeing it, applying knowledge is better than understanding it. Applying knowledge is the ultimate goal of learning”. Improved interests and efficiency, in essence, is the inexhaustible power to promote learning, push researchers and teachers forward regardless obstacles from time to time.

5. Despite some of the above mentioned advantages, disadvantages of the program identified through observations, interviews and surveys include: first of all, students are sometimes disappointed by poor Internet service on campus or unsuitable instructional design, like the complexity to change icons, nicknames for a new VPIE training. Secondly, funds are inadequate to keep a technology-based research program running; and there is still a long way to go in administrative support from the authority and collaboration from almost every staff involved to guarantee curricular implementation and student participation. Thirdly, persist contribution of every member is becoming necessary to dedicate opinions, resources and energy, especially to the construction of the scenario base. Lastly, the trend of moderate anonymity calls for further in-depth study, possible solutions include indication of the user’s language level, status ranks in the virtual training, and application of technologies like Virtual Reality, 3D animation and so on.

IJALEL 2 (2):1-7, 2013 7 College EFL Learning Community is a novel application of the free online messaging tool QQ International based on designed scenarios with the highlight focusing on the students’ future work competence. But our study is insufficient currently to provide further details like how students of different language proficiency or professional skills benefit from the program, how the mentors involved benefit from the engagement of the research program and what are the causes of some contradictory viewpoints on online learning and face-to-face learning, and high learning interests versus relatively low motivation. Our future study will look into multi-disciplinary online training based on scenarios by integrating QQ and emerging technologies like free conferencing tools. Further investigations will focus on how to develop trainees’ occupational competence in a foreign language with lasting interests and maximum efficiency. References Abdulrahman, A. ( 2010). Teaching English as a Second /Foreign Language in a Ubiquitous Learning Environment. Master diss., California State University, Chico. Brindley, J. E., Walti, C., & Blaschke, L. M. (2009). Creating Effective Collaborative Learning Groups in an Online Environment. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(3), 1-18. Edward, B. (1999). Fear and Anxiety, California State University Northridge. Retrieved from http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/students/fear.htm Hundsberger, S. (2009). Arcadia: Foreign Language Learning in Second Life and the Implications for Resource Provision in Academic Libraries. Cambridge University, UK. Karen, L. J. (2012). The Advantages of E-learning. Retrieved from http://thetrainingworld.com/articles/elearningadvantages.htm Khairi I., A. & Nurul L. Bt A. R. (2010). A Study on Second Language Speaking Anxiety among UTM Students. Retrieved from http://eprints.utm.my/10275/2/Nurul_Lina_Bt_Abdul_Rahman.pdf Kirk St., A. (2007). Linguistic and Cultural Online Communication Issues in the Global Age. IGI Global. Manzaro, R. J. (2003). What Works in School: Translating Research into Action. Alexandria, USA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Publications. Mitchell, C., & SacKney, L. (2001). Building Capacity for a Learning Community. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 19(2). Porter, L. R. (2004). Developing an online curriculum: Technologies and techniques. Hershey, PA: Idea Group. 193. Qi, L., & Pingguang, C. (2012). Construction of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Platform and Application Study Based on Blog and QQ Group. Advances in Intelligent and Soft Computing, 13, 215-220. Roberts, S. M., & Pruitt, E. Z. (2009). Schools as professional learning communities: Collaborative activities and strategies for professional development (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. WEI Li (2012). Construction of Seamless English Language Learning Cyberspace via Interactive Text Messaging Tool. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(8), 1590-1596. Xingang, X., Fushan, X., & Yaoxiang, Z. (2010). Application of QQ Network Platform in Veterinary Microbiology Teaching. Journal of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, 4, 48-51. YaChun S., & MauTsuen, Y. (2008). A Collaborative Virtual Environment for Situated Language Learning Using VEC3D. Educational Technology & Society, 11(1), 56-58. Zhongwen, L. (2007). Application of VPIE in Professional Knowledge Practice and English Learning for Police Academy Students. International Forum of Teaching and Studies, 3(2), 23-28. Zhongwen, L. (2012). Construction and Application of Scenarios in College EFL Learning. International Forum of Teaching and Studies, 8(2), 32-40. Zhongwen, L. (2009). English for Elite Police. Beijing: Press of Chinese People’s Public Security University. Zhongwen, L. (2013). Virtual Policing in English: A Trainee-centered Pedagogy for Web-mediated Curricular Learning and Field Training. Journal of Software, 8(2), 344-350. Ziad, D. B. (2001). Learning Community in Online Education. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 12(4), 12-16.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

The US and UK in the Eyes of English Majors in the Arab World

Dr. Mais Qutami (Corresponding author)

Department of English Language and Literature AlZahra College for Women, Muscat, Oman P.O. Box: 3365- P.C.: 111- Airport Heights

Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Phone: (968)-9767-1357 E-mail: eternalmais@yahoo.com

Dr. Suha Qutami

Department of Instructional Services Toronto District School Board

10 Chichester Place, 401, Toronto, ON. M1T 1G5, Canada

Phone: (001)-647-853-7929 E-mail: suha_qutami@yahoo.com

Received: 24-11- 2012 Accepted: 23-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.8 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.8 Abstract The current study examines the attitudes of Jordanian female college students whose major is English language and literature towards the United States of America and the United Kingdom. It also looks into the reasons for their held beliefs about the West, the US and UK, in particular. A survey and semi- structured interviews were conducted with forty Muslim female students from various cities and villages in Jordan for this purpose. The selected students are in their final semester in the English program and have completed various courses in language and literature. In these courses, students have been mostly exposed to British and American literature throughout the four year period of their study. The study also examines whether student attitudes towards the West resemble those of the general Arab public. The findings certainly challenge the theory of the “Clash of civilizations.” In fact, the results demonstrate that students have a more favourable opinion of the UK than the US and that this has everything to do with their dissatisfaction with the current American foreign policies and nothing to do with the “American way of life.” Keywords: clash of civilizations, East, West, English majors, student attitude 1. Introduction Some researchers and analysts argue that a great hostility and hatred exists between the Arab Muslim world and the West on the grounds of the “Clash of civilizations” theory (Huntington,1996; Lewis, 2003). However, many surveys and studies have been conducted in the Middle East and the West to examine the public’s attitude towards each other that oppose this theory. For instance, the research done by internationally respected organizations such as: the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, Pew Research Center, Zogby International, and the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) in Jordan suggests that Arabs do not hold monolithic attitudes towards the West and distinctions are made between various Western countries. They also prove that their attitudes are generally influenced and sometimes shaped by western countries’ foreign policies. There is evidence that the Arab public disagrees with the foreign policies of the US and UK, in particular, and does not see the conflict with the West as a “clash of civilizations” nor as a struggle between “Crusaders and Muslims” (CSS, 2005 p. 2). Nevertheless, many hold positive views of the West and attribute positive traits to their cultures. Arabs do not see the West as a unified whole, and so attitudes towards the US and UK are usually focused on separately from the entire West since the Arab world is mostly influenced by these two nations’ foreign policies and involvement in the Middle East. Studies show that although many Arabs are disturbed by the US and British governments and their policies, they are impressed by their technological advancement, development, and freedom. Most studies reflect the general Arab public opinion of the West, but this study specifically focuses on the reactions of English majors towards the US and UK. The aim of this study is to examine the attitudes of Jordanian college students majoring in English Language and Literature towards the US and UK in particular as these two nations and their cultures are the most widely explored and discussed in the courses offered by the English department. 1.1 East- West Attitudes The issue of Arab and Muslim attitudes towards the West has become the focus of many studies like Tessler (2002), Zogby (2002), Furia and Lucas (2006), and Esposito and Mogahed (2008), and Esposito (2011) particularly after 9/11. The United States in the past enjoyed a more favorable image in the Middle East than Europe did in the 19th and early

IJALEL 2 (2):8-14, 2013 9 20th centuries, writes Alfred Prados in his 2001 report on US- Middle Eastern relations. He goes on to explain that at the time it hardly engaged in any wars with the Middle East and showed no colonial ambitions in the region, thus, American visitors or scholars were welcomed and highly respected there until this period of minimal involvement of the US came to an end after World War II. Since then the US has developed various interests in the Middle East and engaged in several wars with its people which affected public opinions of it. The tragic event on September 11, 2001 made relations even worse between the two cultures. This tragedy has also caused people to search for an answer for the question “why they hate us.” In answering this question, many simply thought the conflict between the West and Arabs and Muslims was based on a long history of a “clash of civilizations” and a typical response has been that Islamic and Western societies are antithetical in their values (Esposito, 2011, p. 367). Former president Bush was the main figure who reinforced this misinterpretation in his speeches to the public in which he would state that “Others” hold a grudge towards the USA because they are against the “American way of life,” freedom, and democracy misleading many people to think it is Muslims who are against their style of life and are willing to attack others because of such a difference in culture and religion. The former President’s relentless reinforcement of the division between “us” and “them” has created a high sense of hostility and animosity between the US and the Arab World. One of the more infamous examples was in his address to a joint session of Congress in 2001:

On September 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country . . . Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber—a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms—our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other . . . Every nation . . . now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

Actually this notion of Muslims hating America and its freedom and democracy has been contested by senior analyst of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, Ahmed Younis, who found through a survey he helped direct that the number one response to what Muslims admired the most about America was technological advancement, followed by freedom and democracy (Bodily, 2012). In fact, the United States is seen as a “land of milk and honey” as well as a land of freedom and opportunity in spite of the fact that they sense Western hostility to Islamic society (Prados, 2001). Accordingly, this theory of the “Clash of Civilizations” has been tested and has failed repeatedly especially when studies such as Furia and Lucas (2008), Zogby (2002), Esposito (2011) have proven that Muslims and Arabs do not hate Westerners and do not have the same attitude towards all Western nations. According to Furia and Lucas (2008), the strongest support was found for the political hypothesis in their study that “hostility toward specific Western countries is predicted by those countries’ recent and visible international political actions in regard to salient international issues” (p. 186). That is, many Middle Eastern countries may have more favourable opinions of certain western countries over others based on their actions and governments’ policies thereby proving that it is not a clash of civilizations or values that fuels an animosity between nations. In other words, the Eastern and Western civilization may not share the same values but this has not been the cause of conflict between the two civilizations just as Arabs and Muslims have not had clashes with Asian civilizations in spite of some vast differences they have in faith, beliefs, political system, and style of life. As Furia and Lucas (2006) and the Zogby poll (2002) suggest, Arab opinions about Western countries have everything to do with specific countries’ foreign policies and very little to do with a clash of civilizations. While Samuel Huntington’s (1996) controversial theory on the clash of civilizations identifies the Islamic civilization as being the most likely to clash with the Western one, the results of the Abu Dhabi Gallup survey (2011a) have proven that religiosity and Islam are not barriers to Muslim- West relations as is often assumed, for many countries who say religion is important still rank high in their positive views about Muslim- West relations. Younis points out several reasons behind Muslims’ disagreement with Americans such as Muslims’ belief that the US continues to “exercise political domination over other areas of the world.” Cultural disrespect combined with political action was another reason mentioned for the conflict between Muslims and Americans and finally Muslims’ perception of the United States as a “catalyst for war and instability” and their belief that America promotes conflict” (Bodily, 2012). There is also a wide perception among Arabs and Muslims that the United States respects the human rights of its own citizens and practices democracy within its borders but does not necessarily promote these values abroad (Prados, 2001, p. 8). The survey published by CSS in Jordan shows that despite the dissatisfaction with the US and British policies, the Arab world desires stronger relations with the West. Arabs do not hold entirely negative views of the West for the findings show they have a much more positive attitude towards France, for instance. Only 25% of sample respondents report feeling either highly or moderately positive towards the US and UK as opposed to the 57% who feel more positively towards France. This is no surprise as they view the US and UK as violating human rights, “imposing their wills” on other nations, and promoting their own interests. Nevertheless, they associate the US and UK and the West in general with liberty, wealth, liberalism, and technological advancement. Esposito (2011) notes that Muslims admire America’s democratic principles but believe the United States has double standards in its application and promotion of democracy and human rights since it has failed to apply such principles in its relations with the Arab region and treatment of Muslims. Many in Jordan and other Muslim countries sensed disrespect for the Islamic religion through Western cartoon depictions of the prophet as the Pew Global Attitudes Project (2006) shows. The Gallup survey (2011b) focused on Islamophobia and anti- Muslim sentiment in the West reflects Muslims not feeling respected by the West. Findings reveal that several Western countries share this sentiment. Particularly, 38% of Britons and 52% of Americans say the West does not respect Muslim societies and this percentage is the highest

IJALEL 2 (2):8-14, 2013 10 compared to other Western countries with smaller percentages that agree. The survey shows that many Muslims believe they are treated unfairly due to Islamophobia existing in Western societies. In fact they are seen more often than not as intolerant and not accepting of other religions. Specifically, one in five Americans think most Muslims around the world are not accepting of other religions and of people of different races other than their own. The findings of The Pew Global Attitudes Project (2006) show similar results and indicate that Muslims are mostly seen by the West as fanatical and violent in addition to lacking tolerance while Muslims in the Middle East and Asia generally see Western societies as selfish, immoral, violent, and fanatical. Muslims in general believe the West is to be blamed for the strained relationship between the two parties. In a recent 2012 article published by The Guardian, Leon Moosavi writes that xenophobia is pervasive in British society today leading Muslims to be seen as outsiders and potential enemies even if they have integrated into British society. There is evidence from a survey conducted at the University of Essex that nearly half of British society considers Muslims as a threat and 52% believe they create problems in the UK. The most striking finding, however, is that 58% of Britons associate Islam with extremism (Moosavi, 2012). The YouGov poll (2010) found that 69% believe Islam encouraged the repression of women. The survey also indicates that 50% of British society associates Islam with terrorism while only 6% associate it with justice. Ironically, 60% admitted they did not know much about the religion and only 33% would be interested in finding out more about it. The British Social Attitudes Survey published by NatCen, the UK’s largest independent social policy research organization, reports in its 2010 report that there is far greater opposition to Islam than any other faith in the UK and that only a quarter of Britons have a positive attitude towards Muslims. 1.2 Literature, Perceptions, and Attitudes Students learn about Western culture, its perceptions, and attitudes through reading the literature it has produced. Jordanian students majoring in English started to study American and British language and literature during school and continue to do so during college. Throughout the program, students learn to analyze, critique literary texts, and build arguments. As they read literature, they get exposed specifically to American and British cultures, values, traditions, and systems of thought and belief. In the process of their learning and constructing analyses, they may compare the two cultures to each other or to their own or form an image of them based on what they have read from their literary productions. Literature has always been powerful in the way it has been viewed as the “window to the world” and a reflection of a culture’s history, and tradition (Sidhu, Fook, & Kaur, 2010, p. 54). Sidhu et al. (2010) add that literature helps learners gain an understanding and appreciation of cultures and ideologies other than their own and increase their sense of tolerance to others. It makes them aware of differences in cultures and exposes them to the “other’s” culture, attitudes, practices, and beliefs as they are often reflected in literary texts, thus enabling students to formulate their own perceptions and views as to how individuals of another culture relate to their experiences and form judgments about them (LaboPopoola, 2010, p. 52). Many professors encourage and teach students to think critically about the societies represented in various literary texts. This continuous practice of critical analysis students undergo leads them to an awareness of the fact that “texts are not ideologically natural or neutral” and that some voices are represented while others are silenced (Luke & Freebody, 1999). According to Figuiredo (2008), if students are introduced to a critical perspective of reading, they will gain insight into the represented culture and relations of social power since “texts bear traces of the discourses and ideologies of the institutions which produce them” (p. 139). This process of critical analyses brings students to a deeper understanding of the culture and the sociopolitical issues raised by the writers which eventually leads to the formation of certain images of that culture in students’ minds. Through their reading of American and British literature, students are likely to develop attitudes towards the two cultures whether positive, negative, or neutral, perhaps some will be conflicted about how they view them. According to Fishbein’s and Ajzen’s (1975) definition of attitude, it is ‘‘a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object” (p. 6). It is believed attitudes are an individual’s reaction to or affective evaluation of the supposed facts about a situation reflecting a favorable or unfavorable opinion about the object or situation (Holden & Edwards, 1989, p. 89–90). These definitions show that students are inclined to respond either favorably or unfavorably to the situations they read about in literary texts and the facts they learn through studying the history of American and British societies from various sources. Attitudes are actually seen as often reflecting multiple kinds and sources of information, thus, they can be conceived as summary evaluations of people, behaviors, or objects (Zanna & Rempel, 1988). In practicing critical analysis and constructing critical arguments, students piece together various types of information, images, and situations they encountered from different sources and the American and British literary works they studied indirectly leading them to forming summary evaluations of people and traditions and forming attitudes towards the two cultures in general. Research about student attitudes towards the English language and literature and studies about Arab public attitudes towards the West exist, but the significance of the current study lies in the fact that it focuses on the attitudes of Muslim Jordanian female students, particularly, majoring in English language and literature towards the US and UK. 2. Research Questions Through the conducted survey and interviews with students, the study aims to address the following questions: 1-How do students of English view the US and UK, and why are they viewed this way? 2-How do these student attitudes toward the US and UK differ from those of the general Arab public?

IJALEL 2 (2):8-14, 2013 11 3-Does majoring in English language and literature affect how student attitudes toward the West are shaped? 3. Method The main tools used for this study were a survey and semi- structured interviews during which students were asked about how they viewed the US and UK and if they had the same attitude towards the two countries. The general idea behind the study was explained to students to achieve a sense of comfort among them and objectivity at the same time. They were told their views would be reported in this study yet remain anonymous to which permission was granted. 3.1 Participants The sample in this study included forty Muslim Jordanian female students majoring in English Language and Literature. The ages of these female students ranged from 20 to 22 years. They were in their fourth and last academic year, and have almost completed all the requirements for their major. The participants were exposed to literature and language through the credit courses they took at the Department of English. These students have never visited the USA or UK to have developed attitudes towards them based on their visits but have been exposed to these cultures through their study of the English Language and Literature and most likely the media. 4. Results 4.1 Survey A survey was conducted to examine student attitudes towards the US and the UK. The survey revealed that 60% agreed that they see the West, in general, in a positive way, while 33% disagreed, and 7% strongly disagreed with the statement. The next result indicated that 10% strongly agreed that they saw the UK in a positive way, 73% agreed, while 10% disagreed and 7% strongly disagreed. However, their views of the US were quite different. Those who think of the US in a positive way were 33%, those who disagreed with that were 50% and 17% strongly disagreed with that. The next statement showed that 25% strongly agreed that they preferred to live in the UK rather than the US, 55% agreed, however, 13% disagreed and 7% strongly disagreed. As for continuing their education in the UK, 33% strongly agreed they preferred to do so in the UK rather than the US, and 55% agreed, while 10% disagreed and only 2% strongly disagreed. The next question was about whether they felt studying Shakespeare and British literature improved their views of the UK with which 10% strongly agreed and 55% agreed, but 27% disagreed and 8% strongly disagreed. They were asked the same question but about American literature and its role in improving their perceptions of America with which only 10% strongly agreed and 58% agreed, however, 22% disagreed and only 10% strongly disagreed. The final statement was about how they think the West sees them as Muslim and Arab and whether it is in a positive way. The responses indicated that 10% strongly agreed that they thought the West sees them in a positive way, 20% also agreed, while 45% disagreed and 25% strongly disagreed with this. 4.2 Interviews Semi- structured interviews were conducted to examine students’ views of the US and UK and the reasons they give for holding such views. Views towards the US will be discussed first then those towards the UK. 4.2.1 Attitudes towards the US The responses about the US can be categorized into three groups according to the content of these responses and the reasons given: first, negative views due to political and cultural reasons, second, positive views, and third, neutral. The interviews indicated that a large number of students do not have favorable views of the US due to various political reasons. They believe Americans view Arabs and Muslims as terrorists and violent people; therefore, they mistreat them and discriminate against them. They also think Americans see them as enemies and hate them because they are Muslims and do not respect them as Arab or Muslim. This group thinks that the US rules the world, and can do horrible actions against other countries and no one can stop them. Students explain, the US wants to dominate the world and steal resources and oil of Arab nations, and the examples they give are the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. Some think that the US interferes with political problems in the Arab region when it should not. Several students mentioned they were not happy with America’s relations with the Middle East because they believe “it imposes its ideas on other nations, controls the rich countries, and oppresses their people through its imperialist agenda.” One student stated that “America calls for peace while it is the one who is creating wars.” Another mentioned, “The US thinks it is the best and others have to follow its rules.” Other students criticized the US because of what they learned about the existence of racial discrimination against African Americans. Some negative views of the US have been attributed to cultural reasons. A few students feel there is too much freedom in the US and this does not appeal to them as a way of life. Others said that American movies reveal that American values are very different from students’ and do not agree with their own. They also thought that American media focuses much more on entertainment rather than education. The next group of respondents were neutral or rather conflicted about how they view the US. Some believed it is a land of opportunity and development and many people in the world wish to live there, however, they did not think it was a great place for Arabs and Muslims because they do not think they are respected there. Others agreed that some Americans may disrespect Arab culture but others do not. A few others liked the democratic principles and standards of freedom practiced in the US, but think it would be difficult for Muslim women to live there because of the pressure they will face from society because of the Islamic veil.

IJALEL 2 (2):8-14, 2013 12 The last group held positive views of the US. They thought it offers its own citizens and people around the world great education and technology. Others thought it is the strongest country in the world and the most developed. A few thought Americans are friendly people but may not like Muslims for religious reasons. One commented that “America is a country that can help others to improve their situation and can offer many opportunities for advancement and people there respect each other and those who work in their country.” Others wished they could interact with Americans their age to improve their image as Muslims and build positive relations with them. 4.2.2 Attitudes towards the UK Interviews with students showed that most of them hold a positive attitude towards the UK and their responses fall under three categories according to the reasons given for such an attitude. The three main reasons students gave for their positive views of the UK are: first, British respect for other cultures, second, their comfort with British English as a language to study, third, their perception of the UK as a peaceful country that is not interested in dominating other nations. The first group thinks that in the UK there is great respect for people from other cultures and the British respect Muslims and Arabs in particular. Some students think the British are tolerant to religious and cultural differences even if they do not believe in the same values. The second set of students believes British English is easier for them to learn than American English. They are also impressed by the UK’s civilization and rich history and wish to continue their studies there. The third group thinks that the British are pacifists and are not interested in controlling other countries. They believe the UK had a lot of power in the past and ruled so many parts of the world but this is history and they are different today. They think “They no longer have that power and do not think of colonizing other nations, they just want to be the best through other means besides war.” 5. Discussion The findings of the study reveal that a high percentage of students have a positive attitude towards the West in general and the UK in particular while lower percentages were found to have positive feelings towards the US. These findings agree with Zogby (2002), Furia and Lucas (2008), and Esposito (2011) which assert that the Arab world does not have a monolithic attitude towards the West by any means. That is, while the Arab public has quite favourable attitudes towards some Western countries like France, it has unfavourable attitudes toward others like the United States so a generalization about all Western countries cannot be made. The results in the current study, however, do not agree with the findings reached by the CSS (2005) in Jordan which indicate that the Arab world is dissatisfied with both British and American foreign policies equally while only a quarter of respondents had positive views of them. That is, positive attitudes towards the UK have been found among a large number of students in the study. But Zogby’s (2002), Furia and Lucas’ (2006; 2008), and Esposito’s (2011) suggestion that the political hypothesis that hostility towards specific Western countries has resulted from those countries’ political actions in regard to various international issues in the Middle East and their foreign policies has been reaffirmed by the responses we received from our students in the current study. The current study echoes the conclusions arrived at in Bodily’s (2012) and the CSS (2005) study about Arab perceptions of the US as promoting conflict and imposing its will on other countries. Many students had expressed their discomfort with the role the US has been playing in the Middle East and perceived it as an interference to promote its own interests in the region. On the other hand, student responses indicated that they do not have a similar perception of the UK and do not view it the same way. This is contrary to the public view reflected in the CSS (2005) study as the Arab public had dealt with the US and UK as one entity holding similar views of both. The admiration of the West for its technological advancement and values of democracy and freedom reflected in the Gallup (2011) and CSS (2005) studies has also been found to a great extent among our students. On the other hand, results collected about our student attitudes reassert the wide perception among the Arab and Muslim public that the US respects human rights and practices democracy within its own borders, thereby it practices double standards particularly in the Middle East as it does not apply these values abroad and not in the “other’s” lands (Prados, 2001; Esposito 2011). There is evidence that the subjects in our study, the students, do not feel respected by the US and neither is their culture or religion. These sentiments are justified as reflected in the Gallup (2011b) study which indicates that the highest percentages are found in the US and UK compared to other Western countries that confirm the West does not respect Muslim societies. In this case, students’ feelings of not being respected by the US do not differ from those of the general Arab public and sadly these sentiments have been confirmed by some Westerners themselves who agree that anti- Muslim sentiments exist in the West, so the Arab world has sound reasons to believe so as often represented in Western media. In the study, students’ held belief that their religion and culture is respected by the British contradicts the findings of the Gallup (2011b) study which reveals that 38% of Britons say the West does not respect Muslim societies. This belief is also questioned in light of the fact that 50% of British society links Islam to terrorism while 69% think it encourages the oppression of women, as the YouGov (2010) poll suggests. The Pew Global Attitude (2004; 2006) and British Social Attitude (2010) studies confirm our students’ and Arab public’s belief that they are seen by the West as violent and fanatical, and are associated with terrorism. 6. Conclusion & Implications: As can be seen from the findings, the “Why do they hate us?” question holds no grounds. The study confirms that Jordanian students of English and the Arab public in general do not hate the West and do not see it in entirely negative terms. Actually, many associate the West with development, technological advancement, and liberation; traits many of

IJALEL 2 (2):8-14, 2013 13 them admire. It is worth noting that although Arabs do not hate the West or the US, there is a widespread distrust of the US that is not unique to the Arab public but extends beyond the Middle East to include south Asia and several European allies such as Germany, France, and the UK, a YouGov survey found (Borger & Clark, 2012). It was found that Germany was more sceptical than trusting of the US, whereas French and British opinions were more positive yet deeply divided. Although the survey reflected American affection to its British ally, there was British ambivalence about America’s role in world affairs. However, two- thirds of the American respondents in the survey said they trusted the UK to “act responsibly” and the main traits they attributed to the UK were a respect for human rights and “a sensible voice in the world.” Unfortunately, when British respondents were asked to choose a word they associated with America, 40% chose “bullying” and only 12% associated the US with respect for human rights (Borger & Clark, 2012). These findings prove that the negative sentiments among Arabs and Muslims toward the US are not based on a clash of Eastern and Western civilizations and that a distrust of the US is there within the West itself. Students of English and the Arab public do not believe the conflict between the West and the Arab World is caused by religious or cultural differences which is contrary to what some researchers, particularly in the US, have suggested. The findings indicate their disagreement is rather based on Western foreign policies, particularly represented by the US, and their political practices in the Middle East. The study also reveals that the attitudes held by students of English towards the US are similar to those of the general public in the Arab world. The UK, however, is perceived more positively by our students than the Arab public. Students think it is a peaceful country which no longer has any colonial or imperial interests in the region and lacks the power to repeat history or the past since it is not a super power any more. They are also under the impression that their culture and religion are respected by the British and that British perception of Muslims is more positive than American’s. Unfortunately, the Gallup (2011b) survey shows evidence that disrupts such perceptions. While English majors and the general public have the same attitude towards the US and its foreign policies, the discrepancy in opinions of the UK can be understood in light of the age factor of the participants in the study. Students may not agree with the general public in their negative feelings about the UK since their ages range between 20-22 years, and so they may not have sufficient knowledge of the British colonial legacy and history in the Middle East or its current role in world politics. But they have acquired enough information from various sources, and the media being one of them, about the current US presence and political interests in the region and its relations with the Muslim world (especially with Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine) leading them to favour the UK over the US. The general public, on the other hand, holds different views because it naturally includes older individuals who most probably worked under the British rule at least during the first half of the 20th century and have experienced the impact of British colonization first hand possibly. This colonial experience and memories of it have most likely remained in the public’s consciousness and even been passed down to the next generation, thereby, affecting their attitudes towards the UK even if its current presence in the Middle East and the media is not as prevalent as the US is. The findings suggest that specializing in the English language and literature does not necessarily change student attitudes towards the West but it does influence them. At the same time, it cannot be denied that the media will continue to have a major impact on the formation of the public’s opinion of the West and students’ of English as well. Studying the English language and literature may have reinforced students’ previous conceptions of the UK and the US, and West in general. Furthermore, negative views towards the US by Arabs, studies show, result from feeling embittered and threatened by it, and so, once the threat is lifted, these negative attitudes are bound to disappear. The study reveals that positive attitudes towards American society and culture exist in the Arab world but a certain level of anger also exists towards the US government. These mixed feelings in the Arab region suggest that the US ought to demonstrate its dedication to principles of peace and democracy in its relationship with the Middle East and foreign policies in order to regain the trust of the general public in the Arab world and the Middle East at large. References Bodily, N. (2012, April 25). Understanding Muslim Views of the US: Pollster debunks Muslim Myths. Retrieved from http://www.usustatesman.com/understanding-muslim-views-of-the-us-1.2735354#.UA3YA2FWqhE. Borger, J. , & Clark, T. (2012, Sept 11). Widespread distrust of US extends beyond Middle East, poll shows. The Gaurdian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/11/distrust-us-middle-east-poll. Bush, G. W. (2005, Jan. 20). President Bush's second inaugural address. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4460172. Center for Strategic Studies. (2005). Revisiting the Arab street research from within. Amman, Jordan: University of Jordan. Esposito, J.L. (2011). The future of Islam and U.S.-Muslim relations. Political Science Quarterly, 126, 365-401. Esposito, J. L. & Mogahed, D. (2007). Who speaks for Islam? What a billion Muslims really think. New York: Gallup Press. Figueiredo, D.C. (2000). Critical discourse analysis: towards a new perspective of EFL reading. Critical Discourse Analysis, 38, 139-154. Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. California: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

IJALEL 2 (2):8-14, 2013 14 Furia, P. & Lucas, R. (2006). Determinants of Arab public opinion on foreign relations. International Studies Quarterly, 50, 585–605. Furia, P. & Lucas, R. (2008). Arab Muslim attitudes toward the west: cultural, social, and political explanations. International Interactions, 34, 186–207. Gallup World Poll Knowledge Center. (2011a). The Abu Dhabi Gallup forum: Research, dialogue, and solutions. New York: Gallup Press. Gallup World Poll Knowledge Center. (2011b). Islamophobia: Understanding anti-Muslim sentiment in the West. New York, Gallup Press. Holden, G. W., & Edwards, L. A. (1989). Parental attitudes toward child rearing: Instruments, issues, and implications. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 29–58 Huntington, S. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. New York: Simon & Schuster. Labo-Popoola. S.O. (2010). The place of literature in the teaching of English language as a second language. The Social Sciences, 5, 49-54. Lewis, B. (2003). The crisis of Islam: Holy war and unholy terror. London: Phoenix. Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1999). Further notes on the four resources model. Reading Online. Retrieved from http://readingonline.org/past/past_index.asp?HREF=/research/lukefreebody.html Moosavi, L. (2012, July 3). Muslims are well-integrated in Britain – but no one seems to believe it.The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jul/03/muslims-integrated-britain/print Park, A. , Curtice, J., Thomson, K., Phillips, M., & Clery, E. (2010). British Social Attitudes: The 26th Report, London: Sage. Pew Global Attitudes Project. (2004). A year after the Iraq war: Mistrust of America in Europe even higher, Muslim anger persists. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Pew Global Attitudes Project. (2006). Europe's Muslims more moderate. The great divide: How Westerners and Muslims view each other. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Prados, A. B. (2001, Dec 31). Middle East: Attitudes toward the United States. Retrieved from http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/7858.pdf. Sidhu, G. K., Fook, C. Y., & Kaur, S. (2010). Instructional practices in teaching literature: Observations of ESL classrooms in Malaysia. English Language Teaching, 3, 54-63. Tessler, M. (2002). Islam and democracy in the Middle East: the impact of religious orientations on attitudes toward democracy in four Arab countries. Comparative Politics, 34, 337-254. YouGov. (2010, May 21). Exploring Islam foundation. Retrieved from http://www.eifoundation.net/index.html Zanna, M. P., & Rempel, J. K. (1988). Attitudes: A new look at an old concept. In D. Bar-Tal, & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), The social psychology of knowledge (315-334). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Zogby International. (2002). The ten nation impressions of America poll. Utica, NY: Zogby International. Zogby International. (2004). Impressions of America poll. Utica, NY: Zogby International.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Language Varieties of the Abstracts in Journal Articles Written by Chinese and American Scholars:

A Contrastive Corpus Analysis using the Gramulator

Danmin Ye (Corresponding author) School of Foreign Languages & Cultures, Nanjing Normal University

122 Ninghai Road, Nanjing 210097, China Tel: 86-25-8359-8581 E-mail: demiyedm@gmail.com

Dongzhu Wang

School of Foreign Languages & Cultures, Nanjing Normal University 122 Ninghai Road, Nanjing 210097, China

Tel: 86-25-8359-8581 E-mail: wdzhnsd@yahoo.com.cn

Received: 14-11- 2012 Accepted: 23-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.15 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.15 Abstract In this study, we identify the systematic language varieties and discourse characteristics that are indicative of the academic writings of Chinese and American scientists. We conduct a Contrastive Corpus Analysis using the computational tool, the Gramulator, to identify indicative features in Chinese science journal abstracts as compared to American science abstracts. The results suggest that the Chinese scientists tend to employ different linguistic features from their American counterparts. Specifically, Chinese science abstracts can be characterized as non-standard varieties of English by the choice of the three items: the agent, the tense, and two major types of reporting verbs. We conclude that the results may account for the interpretation of Chinese academic writings of English as non-prototypical in terms of discourse style. This study sheds light on language varieties and methodology that may be helpful to English Language Learners as well as materials developers in countries such as China. Keywords: language varieties, science abstracts writing, contrastive corpus analysis, the Gramulator 1. Introduction The last three decades have seen a growing number of discourse studies on written academic genres, especially research articles produced by scientists (e.g., Hyland, 2000; Swales, 1990, 2004) and by graduate students (e.g., Bunton, 2002, 2005; Dong, 1998; Ridley, 2000; Swales,2004; Thompson, 1999, 2001, 2005). Studies such as these have ranged from explorations of the discourse macrostructure (e.g., the introduction, discussion, and conclusion) to various patterns of lexical features. In the recent years, interdisciplinary methods have been applied to this area of genre analysis, especially with the development of applied natural language processing (ANLP) tools and techniques (e.g., Crossley&Louwerse, 2007; Gibbs et al, 2002; Graesser& McNamara, 2011). The writing of science abstracts, another unique section of the discourse structure, has also attracted the interests in ANLP studies (e.g. Cho, 2009; McCarthy et al, 2009; Min & McCarthy, 2012, in review) as well as scientists in different countries especially non-English speaking countries who seek to publish their research in international journals. As a large portion of these non-native-English-speaking-researchers, Chinese scientists find it frustrating to have their research articles resubmitted or rejected for language problems in this specialized area of science journals (Yu & Liang, 2006). Of course, there are many books that are helpful with basic academic writing in a second or foreign language (e.g., Tang, 2012). But for the level of scientific journal texts, as McCarthy and colleagues (2009) demonstrate, relatively little research has compared the texts of non-native-English-speaking scientists (or Outsiders as they are referred to in Min & McCarthy) to those written by their native-English-speaking counterparts (or Insiders as they are referred to in Min & McCarthy) so as to identify linguistic varieties using computational tools. This issue is of importance because the degree to which an English-language text differs from an expected model (e.g. American English) may negatively affect the chances of the non-native English speakers having their manuscripts accepted (Flowerdew, 2001; Hewings, 2006). To facilitate the production of Outsiders with the issue of academic English writing, McCarthy et al. (2009) analyzed English articles written by Japan, Britain, and American scientists. Their study provided evidence that Japanese authors used significantly more locational and temporal items, high frequency words, high familiarity words, cardinal numbers and higher syntactical similarity in sentence structures as compared to their American counterparts. Building on this study, Duncan and Hall (2009) analyzed the journal articles of three groups of scientists: Americans; Koreans publishing articles in Korea; and Koreans publishing articles in America. They found that the journal articles of Koreans publishing-in-Korea were the most distinct, and therefore, the least prototypical as compared to the other two groups. Recently Min and McCarthy (in review) compared the journal texts of Korean scientists and American

IJALEL 2 (2):15-24, 2013 16 scientists. Their findings suggested that American scientists preferred personal pronouns, present tense, and active voice in the use of verbs of reporting, as compared to the Korean scientists. Korean scientists share commonalities on the choice of words with Americans but they differed in terms of how they presented the words. Specifically, they preferred fewer personal pronouns, the past tense, and passive voice in the use of verbs of reporting when compared to their American counterparts. Building on this research, the current study further investigates the issue of English writing in journal articles by assessing the English science abstracts written by Chinese scientists. The purpose of our study is to discover and assess language varieties used in science abstract writings of Chinese scientists as compared to American scientists. In this study, we seek to identify the variation of linguistic features within the text (i.e., the linguistic choices in terms of words and groups of words). Through such an approach, we aim to address the following primary research questions: Question one: Do the findings of this study support Min and McCarthy (2012, in review) results concerning Korean scientists? Question two: Do Chinese scholars employ distinct language varieties in academic science abstracts writings in comparison to a prototypical model from American scientists? If so, how different do they use these non-standard language varieties compared with their American counterparts? Question three: Do Chinese and American scientists have different preference of linguistic features while writing journal abstracts? Hypothesis one: The findings of this study support Min and McCarthy (2012, in review) results concerning Korean scientists. Hypothesis two: Chinese scholars employ distinct language varieties in comparison to a prototypical model from American scholars in their academic science abstracts writings. Hypothesis three: Chinese and American scholars have different preference of linguistic features while writing journal abstracts. 2. Methods of the present study 2.1 Contrastive Corpus Analysis The origin of Contrastive Corpus Analysis (Cobb, 2003; Granger, 1998) can be dated back to the Brown corpus (Kučera& Nelson, 1967) in that its first collection of texts (500) enabled numerous studies, among which the most famous presumably is Biber’s (1989), to understand text types as much by where they overlapped as where they did not. The principle of CCA is that any discourse unit (e.g., text-type, register, genre, variety, or section of text) is best understood, and perhaps only understandable, within the context of its contrast to some other discourse unit (McCarthy, Watanabe, & Lamkin, 2012). CCA differs from traditional corpus analyses because it emphasizes on what two (or more) correlative corpora can reveal when their commonalities are excluded by computational and statistical techniques. In the field of second language learning (SLL), Cobb describes CCA as the comparison of two corpora through which what is present and what is not present can be derived. Thus, in two corpora that are highly related but differ minimally (e.g. scientific writing in English by Chinese scientists vs. scientific writing in English by American scientists), the linguistic features that are characteristic of one corpus, but non-characteristic of the sister corpus, is what is indicative of the text type. 2.2 The Corpus Our corpus comprises 672 abstracts taken from 31 science journals published in either China or the United States respectively. The contents cover three genres: the so called “hard sciences” of biology, chemistry, and physics. These journals, all with high impact factors rank in the top five in each area of the three subjects. And all of the articles are published in the last five years (i.e., from 2007 to 2012). In addition, the journals are compiled as parallel as possible to ensure the comparability. For example, we have Chinese journal of Inorganic Chemistry in the Chinese corpus in parallel with Inorganic Chemistry in the American corpus. From these texts, two individual sub-corpora were compiled: (1) Chinese scientists in China (CSC) and (2) American scientists in America (ASA). The Chinese English corpus comprises Chinese scientists’ abstracts (n = 335), published exclusively in 15 different Chinese journals. The American English corpus (the assumed prototypical model) comprises U.S. scientists’ abstracts (n = 337), published exclusively in 16 U.S. journals. To ensure the original nationalities of the authors, the model of McCarthy and colleagues (2009) was followed (see also Duncan & Hall, 2009 and Min and McCarthy 2012, in review). This model has two major criteria: (1) the first author (generally the person who writes most of the paper or leads the projects in the field of science) and the last author (generally the supervisor) should be from universities or institutes within the same country (e.g. in this study, the first and the last authors of the Chinese English and the American English corpora should be from the Chinese and the American universities or institutes respectively). (2)The names of the primary and final authors must be ‘typical’ of the country of the classification. That is, the primary and final authors in the Chinese and American corpora represent the typical names for Chinese and Americans respectively. Of course, this model cannot always ensure the authenticity of the authors’ nationalities, but these criteria of classification are effective in determining the language backgrounds of the writers. For the classification of Chinese authors, it is not hard to do the task because the first author of this study is Chinese and the names are always written in Chinese characters in Chinese science journals. For the classification of the American authors, we ensure that both the first and the last authors are working in American universities or institutes,

IJALEL 2 (2):15-24, 2013 17 which means that they are American-based authors. Following Min and McCarthy (2012, in review), the current study focuses on the abstracts of journal articles written by Chinese and American scientists to find the distinctive features of each corpus. As a unique section of the discourse structure, science abstracts are the first reviewed and most frequently read part of the journal articles. They are also representative of the entire research, always available on internet, and easy to collect. These points make science abstracts a reasonable point of departure for the current study. Chinese corpus American corpus Journals 15 16 Abstracts 335 337 Years 2007-2012 2007-2012 Content biology, chemistry, physics biology, chemistry, physics

2.3 The Gramulator In this study, we analyzed the Chinese and American corpora using the natural language processing tool, the Gramulator (McCarthy, Watanabe, & Lamkin, 2012). The Gramulator is a qualitative and quantitative computational textual analysis tool, freely available on internet. It is designed to identify differential linguistic features of correlative sister corpora. The tool’s primary unit of analysis is the n-gram: adjacently positioned lexical items in a text. In this study, we focus on two-word n-grams (or, bigrams); and more exactly, on differentials, the lexical features that are most commonly occurring to one corpus (i.e., among the 50% most frequent bigrams), but are uncommon to the contrasting corpus (i.e., not among the 50% most frequent bigrams). By identifying differentials, we reveal the language varieties in the specific contexts that are most characteristic to the Chinese corpus but are least characteristic in the American corpus and explore further the reason why they are present in the discourse of abstracts. In our Gramulator analysis, we write the differentials of the two corpora as Chinese (American) and American (Chinese) differentials respectively. In the current study, we followed Min and McCarthy’s research and focus on the two Korean differentials they found: was/were not, and verbs of reporting. The analysis is mainly about the differentials in two forms: the bigram (i.e. the actual two words) and the flexi-gram (i.e. the underlying or theoretical form of the bigram, for example the flexi-gram for his dog and his cat is his pet). We verify these differentials using the Chinese corpus to assess whether Korean scientists’ preferences generalize to Chinese scientists in terms of choice of linguistic features. We employed the method of Contrastive Corpus Analysis in this study. Here are two samples of the science abstracts from the Chinese and American corpus respectively: A patch of open coal mining land was reclaimed for ecological rehabitation 17 years ago in Antaibao, Shanxi Province, China. Under the rehabilitated Robinia pseudoacacia + Pinus tabuliformis mixed forest, herbacious plants in 320 quadrats(1 m 1 m) in the 0.8 hm2 plot were surveyed for the species composition, spatial patterns and other community properties. The results showed that the land was rich in herbaceous species, containing 44 species, which belonged to 30 genera under 16 families. The dominant families were Poaceae and Asteraceae, and the dominant species included Artemisia annua, Elymus dahuricus and Artemisia sieversiana. The initially planted Bromus inermis deteriorated badly. The important value, species abundance and frequencies were different among the families or species. The dominant families and species were commonly distributed, and the spatial patterns were obviously spatial heterogeneous. (Chinese_biology_073) Mussels have a remarkable ability to attach their holdfast, or byssus, opportunistically to a variety of substrata that are wet, saline, corroded, and/or fouled by biofilms. Mytilus edulis foot protein-5 (Mefp-5) is one of several proteins in the byssal adhesive plaque of the mussel M. edulis. The high content of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (Dopa) (30 mol %) and its localization near the plaque Csubstrate interface have often prompted speculation that Mefp-5 plays a key role in adhesion. Using the surface forces apparatus, we show that on mica surfaces Mefp-5 achieves an adhesion energy approaching Ead = 14 mJ/m2. This exceeds the adhesion energy of another interfacial protein, Mefp-3, by a factor of 4C5 and is greater than the adhesion between highly oriented monolayers of biotin and streptavidin. The adhesion to mica is notable for its dependence on Dopa, which is most stable under reducing conditions and acidic pH. Mefp-5 also exhibits strong protein Cprotein interactions with itself as well as with Mefp-3 from M. edulis. (American_biology_062) 3. Results Analysis 1: Comparison to Min and McCarthy Results

Highest ranking flexigram preference In Min and McCarthy (2012, in review), the most frequently used flexigram for the Korean scientists was was/were not. More specifically the Koreans appeared to prefer was/were + not as compared to their American counterparts’ preference for am/is/are + not. When we apply this Korean flexigram to the Chinese and American corpora from the current study, we find no significant difference in frequency of use (Chinese: 7 instances across 7 files out of 335 abstracts, 2.09%; American: 9 instances across 8 files out 337 abstracts, 2.37%; p = 1.000). Converting to the present tense (as preferred by the American scientists), the flexigram am/is/are + not again failed to reach a level of significance (Chinese: 15 instances across 14 files out of 335 abstracts, 4.18%; American: 18 instances across 17 files out of 337 abstracts, 5.05%; p = .713). Taken together, the results do not provide evidence that the primary findings of the Korean/American scientists’ linguistic preferences generalize to Chinese scientists.

IJALEL 2 (2):15-24, 2013 18 Verbs of reporting The second flexigram of note from Min and McCarthy (2012, in review) was entitled verbs of reporting. The flexigram included various forms of the lemmas for seven verbs (e.g. show, demonstrate, report, find, identify, use and present). Following Min and McCarthy’s findings, we searched for the verbs of reporting in the differentials of the Chinese and American corpora. We found 5 verbs of reporting, show, demonstrate, present, find, and report in the American differentials and took them as the prototypical words for reporting findings. To assess whether Min and McCarthy’s finding generalizes to Chinese scientists, we searched for these verbs (in any form) across the array of typicals (i.e. the above average frequency occurring n-grams) from both the Chinese and American corpus. We use typicals instead of differentials because the former contains lexical features regardless of any co-occurrence across corpora while the latter, by definition, can only appear in lexical features from one corpus. We found that the highest ranked verb of reporting occurring in both of the corpora is the lemma show, and the second highest ranked example is the lemma find (see Table 1). For the other three reporting verbs, Chinese used none of them in any form, but American scientists used them diversely. Our findings suggest that Chinese scientists may be simplifying their choice of verbs of reporting by (over)using the word show and find as compared to the diverse lexicon of the presumably prototypical American scientists. Table 1. Rank, percentile and z-score of the verbs of reporting in Chinese and American typicals

verbs of reporting

Chinese American

rank percentile z-score rank percentile z-score

show 19 92 0.716 31 89 0.687

shows 69 71 0.133 ／ ／ ／

showed 10 96 2.108 ／ ／ ／

shown 204 13 0.008 52 81 0.272

demonstrate ／ ／ ／ 67 76 0.177

demonstrates ／ ／ ／ ／ ／ ／

demonstrated ／ ／ ／ 134 52 0.043

present ／ ／ ／ 96 65 0.083

presents ／ ／ ／ ／ ／ ／

presented ／ ／ ／ 237 14 0.005

find ／ ／ ／ 100 64 0.079

finds ／ ／ ／ ／ ／ ／

found 31 87 0.431 54 81 0.26

report ／ ／ ／ 116 58 0.061

reports ／ ／ ／ ／ ／ ／

reported ／ ／ ／ ／ ／ ／

Analysis 2: Comparison of American (Chinese) and Chinese (American) Differentials To more broadly assess the differentials, we follow the common practice of corpus data investigation (McCarthy &Boonthum-Denecke, 2012; McNamara, Graesser, McCarthy, &Cai, in press; Witten & Frank, 2005). Specifically, we randomly divided the texts of each corpus into two-thirds training-set data (Chinese: 224 texts; American: 226 texts) and one-third test-set data (the remaining 111 texts for each corpus). This investigation model of analysis allows us to run preliminary findings using the training-set data and confirmatory analysis using the test-set data. Such an approach helps guard against type 1 errors. American Differentials The Gramulator analysis on the American training-set data produced 134 differentials bigrams. Of these differentials, the highest ranked example is we have. The Americans employ this differential bigram for32 instances across 25 of 226 texts whereas the Chinese employ it for only 7 instances across 5 of 224 texts (American:11.60%, Chinese: 2.23%; p< .001) Taking a closer look at the context, we find that the bigram we have is most often employed by Americans to show the conclusion of respective studies in their abstracts. More specifically, they tend to use the active voice and present perfect form to report their conclusion of research (e.g. we have carried out, we have used, we have studied, we have measured, and we have developed). By contrast, we find that the 4th ranked of the 105 differentials from the Chinese training-set data is by using (e.g. by using this method, by using a specific model).The Chinese employ it for 23 times across 19 files out of 224 texts while the Americans employ only 6 times across 6 files out of 226 texts (Americans:

IJALEL 2 (2):15-24, 2013 19 2.66%; Chinese: 8.48%; p = .007). The results indicate that the Chinese appear to use the bigram by using to show the method of research but Americans employ the active and present perfect we have to show the conclusion in their abstracts writings. To verify this finding, we used the test-set data to compare the bi-grams and found that for we have, Americans use it for 4 times across 4 files out of 111 texts while Chinese employ 0 instance out of 111 texts (American: 3.60%; Chinese: 0%; p = .122). But for by using, Americans employ only 2 instances across 2 files out of 111 texts while Chinese use it for 12 times across 11 files out of 111 texts (American:1.80%; Chinese: 9.91%; p = .019). We then reran the bigrams on the entire corpus and found that Americans employ we have more frequently than their Chinese counterparts (American: 8.61%; Chinese: 1.49%; p < .001) whereas Chinese scientists employ by using much more frequently than Americans (American: 2.37%; Chinese: 8.96%; p < .001). Taken together, the results suggest that Americans prefer the present perfect structure of we have to show the conclusion as opposed to Chinese’s preference for by using to show the method of their research in abstracts. Returning to the results of the training-set data, our analysis suggests that there is a systematic difference between American and Chinese scientists on how to use linguistic features to report their findings. Americans appear to make a greater use of the flexigram we + [verbs of reporting] as compared to their Chinese counterparts. That is, we found 5 verbs of reporting with high ranks among the 134 differentials in the American training-set, with all of them combined with the agent pronoun we. For instance, the bigram we show ranked highest (11th), with we present (20th), we report (23rd) we demonstrate (31st) ranking similarly and we find (83rd) ranking relatively low. American scientists employ we show much more frequently in 18 instances across 16 files out of 226 texts while their Chinese counterparts use it for only 2 times across 2 files out of 224 texts (American:7.08%; Chinese:0.89%; p < .001). And we present is used by Americans for 14 times in14 files out of 226, but only 1 time in 1 file out of 224 by Chinese (American:6.20%; Chinese:0.45%; p = .001). The same result is found in we report (American: 5.75%; Chinese: 2.23%; p = .090), we demonstrate (American: 4.87%; Chinese: 0%; p = .001). The frequency of we find is in the direction of Americans, but is not significantly different (American: 3.54%; Chinese: 1.79%; p = .381). The 5 verbs of reporting described above can be combined into the flexigram we + [verbs of reporting]. Considered as a single instantiation, test-set analysis suggests that the difference in frequency between the sister corpora is significant: Americans employ 42 instances across 31 files and Chinese employ 13 instances across 8 files out of 111 texts (American: 27.92%;Chinese:7.21%; p< .001).

Tabel 2. The flexigram of we + [verbs of reporting] in American and Chinese training-set data

we +[verbs of reporting] American Chinese p-value

we show 16 2 <.001*

we demonstrate 11 0 .001*

we present 14 1 .001*

we report 13 5 .090*

we find 8 4 .381

Note: * significant at .05.

The result of flexigram we + [verbs of reporting] called for further analysis as to whether Americans’ preference of we+ [verbs of reporting] is consistent when the verbs are in the past tense. The results also prompted further investigation as to whether the American scientists prefer the present tense of these verbs of reporting in comparison with the Chinese scientists. That is, do the two groups of scientists differently employ the verbs of reporting in terms of tense? We reran the training-set and found that the Chinese scientists appear to prefer the bigram we found to their American counterparts (Chinese: 3.125%; American: 0.442%; p = .037). Tabel 3. The flexigram of we + [verbs of reporting] in past tense in American and Chinese training-set data

we + [verbs of reporting] American Chinese p-value we showed 0 2 .247 we demonstrated 0 0 1.000 we presented 0 0 1.000 we reported 0 1 .498

we found 2 7 .037*

Note: * significant at .05. Taking all the results together, we can conclude that Americans prefer the present perfect structure of we have to show the conclusion as opposed to Chinese’s preference for by using to show the method of their research in abstracts writing. In addition, American and Chinese scientists tend to employ different choice of verbs to report their findings: Americans prefer the flexigram of we+ [verbs of reporting] as compared to their Chinese counterparts, who appear to

IJALEL 2 (2):15-24, 2013 20 prefer less pronoun we with the verbs of reporting in the present tense but they prefer the bigram we found. Chinese Differentials The analysis on American differentials also called for further studies on how Chinese scientists are functionally performing the act of reporting in science journals. That is, what is the preferred flexigram employed by the Chinese scientists as compared to the American scientists’ preference of we + [verbs of reporting]? We will address this issue in detail in this section, specifically assessing the Chinese scientists’ preference for the agent result/s. Of the 105 differentials produced using the training set data, the most frequently employed Chinese differential bigram is showed that, which is employed by Chinese for 44 instances across 36 files, while it is employed by the Americans for only 1 instance across 1 file (Chinese: 16.07%; American: 0.44%; p < .001). The second most frequently used bigram is results show. It is employed in 23 instances across 23 files by the Chinese scientists but only 1 instance across 1 file by the American scientists (Chinese: 10.27%; American: 0.44%; p < .001). A similar differential, results showed, the 6th most frequently employed bigram, was found in 20 instances across 19 files in the Chinese training-set data, while 0 instance in the American texts (Chinese: 8.48%; American: 0%; p < .001). Combining this differential (results showed) with the most common differential (showed that) gives us the trigram results showed that. This trigram features in 18 instances across 18 files of the Chinese training-set data , but does not feature at all in American training-set data (Chinese: 8.04%; American: 0%; p < .001). In American (Chinese) differentials, we found that Americans appear to make greater use of the flexigram we + [verbs of reporting]. Based on this result, we predicted that the Chinese scientists may tend to forego the pronoun we and instead use the flexigram result/s + [verbs of reporting]. That is, we predicted that the Chinese and American scientists may prefer different agents: the inanimate result/s for the Chinese and animate we pronoun for the Americans. Additionally, we broaden the analysis of the 5 verbs of reporting in different tense (the present and the past tense). We conducted a series of Fisher’s Exact Tests to assess the differences between the Chinese and American data sets. The results suggest that Chinese scientists tend to avoid using the animate agent pronoun we with the verbs of reporting in the present tense. The negative percentage difference for Chinese indicates that they employ much less agent we with verbs of reporting in the present tense compared with their American counterparts. The difference is significant for the verbs of show (Chinese: 0.893%; American: 7.08%; p = .001), demonstrate (Chinese: 0%; American: 4.867%; p = .001), and present (Chinese: 0.446%; American: 6.195%; p = .001). However, we find that the Chinese employ the agent we for verbs of reporting in the past tense, especially in the bigram we found (Chinese: 3.125%; American:0.442%; p = .037).Turning to the agent of result(s), the Chinese demonstrate a preference for employing the verb of show in both present and past tense (see Table 4).

Table 4. Chinese-American percentage difference of employing the 5 verbs of reporting in the training-set data

show show shows showed We -6.187* ／ 0.893 [Result(s)] 9.826* 0.893 8.482*

demonstrate demonstrate demonstrates demonstrated We -4.867* ／ 0 [Result(s)] -1.319 0.893 0.892

present present presents Presented We -5.749* ／ 0 [Result(s)] 0 0 -0.885

find find finds found We -1.754 ／ 2.683* [Result(s)] 0 0 0

report report reports reported We -3.52 ／ 0.446 [Result(s)] 0 0 0

Note: * significant at .05. Based on these results, we made a further hypothesis that the three items (i.e., the agent, the different types of verbs of reporting, and the tense), which we can label as a register phenotype may account for the interpretation of Chinese academic writings of English as non-prototypical in terms of discourse style. That is, in addition to the agent, the different types of reporting verbs and the tense are also characteristic of the linguistic features of the Chinese and American texts. Specifically, we have two major types of reporting verbs: Free Verbs of Reporting (i.e. verbs with the agent of either pronoun or results) show and demonstrate, and Restricted Verbs of Reporting (i.e. verbs with the agent of pronoun only) present, find and report. The different choice on the tense of these verbs may also lead to the different manifestation of language varieties. From the training-set data (see Table 5), we find that for Free Verbs of Reporting (or FVR, i.e. show and demonstrate), Chinese scientists employ the flexigram of we + [FVR in present tense] significantly less frequently than Americans (Chinese: 2 instances in 2 files out of 224 texts, 0.89%; Americans: 30 times in 24 files out of 226 texts, 10.62%; p

IJALEL 2 (2):15-24, 2013 21 <.001). But for FVR with the agent of result/s, the Chinese scientists show their preference in employing both the flexigram result/s + [FVR in present tense] (Chinese: 25 times in 25 files out of 224 texts, 11.16%; American: 6 times in 6 files out of 226, 2.66%; p < .001) and result/s + [FVR in past tense] (Chinese: 19 files out of 224, 8.48% ; American: 0 file out of 226, 0%; p < .001). Meanwhile, for the Restricted Verbs of Reporting type (or RVR, i.e. present, find and report), the Chinese scientists demonstrate the preference of using the flexigram of we + [RVR in past tense] (Chinese: 8 files out of 224 texts,3.57% ; American:1 file out of 226 texts, 0.44%; p = .020) while their American counterparts employ the flexigram of we + [RVR in present tense] (Chinese: 9 files out of 224 texts, 4.02%; American: 31 files out of 226 texts, 13.72%; p < .001). Table 5. The use of three items, the agent, two different types of reporting verbs, and the tense, in Chinese and American training-set texts

Agent Verbs of Reporting Tense Chinese American p-value

We

FVR (show,demonstrate)

present 2 24 <.001*

past 2 0 .247

RVR (present, find and report)

present 9 31 <.001*

past 8 1 .020*

Result/s

FVR (show, demonstrate)

present 25 6 <.001*

past 19 0 <.001*

RVR (present, find and report)

present 0 0 1.000

past 0 2 .499

Note: * significant at .05. Building on these results, we further predicted that for Free Verbs of Reporting (FVR), Chinese scientists prefer result/s while American scientists prefer the pronoun we. However, for Restricted Verbs of Reporting (RVR), Chinese prefer the past tense, Americans prefer the present tense. To test our hypothesis, we conducted a Fisher’s Exact Test using the test-set data to assess the frequencies between the Chinese-English and American-English corpora (see Table 6). We find that for the FVR, the difference in frequency is significant: Chinese prefer the agent of result/s and both the present and past tense (for FVR in the present tense, Chinese:11 files out of 111 texts, 9.91%; American: 2 out of 111, 1.80%; p = .019; for FVR in the past tense, Chinese:11 files out of 111 texts, 9.91% ; American:1 out of 111, 0.90%; p = .005), while Americans prefer the agent of pronoun we and the present tense(American:16 files out of 111 texts, 14.41%; Chinese : 4 out of 111, 3.60%; p = .008). However, for the RVR, Americans prefer the present tense (American: 21 files, 18.92%; Chinese: 6 files, 5.41%; p = .003), while both Chinese and American scientists show low frequency and no significance in the past tense (Chinese: 4 files, 0.90%; American: 1 file, 3.60%; p = .369).

Table 6. The use of three items, the agent, two different types of reporting verbs, and the tense, in Chinese and American test-set texts

Agent Verbs of Reporting Tense Chinese American p-value

We

FVR present 4 16 .008*

past 0 1 1.000

RVR present 6 21 .003*

past 4 1 .369

Result/s

FVR present 11 2 .019*

past 11 1 .005*

RVR present 0 0 1.000

past 0 0 1.000

Note: * significant at .05. We reran this assessment on the entire corpus to verify the results (see Table 7). For the FVR, the difference in frequency is significant: Chinese prefer the agent of result/s and both the present and past tense (for the FRV in the present tense, Chinese:36 files out of 335 texts, 10.75% ; American: 8 out of 337, 2.37%, p < .001; for the FRV in the past tense, Chinese :30 files out of 335 texts, 8.96% ; American:1 out of 337, 0.30%, p < .001), while Americans prefer the agent of pronoun we and the present tense (American:40 files out of 337 texts, 11.87%; Chinese :6 out of 335,

IJALEL 2 (2):15-24, 2013 22 1.79%; p < .001). However, for the RVR, Chinese prefer the past tense (Chinese: 12 files, 3.58%; American: 2 files, 0.59%; p = .007), while Americans prefer the present tense (American: 52 files, 15.43%; Chinese: 15 files, 4.48%; p < .001). Table 7. The use of three items, the agent, two different types of reporting verbs, and the tense, in the entire Chinese and American corpora

Agent Verbs of Reporting Tense Chinese American p-value

We

FVR present 6 40 <.001*

past 2 1 .623

RVR present 15 52 <.001*

past 12 2 .007*

Result/s

FVR present 36 8 <.001*

past 30 1 <.001*

RVR present 0 0 1.000

past 0 2 .499

Note: * significant at .05. Taking the above results together, our analysis suggests that the Chinese scientists employ similar but perhaps oversimplified choice of verbs to report their findings. They employ the flexigram of result/s + verbs of reporting in their abstracts writing, and the register phenotype (the agent, the tense, and the two major types of verbs of reporting) characterizing the academic writing of Chinese scientists as non-standard varieties of English compared with their American counterparts. Specifically, for verbs of reporting with the agent of either pronoun or results (FVR), Chinese scientists prefer results, while American scientists prefer the pronoun we. However, for verbs of reporting with the agent of pronoun only (RVR), Chinese appear to prefer the past tense while Americans prefer the present tense. 4. Discussion In this study, we assess whether Chinese scientists employ distinct language varieties in academic science abstracts writings in comparison to a prototypical model from American scientists. By using the computational tool, the Gramulator, we discuss and assess the language varieties in a full length. Collectively our results suggest that the Chinese scientists tend to use different linguistic features for the register phenotype of the agent, the tense, and two different types of reporting verbs. This study addressed the three primary research questions: 1) Do the findings of this study support Min and McCarthy (2012, in review) results of Korean scientists?2) Do Chinese scientists employ distinct language varieties in academic science abstracts writings in comparison to a prototypical model from American scientists? If so, how different do they use these non-standard language varieties compared with their American counterparts? 3) Do Chinese and American scientists have different preference of linguistic features while writing journal abstracts? Addressing the first question, our response is that this study supports Min and McCarthy’s findings of Korean scientists (2010, in review) in that they both employ non-standard varieties of English in academic writing of science abstracts. But our findings differ from theirs for the register phenotype (i.e. the three items of the agent, the tense, and two major types of verbs of reporting) Chinese and American scientists tend to employ in their science abstract writings. To answer our second question, our response is that Chinese scientists appear to employ distinctive linguistic features in academic science abstracts writings which characterize them as a non-prototypical language variety as compared to their American counterparts. Specifically, Chinese tend to use similar but oversimplified choice of verbs to report their findings and different bigrams to show the method of their research as opposed to their American counterparts. Addressing the last question, we find that Americans prefer the present perfect tense structure of we have to show the method of their studies as compared to Chinese’s preference for by using. Moreover, Chinese scientists employ the flexigram of result/s + verbs of reporting in their abstracts writing in comparison to the flexigram of we + verbs of reporting used by their American counterparts. And the register phenotype (i.e. the agent, the tense, and the two major types of verbs of reporting) characterizes their academic abstracts writing as non-standard varieties of English. Specifically, for verbs of reporting with the agent of either pronoun or results (FVR), Chinese scientists prefer results, while American scientists prefer the pronoun. For verbs of reporting with the agent of pronoun only (RVR), however, Chinese prefer the past tense, Americans prefer the present tense. Although our study provided these findings, future research needs to be done on the breadth of prototypical and non-prototypical varieties. For instance, how well do these findings generalize to different language learners other than Chinese (e.g. Japanese, Indians, etc.)? And how well do these findings generalize to the different academic areas of journal articles (e.g., geography articles, computer science articles etc.). Furthermore, how well do these results generalize to different sections of research articles (e.g., the introduction section, the discussion section etc.)? Future

IJALEL 2 (2):15-24, 2013 23 experiment also needs to be conducted to assess whether changes made to journal articles as to the register phenotype of the agent, verbs of reporting, and tense, has a positive effect on reviewers and the subsequent success of publication. Acknowledgements This research was supported by the Project of Jiangsu Graduate Students Scientific Research and Innovation (CXZZ11_0864), and by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (20110101). The authors also acknowledge Hyunsoon C. Min and Dr. Philip M. McCarthy at the Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, United States of America, for their help during the writing process of this paper. References Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Reppen, R. (1998). Corpus linguistics: Investigating language structure and use. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Bizzell, P. (1992) Academic discourse and critical consciousness. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Bunton, D. (2002). Generic moves in PhD thesis introductions. In J. Flowerdew (Ed.), Academic discourse (pp. 57-75). Harlow: Pearson. Bunton, D. (2005). The structure of PhD conclusion chapters. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 4, 207-224. Cho, D.W. (2009). Science journal paper writing in an EFL context: The case of Korea. English for Specific Purposes, 4(28), 230-239. Cobb, T. 2003. Analyzing Late Interlanguage with Learner Corpora: Québec Replications of Three European Studies. The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes 59(3): 393-423 Conrad, S. (1996). Investigating academic texts with corpus-based techniques: an example from biology. Linguistics and Education, 8, 299-326. Crossley, S.A., Greenfield, J., & McNamara, D.S. (2008). Assessing text readability using psycholinguistic indices. TESOL Quarterly, 42, 475-493. Crossley, S.A. & Louwerse, M. et al. (2007). A linguistic analysis of simplified and authentic texts. Modern Language Journal, 91, 15-30. Dong, Y. R. (1998). Non-native speaker graduate students’ thesis/dissertation writing in science: Self-reports by students and their advisors from two US institutions. English for Specific Purposes, 17, 369-390. Duncan, B., & Hall, C. (2009). A coh-metrix analysis of variation among biomedical abstracts. Proceedings of the twenty second International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (pp. 237-242). Menlo Park, California: The AAAI Press. Ferris, D., & Hedgcock, J. (2005). Teaching ESL composition. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Flowerdew, J. (2001). Attitudes of journal editors to nonnative speaker contributions. TESOL Quarterly, 35, 121-150. Gamon, M., Leacock, C., Brockett, C., Gao, J., & Klementiev, A. (2009). Using statistical techniques and web search to correct ESL errors. CALICO Journal, 26 (3), 491-511. Glanville, R., Sengupta, S., & Forey, G. (1998). A (cybernetic) musing: Language and science and the language of science. Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 5(4), 61-70. Granger, S. eds. (1998). Learner English on computer. London: Longman. Graesser, A.C. & McNamara, D.S. (2011). Computational analyses of multilevel discourse comprehension. Topics in Cognitive Science, 2, 371-398. Graesser, A.C., Olde, B. A., & Klettke, B. (2002). How does the mind construct and represent stories? In M. Green, J. Strange, and T. Brock (Eds.), Narrative Impact: social and cognitive foundations (pp.57-69). Mahwah: NJ: Erlbaum. Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. Essex: Pearson Education. Kučera, H. & Nelson, F. (1967). Computational Analysis of Present-day American English. Brown University Press. McCarthy, P.M., Hall, C., Duran, N.D., Doiuchi, M., Duncan, B., Fujiwara, Y., & McNamara, D.S. (2009). A Coh-Metrix Analysis of Discourse Variation in the Texts of Japanese, American, and British Scientists The ESPecialist, 30, 141-173. McCarthy, P.M., Watanabe, S.&Lamkin, T.A. (2012). The Gramulator: A Tool to Identify Differential Linguistic Features of Correlative Text Types. Applied Natural Language Processing: Identification, Investigation and Resolution. IGI Global. Min, H.C & McCarthy, P.M (2012). Insiders and Outsiders: A Gramulator Analysis of the Journal Text of American and Korean Scientists. TESOL Quarterly. in review Oakhill, J., & Cain, K. (2007). Issues of causality in children’s reading comprehension. In D. S. McNamara (Ed.), Reading comprehension strategies: Theories, interventions, and technologies (pp.47-71). Mahwah, New Jersey:

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International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

The Impact of Planning on Accuracy and Complexity in Oral Production of Male and Female English as a Foreign

Language (EFL) Learners

Morteza Bagheri (Corresponding author) Department of English Teaching, Payame Noor University

Rasht, Iran Tel: 98- 131- 7753394 E-mail:bagheri.guilan@yahoo.com

Atefeh Hamrang

Department of English Teaching, Islamic Azad University Tonekabon, Iran

Tel: 98-131-7755580 E-mail:Atefeh_Hanrang@yahoo.com

Received: 22-10- 2012 Accepted: 23-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.25 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.25 Abstract Over the years, researchers have been trying to help learners to approach a task in an effective way to promote their second language (L2) production and development. Researchers have found that giving planning time to learners can improve their L2 development (Foster & Skehan, 1996, Wendel, 1997). However, a few current findings about task planning are non comprehensive and nonsystematic. To fill this gap, this study examined the effects of both planning conditions and gender on learners’ oral performance in terms of accuracy and complexity among 40 Iranian students at an intermediate level. A total number of 40 participants based on an interview were selected for this study. Based on planning conditions, the participants were assigned to planning and non planning groups. Secondly, they were divided into male and female groups. The findings revealed that 10-minute planning, in comparison with no planning time, improved the accuracy and complexity of participants’ oral performance. Also, results regarding the effects of gender clarified that gender did not have any effect on the participants’ oral performance in terms of accuracy and complexity. Keywords: Planning, Accuracy, Complexity, Oral production 1. Introduction Willis (1996) suggests the use of tasks as the main focus in language classrooms, claiming that tasks create a supportive methodological framework. Planning was considered as an essential part of conducting a task. Planning not only can be considered "a natural part of daily life", but also can be assumed as an important factor in the process of language production (Crookes, 1989). The theoretical rationale behind the pre-task planning as a condition to complete a task is related to the information-processing models that were mentioned by Skehan (1996, 1998). Based on this model, humans have a limited attention capacity to consider different aspects of information and process them simultaneously. Therefore, considering one aspect of performance may cause to decrease attention elsewhere. Pre-task planning was used before (L2) tasks may make communication easier and reduce the pressure on the learners' limited attention capacity. Based on this theory, some studies have been conducted and the results have showed that planning improves fluency and complexity, but mixed results have been reported for accuracy (e.g. Crookes, 1989; Foster & Skehan, 1996, 1999; Menhert, 1998; Ellis, 2009). Some current findings about task planning are not comprehensive and systematic. Wendel (1997) suggested that this was due to some factors: a) A wide variety of tasks were used across studies; b) [Pre-task] planning was not clearly defined and was not operationalized in the same way across studies; c) In each case, it was assumed that planning took place, but investigators had no clear idea as to what cognitive events were actually occurring during the planning period; d) The studies did not uniformly evaluate the language production on the same measures and those studies that did evaluate production on the same measure (e.g. Accuracy) did not use identical operationalizations of those measures (Wendel, 1997, pp. 60-61). Considering these facts show that there is an urgent need for more research on pre-task planning, so as to validate the potential of pre-task planning in promoting L2 production and improvement. Also, new measurements have been used to evaluate the effect of planning time on L2 production which focuses on different aspects to measure accuracy and complexity. Furthermore, gender as a factor related to individual differences has been taken into account. This inconsistency can be attributed to different factors like the time of planning, types of task, teacher's role, type of planning, and other factors that can have their own effects on the finding of the previous studies. Ellis (2009) attributes

IJALEL 2 (2):25-32, 2013 26 these inconsistencies to different factors like the task design, planning, L2 production, individual differences, and the relations among them. 2. Review of related literature Over the last decades, there have been a growing number of studies to investigate different aspects of L2 learners' performance tasks (Yuan & Ellis, 2003). One of the main foci that has attracted attention and proved to have some significant effect on L2 production is planning. The entrance of planning into L2 research dated back to the late 1980s. One of the pioneers in studies in the realm of task-based method is Rod Ellis. Ellis (1987) conducted a research to investigate whether the amount of time available for L2 learners for pre-task planning and co-planning influence their morphological accuracy in narrative tasks. However, this study was not originally conducted to clarify two kinds of planning (pre-task planning and co-planning).Seventeen intermediate ESL learners who participated were required to perform a task under three different conditions. The results showed that the amount of time given to learners can influence the accuracy of their oral performance. Ortega (1999) studied the effect of pre-task planning on advanced English learners of Spanish. She asked them to simply plan what to say in their oral picture-based narrative task and found that while fluency and complexity significantly improved, accuracy improved only in some measures. Foster and Skehan (1996) investigated the effect of detailed and undetailed pre-task planning on oral performance. They compared the effects of three kinds of pre-task planning on complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Three types of tasks which included personal information, narrative task, and decision-making task were implemented by each group.They distinguished that detailed pre-task planning was superior to undetailed pre-task planning in complexity and fluency, not accuracy. Other researchers focused more on specific aspects and divided instructions for what to plan for, producing both improved complexity and fluency. For example, Mehnert (1998) only used intermediate learners of German, under 1- , 5- , and 10-minute pre-task planning periods, to plan both what to say and how to say it before leaving phone messages. She realized that accuracy was improved most significantly with 1 minute of planning time,but complexity and fluency improved more with 10 minutes. Mochizuki and Ortega's (2008) study concentrated on the relationship between proficiency level and pre-task planning condition. They found that the pre-task planning condition did not have any effects on participants' oral performance at the beginning level. Yuan and Ellis (2003) focused on the effects of pre-task planning and on-line planning on oral performance. They found that pre-task planning group produced more syllables than other groups and was the most fluent group. In terms of accuracy, the on-line planners produced more accurate speech than the pre-task planning group, supporting Wendel’s claim. Foster and Skehan (1999) conducted another study in which they considered some new factors. They investigated the effects of two different foci of pre-task planning which included content focus and language focus on oral performance. They also studied the effects of two sources of pre-task planning which included teacher-fronted planning and group planning on speech production. The result showed that solitary pre-task planning group was superior to other groups in complexity and fluency. In relation to accuracy, only teacher-fronted pre-task planning was found significantly better than no planning group. In addition, teacher-fronted pre-task planning condition was significantly better than the group and solitary pre-task planning. In terms of fluency, group-based planners seemed less fluent and the solitary pre-task planning was superior to other groups. Mochizuki and Ortega (2008) investigated whether pre-task planning that includes grammatical guidance to focus on a specific L2 form might be a beneficial pedagogical choice for learners at the beginning level. They found that the participants who were assigned to guided planning group produced more accurate relative clauses in their oral speech in comparison with participants who assigned to unguided planning group and participants who were in no planning group. However, contrary to expectations, planning conditions did not lead to any significant complexity or fluency in oral speech at beginning level. Skehan (2003) stated that there is not systematic research which investigates the effects of learner differences on tasks. However, he stated that there are some studies about individual differences (gender, proficiency level, and interlocutor familiarity) but they have not been considered as central to the research tradition. Individual difference is an important issue that was considered by Ellis (2009) in his research. Most previous researchers focused on proficiency level, but other factors were not considered in depth. One of individual differences that must be taken into account is gender. Rahimpoor and Yaghoubi (2008) studied the effect of gender as an instance of individual differences in terms of accuracy, complexity and fluency of learners' oral performance. They hypothesized that teacher gender and student gender can have some effects on their final oral production. Male and female participants were required to talk about City, Population, Love and Marriage, selected among other topics based on the participants' interest. The results of the study showed that, a) participant gender and its interaction with teacher gender were not considered as a significant factor; b) no significant differences in relation to accuracy were found in terms of neither participant nor teacher gender; c) participants in front of male teacher produced more accurate speech. Farahani&Khaghani (2008) considered two individual factors in his study. They conducted a research to find the effects of task-based techniques, gender, and different level of proficiency on oral proficiency. 162 One hundred and sixty two English learners of both genders who were at intermediate and advanced levels participated in the study. They were divided into control and experimental groups. Then each group was divided into two groups of males and females. Learners were required to perform different kinds of tasks like information-gap tasks, opinion-gap tasks, and reasoning-gap tasks. The results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between male and female learners under the task-based approach. It showed that gender did not have any effect on oral performance. In terms of different level of

IJALEL 2 (2):25-32, 2013 27 proficiency, results demonstrated that different levels had a significant effect on speaking under task-based techniques. Advanced level learners benefited more and outperformed intermediate level learners. 3. Method 3.1 Participants Forty participants (20 males and 20 females) at an intermediate level who studied English as a foreign language at Shokuh Institute, Rasht, Guilan enrolled in the study. They were between the ages of 16 to 26 years old. They have been studying English for 3 years in the institute and none of them had ever been to an English speaking country. They used English for real communicative purposes rarely outside the institute. Based on the final exam as an achievement test, their final score ranged from 51 to 62 (maximum=65). The final exam was based on Spectrum books. The test included 15 listening tests, 30 grammar tests, and 20 reading tests. 3.2 Two tasks Pre-task materials included the practice task and target task. The practice task was employed to make learners familiar and ready for the target task that was given to the learners in following weeks. The tasks (practice task and target task) were based on the narrative tasks and picture strips. The main task was composed of six pictures. Learners were required to tell the story from the beginning to the end and there was an opportunity to make connections among the pictures (see Appendix II). 3.3 Research Design In this study a 2×2 research design was used (table 3.1). Planning condition as the first independent variable was divided into 10-minute planning and no planning conditions. The second independent variable to be investigated was gender. Designing planning conditions and gender and considering their effects on accuracy and complexity of learners' oral performance were the targets of this study. Accuracy was measured by 1) the percentage of clauses that does not contain any errors, 2) the number of errors per 100 words, 3) the percentages of correctly used verbs in respect to tense, aspect, modality, and subject-verb agreement. Complexity was measured by; 1) syntactic complexity in which the number of clauses divided to the number of t-units; 2) syntactic variety in which the total number of verb forms were measured. 3.4 Procedure Participants performed similar picture strip tasks for 4 sessions (2 weeks) to become familiar with this kind of task. This process helped learners to control their stress and show their real abilities in the final task. Also, this provided the opportunity for the researcher to get more accurate measure of accuracy and complexity of oral performance because they were not measured just with one task. The type of task was similar, but the picture strips were different from task to task. Data was collected by the researcher in the same class where students studied in the institute after 4 sessions of practicing. This familiar environment helped the learners to feel that everything is normal and that there is no difference between the final task and practice ones. However, the big difference with the practice sessions was that the researcher and each participant were alone in the class, and there was no one else to cause the anxiety to increase. It was really important to put participants at ease and prevent stress. After greeting and small talk, learners began narrating the story based on the planning condition. A voice recorder was in front of each of the learners and their speech was recorded while they were doing the task. Learners did the task under no planning and 10-minute planning. Under the first condition, learners were given the story and asked to narrate the story after looking at pictures (after 30 seconds). Under 10-minute planning, the learners were given 10 minutes for planning their own speech and arranging their thoughts. The participants in the two groups were permitted to take notes, but they were informed that they are not allowed to use them when they want to do the task. However, most of them did not use any paper to take notes, but used other strategies to organize their speech. 3.5 Data Collection Procedure The research was conducted based on two different conditions (no planning and 10-minute planning). Participants performed similar picture strip tasks for 4 sessions (2 weeks) to become familiar with this kind of task. This process helped learners to control their stress and show their real abilities in the final task. Also, this provided the opportunity for the researcher to get more accurate measure of accuracy and complexity of oral performance because they were not measured just with one task. Besides, the type of task was similar, but the picture strips were different from task to task. Data was collected by the researcher in the same class where students studied in the institute after 4 sessions of practicing. This familiar environment helped the learners to feel that everything is normal and that there is no difference between the final task and practice ones. However, the big difference with the practice sessions was that the researcher and each participant were alone in the class, and there was no one else to cause the anxiety to increase. It was really important to put participants at ease and prevent stress. After greeting and small talk, learners began narrating the story based on the planning condition. A voice recorder was in front of each of the learners and their speech was recorded while they were doing the task. 3.6 Data Analysis In this research four dependent and independent factors were considered. The dependent variables were accuracy and complexity. The independent variables included planning time and gender. A set of independent t-tests were utilized to

IJALEL 2 (2):25-32, 2013 28 compare the complexity and accuracy mean scores of the two groups (planners and non planners) as well as the females' and males' planners. It separately illustrated the relationship between planning with accuracy and planning with complexity. It also clarified the relationship between gender and these two dependent factors (accuracy & complexity). 4. Results It was important to document the homogeneity of the participants at the beginning of the study. An interview was administered for the sake of homogenizing the subjects prior to the treatment at the beginning of the study. An independent sample t-test was run on the results of the oral proficiency test to investigate the homogeneity of the subjects and the groups. The mean of the pre oral proficiency test for planning group was 4.06 and that for non-planning group was 3.95. The value that was considered as a critical number to compare the differences among groups known as p value was 0.05 in this study. The p value (0.063) >0.05 indicates that the two groups were not significantly different at 0.05 level in terms of their oral English proficiency prior to the treatment. At first, accuracy was calculated based on each;1) the percentage of clauses that does not contain any error, 2)the number of errors per 100 words, and 3) the percentages of correctly used verbs in respect to tense, aspect, modality, and subject-verb agreement. The mean of the three parts was then calculated and used for the final analysis. The means of accuracy scores for the planning and non planning groups were 18.11and 14.88, respectively. There was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of mean. In addition, the p value of 0.00<0.05 indicates that the two groups were different and there was meaningful relationship between planning time and accuracy. In terms of complexity two aspects were considered. First, syntactic complexity was measured by dividing the number of clauses to t-units. Second, syntactic variety was calculated to measure the number of verb forms. The mean of the two scores was computed and used as complexity score in order to compare the two groups (planning and non planning group). The means of the complexity scores for the planning and non planning groups were 4.5 and 3.09 respectively. In addition, the p value obtained is 0.000 which is lower than 0.05 indicating that the mean differences of complexity score between the two groups is significantly meaningful. The results can be seen in the following table.

group N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Accuracy score planners Non planners

20 20

18.1125 14.8875

.80898 1.22064

.18089

.27294

Complexity score planners Non planners

20 20

4.5050 3.0925

.47376

.38192 .10594 .08540

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Mean Difference

Std. Error Difference

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference

Lower Upper

Accuracy score

Equal variances assumed

4.318 .045 9.849 38 .000 3.22500 .32745 2.56212 3.88788

Equal variances not assumed

9.849 32.992 .000 3.22500 .32745 2.55880 3.89120

Complexity score

Equal variances assumed

2.779 .104 10.381 38 .000 1.41250 .13607 1.13704 1.68796

Equal variances not assumed

10.381 36.362 .000 1.41250 .13607 1.13663 1.68837

Gender was regarded as an independent variable that may have its own effects on oral performance. In terms of gender, participants were divided into male and female group. Then, the mean of each group was computed for comparison. The means of the accuracy scores for the female and male participants were 16.43 and 16.56, respectively. Using the p value to compare the two groups based on accuracy is 0.840 which is higher than 0.05 indicating that mean difference

IJALEL 2 (2):25-32, 2013 29 between the two groups is not significant. The means of the complexity scores for the female and male participants were 3.81 and 3.78, respectively. The reported P value for comparing the complexity scores between male and female participants is 0.933 which is higher than 0.05 indicating that the mean difference between the two groups (males and females) is not significantly meaningful. The results can be seen in the following table.

group N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Accuracy score female male

20 20

16.4375 16.5625

1.87412 2.02432

.41907

.45265

Complexity score female male

20 20

3.8100 3.7875

.76599

.91290 .17128 .20413

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Mean Difference

Std. Error Difference

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference

Lower Upper

Accuracy score

Equal variances assumed

.620 .436 -.203 38 .840 -.12500 .61685 -1.37376 1.12376

Equal variances not assumed

-.203 37.776 .841 -.12500 .61685 -1.37400 1.12400

Complexity score

Equal variances assumed

1.632 .209 .084 38 .933 .02250 .26647 -.51694 .56194

Equal variances not assumed

.084 36.887 .933 .02250 .26647 -.51748 .56248

5. Discussion and Conclusion This study sets out to explore the effects of pre-task planning and gender on accuracy and complexity of EFL learners' oral production in a narrative task. Subjects in the different groups (based on gender and planning time) performed the intended tasks under the conditions that were specified by the researcher. Therefore, it is important to note: (1) the discussion of the findings regarding pre-task planning on (a) the accuracy of participants' oral performance (b) the complexity of participants' oral performance, and (2) the discussion of findings related to the (a) the effect of gender on accuracy and (b) the effect of gender on complexity.The results of the present study illustrate that 10-minute pre-task planning had a positive effect on the accuracy of participants' oral performance and there was a significant difference between planning and non planning groups in terms of their performance on the oral test. The results of independent samples t-test indicated that there was a meaningful and significant difference between the planners and non planners in terms of the accuracy of oral performance (p≤0.05). Planning time helps learners to pay attention to the form of their oral performance and decreases pressure on their mind. This is in accordance with the results reported in some previous studies that showed the significant effect of planning time on accuracy (e.g. Ellis 1987; Foster &Skehan 1996; Foster & Skehan 1997; Ortega 1999). However, the findings of some other studies are in contrast with this study (e.g. Crookes 1989; Wendel 1997; Yuan & Ellis 2003). Yuan and Ellis (2003) stated that strategic planning has clear effect on fluency but not on accuracy. Also, they reported that unpressured within planning can promote accuracy. Levlet (1989) suggested that paying attention to grammatical morphology takes the second place to lexicalization in the process of formulation stage of speech act. Findings of this study are against these hypotheses and show the positive effect of planning on accuracy. The findings of this study show the significant effect of pre-task planning on the complexity of participants' oral performance. The findings are in accordance with the findings of some previous studies (e.g. Foster &Skehan 1996;

IJALEL 2 (2):25-32, 2013 30 Wendel 1997; Wiggleworth 1997; Yuan & Ellis 2003; Tavakoli&Skehan 2005). Ellis (2009) stated that "thirteen studies reported a statistically significant effect for planning on grammatical complexity" (p. 495). However, there are some studies that found no effect of pre-task planning on complexity (Menhert 1998; Mochizuki & Ortega 2008). Ellis (2009) reported that six studies did not find any relationship between planning time and complexity. The discrepancies in terms of complexity in studies can be attributed to different factors. Ellis (2009) mentioned that whether learners are learning language as a second or foreign language and in a classroom setting or laboratory setting does not have any effect on complexity. Also, task factors interact with planning to affect complexity, but the results are not clear. Foster and Skehan (1996) found richness in complexity for personal and narrative tasks not for making-decision tasks. Planning variables can influence the findings about the effect of planning on complexity. First, the length of planning time was taken into account. Menhert (1998) reported no effect of this variable on complexity. Type of planning may have some effects. Mochizuki and Ortega (2008) found no effect of type of planning on complexity. However, there is some evidence that shows the significant effect of the degree of guidance provided during planning time on complexity. Foster and Skehan (1996) stated that detailed pre-task planning leads to more complex production. Nevertheless, there was not any guidance from teacher for participants in this study. Planning time by itself promoted the complexity of subjects' oral performance. The results of the study show that gender does not have any significant effect on the accuracy of participants' oral performance. It is in line with O'Loughline (2002). On the other hand, it is against the findings of some previous studies (O'Sullivan 200; Rahimpoor&Yaghoubi 2008). Findings of the present study illustrate that gender does not have any significant effect on the complexity of participants' oral performance. It is in line with O'Sullivan (2000), Rahimpoor and Yaghoubi (2008) who found no differences between oral performance of males and females. Also, this result is not supported by Levlet's (1989) formulation factors, where difference is accorded with addressee influence. Effective use of pre-task planning in manipulating a task in a task-based syllabus can bring about beneficial results. Also, judicious use of planning time in pre-task phase by teachers can improve learners' oral performance. Studying different aspects of pre-task planning can help teachers to have better understanding of this phase and the strength of planning time in terms of learners' output. More study is required to find more conclusive results in terms of four skills. This research was conducted based on two assumptions. First, pre-task was separated from planning time to investigate which factor caused improvement in terms of accuracy and complexity of learners' oral production. Second, gender was considered as an independent factor that over the last decade as an "always present"(Sunderland, 2000, p. 203) variable, it seemed attractive for researchers as a source of variety in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The study demonstrated that 10-minute planning time had beneficial effect on the accuracy of participants' oral performance and led them to produce more accurate speech compared with the non planning group. It showed that speakers in the planning group laid emphasis on formulating linguistic forms and using appropriate words for better communication. Therefore, speakers in the planning group outperformed the members of the non planning group in terms of accuracy. Complexity as another dependent variable to evaluate the participants' oral performance was studied, where participants in the planning group produced more complex sentences in comparison to the members of non planning group. The 10-minute planning time led participants to use a range of different tenses and clauses to convey the intended meaning, which helped them to outperform the members of non planning group. Gender as an important moderator factor was also studied, where the effect of gender on the two dependent variables (accuracy and complexity) were focused. It was assumed that gender may have some effects on males and females oral performance. Results demonstrated that there was not any difference between males and females' oral performance regarding accuracy and complexity. Gender did not have any effect on participants' oral performance. 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IJALEL 2 (2):25-32, 2013 31 Farahani, A. ,andKhaghaniNejad, A. (2009). The effects of Task- based techniques, gender, and different levels of language proficiency on speaking development. Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji, 49, 23-41. Foster, P., and Skehan, P. (1996). The influence of planning and task type on second language performance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition.18, 299-323. Foster, P., and Skehan, P. (1997). Modifying the task: the effects of surprise, time and planning type on task based foreign language instruction. Thames Valley Working Papers in English language Teaching. Vol. 4. Foster, P., and Skehan, P. (1999). The influence of source of planning and focus of planning on task-based performance. Language Teaching Research, 3(2,) 15-247. Gilabert, R. (2005). Task complexity and L2 narrative oral production. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation Barcelona, The University of Barcelona, Spain. Ishikawa, T. (2006). The effect of task complexity and language proficiency on task-based language performance. The Journal of Asia Tefl, 3(4), 193-225. Labov, W. (1970).The study of language in its social context.StudiumGenerale, 23, 30-87. Levelt, W. (1989).Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Mehrang, F., and Rahimpoor, M. (2010). The impact of task structure and planning conditions on oral performance of EFL learners. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2, 3678-3686. Menhert, U. (1998). The effects of different lengths of time for planning on second language performance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 83-108. Mochizuki, N., and Ortega, L. (2008).Balancing communication and grammar in beginning-level foreign language classrooms. Language Teaching Research, 12(1), 11-37. Mori, J. (2002). Task design, plan, and development of talk-in-interaction.Applied Linguistics23(3), 323-347. Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. O'Malley, J. M., and Chamot, A.U. (1990).Learning strategies in second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ortega, L. (1999). Planning and focus on form L2 oral performance. Studies in Second language Acquisition, 21, 109-148. O’Loughlin, K. (2002). The impact of gender in oral performance.Language Testing, 19(2), 167-190. O’Sullivan, B. (2000). Exploring gender and oral proficiency interview performance. System, 28, 373-386. Oxford, R. (2006). Task-based language teaching and learning: an overview. Asian EFL Journal, 8(3), 94-121. Park, S. (2010). The influence of pretask instructions and pretask planning on focus on form during Korean EFL task-based interaction. Language Teaching Research, 14(1), 9-26. Prabhu, N. S. (1987). Second language pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rahimpoor, M., and Yaghoubi, M. (2008). Examining teacher and student gender influence in task-prompted oral L2 variability. Issues of Applied Linguistics, 16(2), 133-150. Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T.S. (1994).Approaches and methods in language teaching: A description and analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Robinson, P. (2001). Task complexity, task difficulty and task production: Exploring interaction in a componential framework. Applied Linguistics, 21, 27-57. Robinson, P. (2003). A cognitive hypothesis, task design, and adult task-based language learning. Second Language Studies, 21, 45-105. Sangarun, J. (2001). The effects of pre-task planning on foreign language performance. Doctoral thesis, University of Toronto, Canada. Shank, R. C., and Cleary, C. (1994).Engines for education. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Skehan, P. (1996). A framework for implementation of task-based instruction.Applied Linguistics, 17, 38-62. Skehan, P. & Foster, P. (1997). Task type and task processing conditions as influences on foreign language performance. Language Teaching Research 1, 185- 211. Skehan, P. (1998). Task-based instruction.Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 18, 268-86. Skehan, p. (2003). Task-based instruction(review article). Language Teaching, 36, 1-14. Sunderland, J. (2000). Issues of language and gender in second and foreign language education. Language Teaching, 33, 203-223. Tavakoli, P., and Phoster, P. (2008). Task design and second language performance: the effect of narrative type on learner output. Language Learning 58(2), 439-473.

IJALEL 2 (2):25-32, 2013 32 Wendel, J. N. (1997). Planning and second-language narrative production Unpublished doctoral thesis, Temple University, Japan. Wigglesworth, G. (1997). An investigation of planning time and proficiency level on oral test discourse. Language Testing, 14, 85 – 106. Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. London: Longman. Yuan, F., and Ellis, R. (2003).the effects of pre-task and on-line planning on fluency, complexity and accuracy in L2 monologic oral production. Applied Linguistics24,(1), 1-2. Appendixes

Appendix I: practice task

Appendix II: target task

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Minimizing Cyber-Plagiarism through Turnitin: Faculty’s & Students’ Perspectives

Holi Ibrahim Holi Ali (PhD student of Applied Linguistics & TESOL)

School of Education & Professional Development University of Huddersfield, UK

Tel +968 -92295223 E-mail: howlli2@yahoo.com

Received: 19-11- 2012 Accepted: 24-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.33 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.33 Abstract This is an attempt to investigate and evaluate students’ and faculty’s experiences and understanding to the strengths and limitations of anti-plagiarism software, specifically, Turnitin and how it could be used to promote academic integrity among engineering students. 50 engineering students and 20 professors were surveyed and interviewed. The paper argues that although Turnitin is widely used these days to tackle and minimize plagiarism practices, however cyber-plagiarism is increasing and the software might be inadequate in fighting such practice. The paper also questions the effectiveness and limitations of the software in relation to current practices. The findings revealed that most of the respondents perceive Turnitin positively; limitations of the software are not many and they believed that the software is effective in detecting and minimizing plagiarism incidents among their students’ papers. The study puts forward some recommendations which might help practitioners in minimizing plagiarism practices. Key Words: Cyber-plagiarism, Turnitin, anti-plagiarism software, digital cheating, academic integrity 1. Introduction Plagiarism has become a common phenomenon among students since the emergence of the internet and the influx of information technology round the globe. The internet age has brought a remarkable opportunity for students and teachers to learn, but it also brought challenges to academic integrity and good practices. Literature indicates that there is a relationship between the digital age and the decline of ethical values among students in terms of plagiarism and cheating (Rawul, 2009:179). 'Widespread to the internet and other electronic media has served as something of a double-edged sword with respect to plagiarism' (Youmans, 2011:750). The internet allows students to plagiarize with cut-and-paste ease, but also enables instructors to identify plagiarism in an easily manner of the source of the plagiarized materials (Lyon, Barrett, & Malcolm, 2006, cited in Youmans, 2011: 750). However, there are many electronic detection softwares for eliminating the problem in place. A range of software packages have now become available for tracking down and minimizing plagiarism among students. One of the most popular of these packages is Turnitin (Gabriel, 2010 as cited in Stapleton, 2012:126) which is widely used nowadays for combating plagiarism practices. Turnitin was launched by iParadigms, LLC, in 2008 and it claims that as cited in Stapleton (2012) Turnitin is licensed in 126 countries and available in 12 languages and it is widely used round the world. Turnitin compares student papers against a large number of sources including peer-reviewed articles, web pages, textbooks, essay banks, etc. (Youmans, 2011). Turnitin is very fast software and it could process a paper in about 13 seconds. It can assist instructors and examiners by showing them how essays are constructed, whether they are technically plagiarized or not? It can be useful for supervisions and examinations of theses. By understanding students' and teachers' perspectives about the strengths and limitations of the particular software and could provide some possible strategies that would help both students and faculty members in coping and tackling digital cheating in an effective manner. Further it can help institutions to adopt policies that could maintain academic integrity and find good ways to deal with any sort of cyber-plagiarism. This study is primarily interested in investigating students' and faculty's experiences, perceptions and understanding of the efficiency and effectiveness and limitations of anti- plagiarism detection software (Turnitin) and to find some possible solutions for minimizing plagiarism practices among students. 2. Statement of the Problem The use of technology has enhanced the convenience, flexibility, and efficiency of education; however, it increases academic dishonesty such as plagiarism (Harper, 2006). "Because of technology, it is simply easy to plagiarize" (Stowers & Hummel, 2011: 164) .Therefore, the majority of higher institutions in Oman have embedded in their practices and instructional programmes anti-plagiarism detection software to minimize cyber-plagiarism among their students. This research problem is formulated from a practical experience in the field that digital cheating has become prevalent among college students, particularly non-native speakers of English students despite the effort made by institutions to cut down plagiarism rates. According to (Todd, 2010) there are many techniques and packages that teachers could use to detect plagiarism incidents such as research engines (i.e. Google), to find matches on the internet. Second, there are those which find similarities between files on a single computer, these are intended primarily to detect collusion. Finally, there are those, of which Turnitin is the best-known software which provides students and teachers

IJALEL 2 (2):33-42, 2013 34 with tools to defeat plagiarism from any source whether printed or digital one by matching them against its own archives (Todd 2010). However, it would be a great mistake to assume that plagiarism detection software is effective in combating all 'epidemics of internet plagiarism' (Lee: 361) among students. Therefore, this study is conducted to examine experiences and perspectives of students and teachers towards anti-plagiarism software, specifically, Turnitin by answering some questions given to staff members' and students with regard to plagiarism detection software, specifically, Turnitin, and its efficiency and effectiveness in decreasing plagiarism rate among engineering students in a private college in Oman, as well as its limitations in combating plagiarism incidents among students. The present study strives to address the following core questions: Does the use of Turnitin curb plagiarism practices among students? What are the strengths and limitations of Turnitin according to students' and faculty? How is Turnitin perceived by faculty and engineering students? Is the current software adequate? What are some of the other possible strategies for minimizing cyber-plagiarism among students? The findings of this study are expected to serve as practical tips along with its pedagogical implications in shaping both teachers' and students' understanding of digital cheating and plagiarism and the use of its digital detection packages. The significance of the present study is due to the fact that it drives its magnitude from the fact that it is the first study of its type in this context and the results would help students and instructors to improve their use of anti-plagiarism technology. Moreover, there was a lack of information about students' and teachers' views about the strengths and limitations of Turnitin in relation to their current practices. Therefore, this study strives to explore both students and instructors' views the software effectiveness and limitations and to find ways to further improve it. It is hoped the findings will be of a great value to students and teachers at this particular college and other institutions across the region. Moreover, it is believed that this study deals with the most fundamental issue in today's digital age which is anti-plagiarism software technology in an engineering context. Further. It tries to provide a review of the literature related to the use anti-plagiarism technology in engineering education in order to determine the strengths and limitations of the software in question and provide some pedagogical implications that could help in minimizing cyber-plagiarism practice among engineering students. 3. Defining Plagiarism Plagiarism is defined by the Council of Science Editors as ''a form of piracy that involves the use of text or other items (figures, images, tables) without permission or acknowledgement of the source of these materials''(cited in Cross, 2007:963). Plagiarism is a controversial term and it threatens the very heart of academia (McLAFFERTY, 2010). Plagiarism is a problematic and widely misunderstood concept for students… (Scanlon, 2007:163). Moreover, faculty is not in universal agreement on what constitutes plagiarism or what faculty response to student plagiarism should be (ibid: 163). Gerding (2012) claims that in countries like China, India and Iran view what constitutes plagiarism is markedly different from our own interpretation and they may consider intellectual ownership as a Western concept only. ''...Because in Eastern cultures, it is an honor and expectation that work will be copied and Asian students are taught to memorize texts as a sign of respect for authors. If an author writes an idea particularly well, then it would be disrespectful for a student to alter the original author's words in a paper' (Stowers & Hummel, 2011:165). Some of them feel that as long as the author is included in their footnotes, they can ''cut and paste''. Therefore, it is difficult to be precisely defined, because there are arrays of definitions in the literature. Plagiarism can take a form 'Blatant plagiarism' (Braumoeller & Gaines, 2001) of copying an entire essay or significant portions of the easy have been copied or paraphrased without reference or quotations (Warn, 2006, 195). Plagiarism is taking another person's ideas and using them as one's own (Austin & Brown, 1999, p.21 cited in Warn, 2007:196). 'Casual plagiarism' content within the paper bear too close a resemblance to passages in the source material to constitute original work, and even though the original source is cited somewhere in the appear, the method of citation used does not make clear that the content in question is not original (Braumoeller & Gaines, 2001). (Loveless, 1994:509 as cited in Naqvi & Aldamen, 2010: 135) views plagiarism as the ''cardinal sin in academe'' whereas Smith. (2008: 20) refers to it as ''intellectual rape''. There are many types of plagiarism such as intentional plagiarism where students try to deceive their instructors, or unintentional where might be due to poor referencing, sloppy citations, or language skills. additionally, there is 'patchwork' plagiarism occurs when material is cut and pasted from various sources (Austin & Brown, 1999 cited in Warn, 2006).In addition, self-plagiarism which is known as textual re-use (Lowe, 2003); multiple submission (Fulda 1998,; Hinz 1997, Horowitz, 1997); simultaneous submission & republishing (Hauptman 1997); redundant publication (Schein & Paladugu, 2001); Broome, duplicate publication); fragmented publication (Gwilym et al.2004); text recycling (Roig, 2006); dual or duplicate publication (Errami et al. 2000, 2008); Self-copying (Scanlon, 2007) & republication, multiple publication, repetitive publication, overlapping data/publication. Salami or divided publication, covert duplication & duplicate publication (Langdon-Neuner 2008) cited in (Bretag & Mahmud; 2009:198). It is defined as recycling your previously published work without appropriate acknowledgement of the original work, Bretag & Mahmud, 2009:194). It is also defined as the publication of the same (or very similar) article in multiple journals or the author reuses substantial parts of their published work without providing the appropriate references (Bouville, 2008:313). Finally, ''plagiarism of secondary sources'' occurs when a person gives references to original sources, and perhaps quotes them, but never looks them up, having obtained both from a secondary source-which is not cited (ibid).In addition, contract cheating could be one of the forms of plagiarism and defined ''as a form of academic dishonesty, where students contract out their coursework to writers or workers, usually found via the internet, in order to submit the purchased assignments as their own work' (Walker &Townley, 2012:27). Most these forms of plagiarism could be detected by anti-plagiarism softwares.

IJALEL 2 (2):33-42, 2013 35 3.1 An Overview on Anti-plagiarism Detection Software Digital plagiarism is a growing problem for educators in this information era (Butakov & Scherbinin, 2009:781). However, there are many anti-plagiarism softwares and tools available to be used and each of which has its strengths and drawbacks such as Turnitin, Safe assign, Doccop.com. Digital books Web browsers, Plagiarism Detect.com, Viper, EduTie, PlagiServe, Moss, but CopyCatch Gold, iThenticate, and WCopyfind which are considered as collusion-detectors. Safe assign is free software, but only works with the Blackboard CMS (Todd, 2010). Whereas, Doccop.com, is free but works only with limited paragraphs and it is not linked to CMS and small fee for an entire paper may be required. As for, Digital books and Web browsers are usually free and they do not compare submissions to other students' papers and do not include all professional databases or the internet (Lee, 2011:148). ''Use of online technologies to avoid plagiarism from online resources is the best option recommended by (Snow, 2006, cited in Ramzan et al. 2012:73). However, ''the infusion of technology in higher education has done little to minimize the problem of academic dishonesty. More than likely, technology has provided the convergence of motivation and opportunity, increasing the problem'' (Kennedy et al. 2000:309 cited in Smith et al, 2005:4). 3.2 Effectiveness of Turnitin Turnitin is an institutional plagiarism ''detection service and is becoming the defacto tool in plagiarism identification, and recognized as a tried and trusted system in use round the world, especially with its links to Virtual Learning Environment such as Blackboard'' (Jones & Moore, 2010:425). It is considered one of the most popular and well-known anti-plagiarism software which has been adopted at a half-a –million faculty member and in more than one hundred ten countries worldwide (Lee, 2011, Neil & Shanmuganthan, 2004). ''Turnitin is the global leader in electronic plagiarism detection, and is tried and trusted systems over 80% of UK universities have adopted it'' (Heather, 2010:648). It was designed by John Barrie, a biophysicist in 2008 at University of California (UC) Berkeley to identify the cheating within his classes (Stowers & Hummel, 2011). It examines matches over 12 million pages of indexed web content, 100 million students' papers , and over 80,000 professional, academic and practitioner journals and publications. It has reported successfully reduce online plagiarism up to 35%. It has adopted e-Blackboard as an instructional tool, and it is integrated with the learning system programmes (Lee, 2011:305). It dramatically increases the ease by which verbatim copying can be discovered and detected by the tutors (Park, 2003 as cited in Warn. 2006:196). Moreover, Turnitin originality report may help all students learn about ethical standards regarding dishonesty (Zeman et al, 2011). Moreover, it could provide proof if it comes to disciplining a student (Donald, 2006).Rolfe conducted a study in (2007) on students who used Turnitin and he found that the software formatively improved their abilities to rewrite their work; and the showed a reduction in the level of plagiarism that was because of poor paraphrasing Rolfe (2011:704). Turnitin could be integrated into the most popular course management systems (CMS), including Blackboard, WebCT, ANGEL, and Moodle (Butakov & Scherbinin, 2009:781). 3.3 Limitations of Turnitin

…''Despite often being alluded to as a ‘plagiarism detection’ tool, Turnitin does not actually identify plagiarism per se. It merely matches material present in a specific

document uploaded to the Turnitin website to material present on the Internet. An originality report is provided for each document that indicates the percentage of matching material in the assignment, with links to the location of the Internet

source, thus allowing the marker to compare the original with the reproduced material, depending on source accessibility'' (Walker 2010:4) However, Turnitin is considered as one of the well-known means of detecting student plagiarism. The use of plagiarism detection software is now widespread in higher education, but caution is needed because instructors and students need to be familiar with the software before mandating its use (Ford & Hughes, 2011). Firstly, the instructor has to create 'a class'. The software ignores a submission by the same author for the same class when cross-checking text. For self-plagiarism detection, the records for each author therefore needed to be entered into two separate classes. However, the high percentage of text-match is not necessarily an indicator of any form of plagiarism. Nevertheless, anti-plagiarism technology is criticized because some of the detected word matches are not instances of plagiarism (Mulcahy & Goodacre, 2004, cited in Warn 2006).'The software doesn't detect whether the matching word string is contained within quotation marks, or whether a stated reference is the correct one or not'' (Warn, 2006:200).The tutors need to check these aspects and this can be time-consuming. Moreover, the efficient use of anti-plagiarism software demands that a software package line WebCT be used as an electronic platform for receiving and downloading essays. Further, the software designed to detect only fairy exact word string matches and unattributed paraphrase may be detected (ibid: 201).The quantitative output from the report needs to be treated with care and should be analyzed along with the qualitative judgment in order to know whether there was a deliberate attempt to plagiarize or not. In addition to, Turnitin requires all papers must be in digital format in order to be used by the software (Bristol, 2011). Lee (2011) asserts that Turnitin is costly and it does not do well with current in-print books. Further, software maybe considered by students as policing mechanism and these plagiarism checkers could cause faculty to avoid engagement with pedagogical and ethical issues involved and they divert them from the real problem. Using software may destroy trust between students and instructors and introduce mutual distrust and students may feel sensitive to the lack of trust (Williams, 2007, Scanlon, 2007:164). Research on Turnitin (Bishop, 2006, Royce, 2003, cited in Williams, 2007)

IJALEL 2 (2):33-42, 2013 36 shows that Turnitin can produce inaccurate reports that indicate both plagiarism where it doesn't exist and miss plagiarism where it does. In addition, there is a legal questions raised by the automatic inclusion of student paper into the database that have led to lawsuits (Robelen, 2077, cited in Williams, 2007). Turnitin percentage does not reflect whether or not an academic violation has taken place; papers often contain quotations, citations, famous names, reference pages, common phrases, figures of speech or simply coincidences, all of which inflate these percentages which requires human careful and sound judgment (Youmans, 2011:752). Furthermore, (Barret & Malcolm 2006 cited in Bretag & Mahmud 2009) maintains that the software could indicate possible plagiarism rather than providing a complete certainty. Therefore, 'manual verification' is needed to determine if text matches represent unethical or legitimate duplication (Errami et al. 2007, 2008 cited in Bretag & Mahmud 2009).Turnitin is criticized of being ''taking millions of previously submitted papers, in each of which copyright resides with the student author, and-without the freely given consent of the author-using them to make money. There appears to be some divergence here from the supposedly ethical stance adopted the plagiarism police'' (Doland, 2006:1).He adds to say Turnitin culture which treats ideas and writings as commodities needs to be challenged by educators and students (ibid).In addition, one of the drawback of plagiarism detection systems cannot determine whether the any of the submitted work has been purchased and been done by contractor or ''contract cheating'' or ''bespoke work''(Cross,2007) where a student pays a contractor to write an assignment or swaps assignment with another student (Rolfe,2011:708) in all these cases the software cannot detect and do not match any document in the corpus (Cross, 2011). Turnitin can be deceived and misdirected to reduce the similarity score by replacing a single letter throughout a document with an alternative, such as all instances of 'a' are replaced by 'a', then the user creates a macro linked to the document such that when the file (containing the replaced characters such as 'a') is opened the macro automatically replaces the altered character to the original form. This would disable the system from detecting the matches (Jones, & Moore, 2010:427). A second approach which is based on character replacement such as the letter 'I' is replaced with the number '1'.The trick here is that the font used throughout the document must be set to Times New Roman, which means that the two characters appear similar. It could mislead the system Turnitin and this leads to a low similarity score (ibid: 427). 4.5 Strategies for Preventing and Minimizing Plagiarism Practices among Students Nowadays, fighting and preventing plagiarism is not an easy task because of the influx of information and the emergence of the cyber-age which facilitates cheating. There are many strategies and suggestions available in the literature that could cut down plagiarism in general and cyber-plagiarism in particular. Warn (2006:206) suggests that cyber-plagiarism can be controlled if it is embedded within the teaching objectives of the course and become a part of the instruction. Plagiarism should be a part of pedagogy and it should be embedded within instruction (Lee, 2011). Faculty should act as educators, rather than as detectives (Scanlon 2007:161) the focus should not be diverted to detection than instruction. Moreover, he (ibid: 206) adds anti-plagiarism techniques need to be assembled in ways that assist learning outcomes and help make the course material more meaningful for students. Further training on how to use the software and referencing and citations effectively for both faculty members and students also can help in decreasing the cheating practices among students (Lee, 2011 and Briggs, 2003, cited in Warn, 2006). In addition to, student attention is to be shifted from 'going under the radar' towards being more confident and involved in their learning. Teachers do not need to work as plagiarism police but they just need to seek for good academic practice. Instructors should consider avoiding broad, fact-based assignment that encourages students to 'appropriate'' pre-existing materials for internet (Ashworth & Bannister, 1997; Whitley & Keith-Spiegel, 2002 cited in (McLAFFERTY & Foust, 2004:189). Moreover, teachers need to avoid assigning term papers in general topics and themes, review multiple drafts of papers, and discuss writing projects with students as their work progresses (Scanlon: 164). Lee (2011) proposes the 3 P's of preventing plagiarism which are highly important for minimizing it (policy –related to plagiarism should be clear, consistent and objective). Defining plagiarism should be consistent, policy regarding the use of the software should be clear, and identifying the acceptable level of the originality report of the paper to clear for all student. Students have different understandings of plagiarism and students should be taught why plagiarism is unethical practice from the early beginning of their courses (East, 2009). A strict tolerance or no-tolerance policy for plagiarism should be in place and should be communicated to all students during their induction weeks. Clearer guidelines are required on how to interpret the originality reports to facilitate students and staff in using such system in self-service manner and how to improve their referencing and citation skills (Rolfe, 2011). Furthermore, students should be encouraged to use electronic detection software as a tool for crafting and redrafting their work (Bretag & Mahmud, 2009). Additionally, they should be made aware that to trial their submissions in Turnitin before sending in their final papers. Finally, identical match is not always the result of plagiarism, but simply the result of Plaintiff's earlier submission. Educators need to put this into consideration when verifying the software report (Todd, 2010). 4. Methods This study adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches by employing both questionnaire and interview with students and engineering faculty along with a follow up interview with some of the members of staff in engineering departments. Frequencies and percentages were used to analyze data. 4.1 Participants This study took place in a private university college in the Sultanate of Oman. The participants of the study comprise 50 students and 20 instructors in a private engineering university college in Oman. The vast majority of the students are Omani and they are coming from similar socio-cultural and linguistic backgrounds. They are studying in different engineering departments such Mechanical, Civil, Electronics, Mechatronics, Electrical, etc. They have been studying

IJALEL 2 (2):33-42, 2013 37 English since their primary schooling and have substantial proficiency in English language because English is the medium of instruction in their ongoing engineering education. The majority of instructors are from India and few from countries like Iraq and Egypt. All of them have been teaching and instructing in Oman for a couple of years and they have using Turnitin software for several years. Moreover, a follow up interview with 5 engineering instructors was conducted to back up the questionnaire data. 4.2 Instruments & Procedures In order to answer the above mentioned research questions, the currently adopted questionnaire and interview were reviewed critically and analytically against the research questions. For establishing validity of the questionnaire, it was given to instructors for checking the wording and clarity of the instructions and its items. In view of their feedback, some irrelevant questions were taken out and all the wrinkles were iron out. Both teachers' and students' questionnaires contain three parts which are: their perceptions about the current use of Turnitin, their views about the strengths and limitations of the software and how it use could be improved in combating cyber-plagiarism among students. Frequencies and percentages were used to statistical analysis. 5. Analysis of Results & Discussion 5.1 Analysis of Faculty's Questionnaire

Table 1. Faculty's responses & reflections about their current use of Turnitin

Never Sometimes Always Statements No

% F % F % F

5 1 30 6 65 13 Have you ever used Turnitin anti-plagiarism detection software? 1

10 2 35 7 55 11 Have your students been trained in how to use Turnitin? 2

5 1 45 9 50 10 Should all student work be submitted to Turnitin to deter plagiarism? 3

From the results in table 1, it can easily be observed that approximately (65%) of the faculty responded that they 'always' use anti-plagiarism detection software, whereas (30%) of the respondents responded by 'sometimes' and (5%) s of the faculty never used it at all. It is quite evident that the majority of the faculty members used anti-plagiarism software in their practices. Therefore, it could be argued that Turnitin is quite popular among the staff. Table 2. Faculty's positive views & reflections about Turnitin strengths

Disagree Not Sure Agree Statements No % F % F % F Strengths

10 2 15 3 70 14 Using Turnitin has helped to curb plagiarism among my students. 4 15 3 25 5 55 11 Turnitin is effective tool for combating digital plagiarism. 5 40 8 25 5 35 7 Using Turnitin should be made mandatory in all courses. 6 25 5 35 7 45 9 The use of Turnitin has promoted originality in students' papers. 7

0 0 35 7 65 13 Turnitin has facilitated students' understanding of plagiarism. 8

15 3 15 3 65 12 Using Turnitin could deter cheating among my students'. 9

15 3 40 8 45 9 Using Turnitin has improved students' citation rates skills and academic skills.

10

5 1 35 7 60 12 Using Turnitin has helped students to learn about ethical standards regarding dishonesty.

11

5 1 10 2 85 17 Using Turnitin has helped students to re-write their papers. 12

5 1 10 2 85 17 Implementing Turnitin software is an effective way to educate my students about the boundary of internet plagiarism.

13

Items 4-13 were designed to examine the faculty members' views about their positive experiences with Turnitin. As for 4, whether they believe that Turnitin has helped them to curb plagiarism practices among their students or not. (70%) believed that it did help them to minimize plagiarism rates among their students, (15%) responded by 'I don't know', and only (10%) 'disagreed'. Concerning item (5) whether they view Turnitin as an effective tool for combating plagiarism practices or not, (55%) 'agreed' that is effective tool for fighting plagiarism incidents, while (25%) responded by 'I don't know', and (15%) 'disagreed'. Therefore, it could be argued that the vast majority of the staff (55%) believed that Turnitin is effective tool for combating plagiarism rates among their students. Regarding item (6), the questionnaire revealed that (35%) of the respondents 'agreed' that Turnitin should be made mandatory to all students, whereas, (25%) responded by 'I don't know', and (40%) 'disagreed' with the statement. The analysis of item (7) revealed mixed responses as it showed that (45%) of the respondents 'agreed' that Turnitin has promoted originality in students papers,

IJALEL 2 (2):33-42, 2013 38 and (35) 'were not sure', and (25%) 'disagreed' with the statement. This is supported by Rolfe study in (2007) on students who used Turnitin and he found that the software formatively improved their abilities to rewrite their work; and they showed a reduction in the level of plagiarism that was because of poor paraphrasing Rolfe (2011, 704). Further, Turnitin originality report may help all students learn about ethical standards regarding dishonesty (Zeman et al, 2011). As for item (8), the results showed that (65%) of the faculty believed that Turnitin has helped their students to understand plagiarism in a better way, (35) were 'not sure', and no one 'disagreed' with the statement. Moreover, item (9) indicated that (65%) believed that Turnitin could deter cheating among students, (15%) were 'not sure', and only (15%) 'disagreed' with the statement. As for item (10) the result revealed that the fact that (45%) of the faculty believed that Turnitin has helped improved students' citation rates and academic skills, while (40%) of the respondents were 'not sure', and (15%) disagreed. Concerning item (11), the result showed that (60%) of the staff members believed that Turnitin has helped their students to learn about ethical standards, whereas (35%) of the respondents were 'not sure', and only (5%) 'disagreed'. This accords with the argument Turnitin originality report may help all students learn about ethical standards regarding dishonesty (Zeman et al, 2011).It could be Turnitin doesn't only help students to avoid plagiarism but it can help them to learn ethical standards and values of good practices. Regarding question (12) whether using Turnitin has helped students to rewrite their papers in a better way or not. (85%) of the respondents 'agreed' with the statement, while (10%) were 'not sure' and only (5%) 'disagreed'. It is quite obvious that the vast majority of the respondents believed that Turnitin has helped the students to rewrite their papers and the software is quite helpful to students in this respect. This supported by students should be encouraged to use electronic detection software as a tool for crafting, redrafting and trying their submissions in Turnitin before sending in their final papers (Bretag & Mahmud, 2009). Additionally, item (14) indicated that (85%) of the respondents 'agreed' that Turnitin is an effective method to educate students about the boundary of the internet plagiarism, while (10%) were 'not sure', and only (5%) 'disagreed' with the statement. It could be argued that Turnitin has many advantages and strengths according to the respondents' views and it could be used as instructional tool for helping students to learn many values of good practices. Table 3. Faculty's negative views & experiences about Turnitin limitations

Disagree Not Sure Agree Statements No % F % F % F Limitations

10 2 20 4 70 14 Turnitin software does not detect all plagiarism cases among students such as unattributed paraphrase.

14

5 1 35 7 60 12 Turnitin does not detect whether the used reference is the correct one or not.

15

15 3 40 8 45 9 Turnitin can produce inaccurate reports that indicate plagiarism it doesn't exist and miss plagiarism where it does.

16

65 13 15 3 10 2 Using Turnitin creates a poisonous atmosphere between teachers and students.

17

5 1 10 2 80 16 Turnitin should be used as an instructional tool rather than a crime detection method.

18

35 7 10 2 55 11 Turnitin generates only numbers which may require further interpretations.

19

40 8 20 4 35 7 It takes a considerable time and effort to be familiar with the use of Turnitin.

20

10 2 15 3 65 13 Training students in using Turnitin could decrease plagiarism practices among students.

21

This table (3) depicted the faculty views and reflections about Turnitin limitations and shortcomings. As for item (14), this indicated that Turnitin does not detect all plagiarism cases among students' papers such as unattributed paraphrase. (70%) of the respondents 'agreed' that Turnitin is not effective to detect all plagiarism incidents, whereas (20%) were 'not sure' and (10%) disagreed with statement. This is consistent with the argument that the high percentage of text-match is not necessarily an indicator of any form of plagiarism. Nevertheless, anti-plagiarism technology is criticized because some of the detected word matches are not instances of plagiarism (Mulcahy & Goodacre, 2004, cited in Warn 2006).'The software doesn't detect whether the matching word string is contained within quotation marks, or whether a stated reference is the correct one or not'' (Warn, 2006:200). Moreover, item 15, indicates that (60%) of the respondents believed that Turnitin does not detect whether the used reference is the correct one or not, (35%) were 'not sure'. On the other hand only (5%) responded by 'disagree'. Regarding item 16, (45%) of the respondents 'agreed' that Turnitin can produce inaccurate reports, whereas (40%) were 'not sure', and (15%) 'disagreed' with the statement. These findings are consistent with research findings on Turnitin (Bishop, 2006, Royce, 2003, cited in Williams, 2007) shows that Turnitin can produce inaccurate reports that indicate both plagiarism where it doesn't exist and miss plagiarism where it does. It could be argued that Turnitin reports should be handled with care before decision with regard to plagiarism is made.

IJALEL 2 (2):33-42, 2013 39 As for item 17, was designed to explore respondents' views about whether they believe or not that the use of Turnitin can create a poisonous atmosphere between teachers and students or not. (10%) only 'agreed, while (15%) were 'not sure' and (65%) 'disagreed' with the statement. This fining is supported by (Williams, 2007, Scanlon, 2007:164) who claimed that using anti-plagiarism software may destroy trust between students and instructors and introduce mutual distrust and students may feel sensitive to the lack of trust. Concerning item 18, (80%) believed that Turnitin should be used as instructional tool and should be integrated into instruction rather than to be used as a crime detection method. On the other hand, (10% were 'not sure', and only (5%) disagreed with the statement. These findings are supported by the literature (Warn 2006:206) suggests that cyber-plagiarism can be controlled if it is embedded within the teaching objectives of the course and become a part of the instruction. Plagiarism should be a part of pedagogy and it should be embedded within instruction (Lee, 2011). Faculty should act as educators, rather than as detectives the, focus should not be diverted to detection than instruction (Scanlon 2007:161). In response to item 19, (55%) of the respondents believed that Turnitin could generate only numbers which require further careful interpretations, (10%) responded by 'not sure', and (35%) 'disagreed'. As for item 20, (35%) of the respondents 'agreed' that learning to use Turnitin demands a considerable time to be mastered, (20%) were 'not sure', and (40%) 'disagreed' with the statement. These findings accord with (Barret & Malcolm 2006 cited in Bretag & Mahmud 2009) maintain that the software could indicate possible plagiarism rather than providing a complete certainty. Therefore, 'manual verification' is needed to determine if text matches represent unethical or legitimate duplication (Errami et al. 2007, 2008 cited in Bretag & Mahmud 2009). Concerning item 21, (65%) believed that training students in using Turnitin could help in decreasing plagiarism practices, (15%) were 'not sure' , and only (10%) disagreed with the statement. It could be argued that training students in using software can help in decreasing plagiarism incidents among students because they would be aware of how use the software in an effective manner. 5.2 Analysis of Students' Questionnaire

Table 4. Students' responses about their use of Turnitin

Never Sometimes Always Statements No

% F % F % F

8 4 20 10 70 35 Have you ever used Turnitin anti-plagiarism detection software? 1

16 8 64 32 20 10 Have you ever being trained in how to use Turnitin? 2

6 3 8 4 80 40 Have you changed your work after seeing the Turnitin report? 3

This table (4) displays students' responses with regard to their use of Turnitin. As for question 1, students were asked whether they ever used Turnitin anti-plagiarism software or not. (70%) of the respondents responded by 'always', (10%) responded by 'sometimes', and only (8%) responded by 'never'. It is quite evident that the majority of the students 'always' use Turnitin. It could be argued that Turnitin is widely used by students and it is very popular among them. Regarding item 2, (20%) of the students said that they always receive training on how to use Turnitin, (64%) responded by 'sometimes' and (16%) never used the software. As for question 3, (80%) of the respondents said that they always change their papers after seeing the Turnitin originality report, while (8%) of the respondents responded by 'sometimes', and only (6%) said they never changed their reports they fed them to the system. Table 5. Students' positive views & experiences about Turnitin

Disagree Not Sure Agree Statements No % F % F % F

14 7 6 3 74 37 Using Turnitin has raised my awareness to avoid internet plagiarism and academic offences.

4

16 8 12 6 66 33 Turnitin has helped me to improve my referencing and academic skills and reflect on my study.

5

40 20 8 4 52 26 Turnitin is useful and should be used by all students. 6 18 9 16 8 64 32 Turnitin is effective tool to detect my assignments plagiarism and

made me think about my writing. 7

16 8 22 11 42 21 Using Turnitin has helped me to learn about ethical standards regarding dishonesty.

8

12 6 4 2 80 40 Using Turnitin has helped me to detect plagiarism in advance and re-write and edit my papers effectively.

9

14 7 12 6 72 36 Turnitin has enabled me to understand what plagiarism is. 10 This table (5) illustrates the respondents'' positive views and experiences with the use of Turnitin.(70%) of the respondents 'agreed' that Turnitin has raised their awareness to avoid internet plagiarism and other academic offences, while only (6%) were 'not sure', and (14%) disagreed with the statement. As for item 5, (66%) believed that Turnitin has

IJALEL 2 (2):33-42, 2013 40 helped them to improve their referencing, reflection and academic skills, (12%) of the respondents were 'not sure', and (61%) 'disagreed'. Regarding item 6, the questionnaire revealed that (52%) of the respondents 'agreed' that Turnitin is useful and should be used by all students, on the other hand, (8%) were 'not sure', and (40%) 'disagreed' with the statement. Concerning item 7, whether Turnitin is an effective tool for detecting plagiarism and make them think about their writing, (64%) believed that Turnitin is effective tool for detecting plagiarism,(16%) were 'not sure', and (18%) 'disagreed'. It could be argued that Turnitin is effective tool in tackling plagiarism cases. As for item 8, whether Turnitin has helped students to learn about ethical standards regarding dishonesty, (42%) 'agreed' that with the statement, while (22%) responded by 'not sure', and only (16%) 'disagreed'. Moreover, item 9, (80%) of the respondents reported that Turnitin has helped them to detect plagiarism in advance and rewrite their assignments before their final submission, and (12%) 'disagreed' with the statement. Finally, as for item 10, (72%) of the respondents believed that Turnitin has helped them to understand what plagiarism in, (12%) of the respondents were 'not sure', and only (14%) 'disagreed' with the statement. Table 6. Students' negative views & experiences about Turnitin

Disagree Not Sure Agree Statements No % F % F % F

50 25 16 8 28 14 Using Turnitin has caused distrustful relationships between me and my instructors.

11

10 5 8 4 78 39 I find it difficult and confusing to understand and interpret the Turnitin originality report of my papers.

12

22 11 20 10 56 28 It took me a considerable amount of time and effort to learn how to use Turnitin software.

13

68 34 12 6 20 10 Turnitin doesn't allow me to check my papers in advance before the submission.

14

20 10 42 21 36 18 Plagiarism detection software does not change my learning behavior.

15

4 2 32 16 64 32 Turnitin doesn't detect all matches and plagiarism cases. 16 32 16 10 5 56 23 I know how to deceive the software to avoid plagiarism detection. 17

Items (11-17) were designed to explore students' views about students' respondents with regard to the use of Turnitin has caused distrustful relationships between them and their instructors. (28%) 'agreed' with the statement, while (16%) were 'not sure', and (50%) 'disagreed'. As for item 12, (78%) 'agreed' that they find it difficult to understand Turnitin originality report, (8%) were 'not sure', and (10%) 'disagreed' with the statement. It could be argued that understanding Turnitin originality report is not an easy task; therefore, teachers need to help their students to understand the reports in details. Concerning item 13, a considerable number of the students (56%) 'agreed' that it took a considerable amount of time and effort learn how to use Turnitin, whereas (20%) responded by 'not sure', and only (22%) 'disagreed' with the statement. Moreover, item (14) indicates that (20%) of the respondents' 'agreed' that Turnitin doesn't allow them to check their papers in advance before the submission, (34%) were 'not sure', and (68%) of the respondents 'disagreed' with the statement. It is quite clear that the great majority of the students believed that Turnitin has helped them to check their papers in advance. As for item (15%) 'agreed' that plagiarism detection doesn't change their learning behavior, 42 of the respondents' were 'not sure', and (20%) 'disagreed'. Concerning item 6, students were surveyed whether Turnitin could all plagiarism matches and cases or not, (64%) 'agreed' with the statement, (32%) were 'not sure', and only (4%) 'disagreed'. Finally, item 17, is designed to explore whether the students are capable of deceiving and misdirecting the software or not,(56%) 'agreed', and (15%) were 'not sure' , (32%) disagreed with statement. These findings are supported by the literature that Turnitin can be deceived and misdirected to reduce the similarity score by replacing a single letter throughout a document with an alternative, such as all instances of 'a' are replaced by 'a', then the user creates a macro linked to the document such that when the file (containing the replaced characters such as 'a') is opened the macro automatically replaces the altered character to the original form. This would disable the system from detecting the matches (Jones, & Moore, 2010:427). 6. Conclusion & Recommendations The present study has several limitations such as the sample size. The survey of 20 instructors and 50 students may not yield solid results. Secondly, using a follow up interview along with the questionnaire could have been helpful in strengthening the research data and findings. Based on the study findings, the study puts forward some recommendations which might help practitioners to use anti-plagiarism software in an effective manner which would help in minimize cyber-plagiarism practices among students. Firstly, anti-plagiarism software should be integrated into instruction and teachers, students and practitioners are advised to train their students on how to use then and how to interpret originality reports of their papers. Secondly, students should be encouraged to use anti-plagiarism software to check their papers in advance before their final submissions. Finally, it is recommended that teachers shouldn't' act as detectives instead help their students to understand what plagiarism is and cultural issues and images that associated with plagiarism practices in their teaching context.

IJALEL 2 (2):33-42, 2013 41 References Bouville, M. (2008). Plagiarism: words and ideas. Sci Eng Ethics Journal, vol.14, pp. 311-322. Braumoeller, B.F & Gaines, B.J. (2001). Actions do speak louder than words: deterring plagiarism with the use of plagiarism –detection software. PSOnline Journal, pp., 835-837.Available on www.apsanet.org.Retrieved on 20th October, 2012. Bretag, T & Mohmud, S. (2009). Self-plagiarism or appropriate textual re-use. The proceedings of the 3rd International Plagiarism Conference, Northumbria University, UK, 21-23 June, 2008. Bristol, T.J. (2011). Plagiarism prevention with technology. Teaching and Learning in Nursing Journal, Vol. 6, pp., 146-149. Butakov, S. & Scherbinin, V. (2009). The toolbox for local and global plagiarism detection, Computers & Education Journal, Vol.52, pp., 781-788. Cross. M. (2007). Policing Plagiarism. BM Journal, Vol. 334, pp., 963-964. Donald, M. (2006). Education: Higher: publish and be damned: plagiarism via the internet is growing problem-but academics are fighting back with their own technology. The Guardian [London (UK)], 13 June 2006. East, J. (2010). Judging plagiarism: a problem of morality and convention. Higher Education Journal, Vol.59, pp., 69-83. Ford, P.J. & Hughes, C. (2011). Academic integrity and plagiarism: perceptions and Experience of staff and students in a school of dentistry: A situational analysis of staff and student perspectives. European Journal of Dental Education. Retrieved from doi:10.1111/j.1600-0579.2011.00695.x. Gerding, A. B. (2012). Ethical dilemmas in publishing: a rising tide of plagiarism? Journal of Prosthodontics, Vol.21, pp., 431-432. Harper, M.G. (2006). High-tech cheating. Journal of Nurse Education Today, Vol.26, pp., 672-679.Available on intl.elserierhealth.com/journals/nedt. Retrieved on 15th October, 2012. Heather, J. (2010). Turnitoff: identifying and fixing a hole in current plagiarism detection software. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education Journal, Vol. 35/6, pp., 647-660. Jones, K.O. & Moore, A.(2010). Turnitin is not the primary weapon in the campaign against plagiarism. International Conference on Computer Systems & Technologies, pp., 425-429, Sofia Bulgaria. Lee, Y. (2011). Understanding anti-plagiarism software adoption: an extended protection motivation theory perspective. ELSEVIER Journal, Vol. 5, pp.361-369.Availble on www.elservier.com/locate.dss. Retrieved on 20th October, 2012. McLafferty, C.L. & Foust, K. M. (2004). Electronic plagiarism as a college instructor's nightmare-prevention and detection. Journal of Education Business, Vol.97/3, pp., 186-190. Available on http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20.Retrieved on16th October 2012. Naqvi, S & Aldman, T. (2010). Handling plagiarism in project based instruction. The Proceedings of the Tenth Annual ELT Conference: Current Perspectives in ELT-New Methodology, Research, and Best Practices, pp.,134-144, 21-22 April, 2010, Oman. Neil, C. & Shanmuganthan, G. (2004). A web-enabled plagiarism detection tool. Published by IEEE Computer Society, pp., 19-23. Ramzan (2012) Awareness about plagiarism amongst university students in Pakistan. Higher Education Journal, Vol.64, pp. 73-84. Retrieved from DOI 10.1007/s10734-011-9481-4. Rawul, R. (2009). Minimizing Plagiarism. The Proceedings of the Tenth Annual ELT Conference: Responding to Challenges in Curriculum, Assessment and Independent Learning, pp., 179-186, 22-23 April, 2009, Oman. Reisman, S. 92005). Plagiarism or ignorance? You decide.IT Pro, Feb, 2005, pp. 7-8. Rolfe, V. (2011). Can Turnitin be used to provide instant formative feedback? British Journal of Educational Technology. Vol. 42/4, pp.701-710. Scanlon, P.M. (2007). Student online plagiarism: How do we respond? Journal of College Teaching, Vol.51/No.4. Smith et al. (2005). Deterring Research Paper Plagiarism with Technology: Establishing a Department- Level Electronic Research Paper Database with E-Mail. Journal of Criminal Education, Vol.16/1 193-204 Stapleton, P. (2011).Gauging the effectiveness of anti-plagiarism software: an empirical study of second language graduate writers. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Vol. 11, pp., 125-133. Stowers, R.H. (2011). The use of technology to combat plagiarism in business communication classes. Business Communication Quarterly Journal, Vol.74, 2, pp. 164-169. Todd, P. (2010). Plagiarism detection software: legal and pedagogical issues. The Law Teacher Journal, Vol.44/2, pp., 137-148.Available on http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2020.486165. Retrieved on 21 October, 2012. Walker, M. & Townley, C. (2012) Contract cheating: a new challenge for academic honesty? Journal of Academic Ethics, Vol.10, pp. 27–44-Retrieved from DOI 10.1007/s10805-012-9150-y.

IJALEL 2 (2):33-42, 2013 42 Williams, B. (2007). Trust, betrayal, and authorship: plagiarism and how we perceive students. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol. 51/4, pp., 350-354. Warn, J. (2007). Plagiarism software: no magic bullet! Journal of Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 25/2, pp.195-208. Youmans, R. J. (2011). Does the adoption of plagiarism-detection software in higher education reduce plagiarism? Studies in Higher Education Journal, Vol.36 /7, pp., 749-761. Zeman, L.D. et al. (2011). Originality detection software in a graduate policy course: a mixed method evaluation of plagiarism, Journal of Teaching in Social Work, Vol. 31/4, pp431-441. Walker, J (2010). Measuring plagiarism: researching what students do, not what they say they do, Studies in Higher Education Journal, Vol.35, 1pp, 41-59.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

A Study of the Relationship between Persian and English Writing Skills among Adult EFL Learners in Iran

Azim Javadi-Safa, M.A. In TEFL (Corresponding Author)

Payame Noor University Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Payame Noor University

Postal Code: 41938-1957, Rasht, Iran Tel: 0098-911-135-1806 E-mail: a_javadisafa@yahoo.com

Fereidoon Vahdany, Ph.D. In TEFL

Payame Noor University Department of English, Payame Noor University

Postal Code: 41938-1957, Rasht, Iran

Masoud Khalili Sabet, Ph.D. In TEFL Guilan University

Faculty of Literature and Humanities, The University of Guilan Postal Code: 41635-3988, Rasht, Iran

Received: 25-11- 2012 Accepted: 24-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.43 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.43 Abstract This research aims at investigating the relationship between writing skill and sub-skills of first language (Persian) and foreign language (English). Therefore, 50 upper-intermediate EFL learners in Iran who were majoring in the English language were asked to write on two different topics in Persian and English. Then, the compositions were evaluated based on ESL Composition Profile. Subsequently, using Pearson product-moment correlation, the correlation between the compositions overall scores in L1 and L2, as well as the correlations between each of five major components of writing, including content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics in the two languages were examined. The results displayed large correlations between the compositions overall scores as well as between the four writing sub-skills in L1 and L2. The highest correlations were observed between writing sub-skills of vocabulary, mechanics, language use, and content respectively. These findings entail some pedagogical implications for effective language learning in both L1 and L2, utilizing the enhancing effect of cross-linguistic transfer of writing. Key words: L1-L2 Relationship, Cross-linguistic Transfer, Writing, Adult EFL Learners, Persian 1. Introduction The importance of writing skill and its prominent role in demonstrating students’ learning magnitude is undeniable be it writing in the first or the second language. Academics most preferably evaluate students through their writing. Hence, poor writing ability of students may jeopardize their academic success to a considerable extent (Tan, 2011). However, it is much more daunting for non-natives, especially EFL learners in Iran with only limited exposure to English. Therefore, any study that could shed some light on the nature of writing skills and facilitates their learning, especially in a foreign language, would be of great benefit to all stakeholders in the field of language. One the other hand, the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis of Cummins (1979, 1991) assumes that when a language operation such as writing has been acquired in one language, the same operation is not acquired again in another language, but is simply applied in the second language. Consequently, proficiency in one language might promote development of proficiency in a second language, particularly with respect to literacy related skills that involve concept knowledge generally acquired at school settings (Arefi, 1997). Hence, this area of research, named as cross-linguistic influence, calls for more attention by enthusiastic researchers since it seems more economical to drawn on previously learned items for learning new ones rather than starting from scratch. However, surprisingly, teaching for cross language transfer has not yet received its due attention in designing courses and materials for language learners. In conclusion, studies investigating the relationship between writing skills and sub-skills of first and foreign language, especially those attesting the transfer of writing skills between L1 and L2, could be breakthrough in encouraging and guiding curriculum designers and material developers to design language courses, having cross language transfer issue in mind.

IJALEL 2 (2):43-52, 2013 44 1.1 Review of Literature The role of first language knowledge and its influence on second language acquisition, as an important issue in the field of language, has occupied researchers for the last few decades. A couple of theories and hypotheses have gradually contributed to shaping the contemporary knowledge on the relationship between learners’ languages. However, speculation about the direct effect of L1 on L2 mainly emanated from Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH). In this hypothesis, Cummins (1979, p. 233) proposed that “language skills will transfer from L1 to L2 if there is sufficient exposure to the L2 and motivation to learn the language.” According to Cummins (1984), there is an “underlying cognitive/ academic proficiency,” which is common or interdependent across languages and allows for the cognitive/academic or literacy related skills to be transferred across them. The term language transfer is defined as “the impact of one’s knowledge in one language on learning or performing in another language” (Figueredo, 2006, as cited in Joy, 2011). Although this notion as a noteworthy variable that affects the learning of a second or foreign language has been widely researched, there is still no consensus among scientists on its definition (Agustin Llach, 2010). It is also worth mentioning that the terms cross-linguistic influence and language transfer have long been drawn on by researchers interchangeably (Odlin, 2005). Studies on the relationship between first and second language goes back to 1980s and early 1990s from L1 and L2 educators. However, during 1950s and 1690s educators had already designed aptitude tests for predicting the degree of success in second language learning which was evaluated through first language measures such as vocabulary, sound-symbol relationships, grammatical concepts, and verbal memory (Sparks, Patton, Ganschow & Humbach, 2009). More specifically, studies of cross-linguistic influence in writing can be studied in the realm of Contrastive Rhetoric (CR) by Kaplan (1966) whose main concern seems to heavily rest on the very basic notion of cultural differences and variations, which is in turn, reflected in learners’ writing (Derakhshan,1996). In a more recent account of the term, Connor (1996) defines contrastive rhetoric as “an area of research in second language acquisition that identifies problems in composition faced by second language writers, and, by referring to the rhetorical strategies of the first language, attempts to explain them” (p. 5). According to Silva (1993, p.657, as cited in Blackmore-Squires, 2010) there are similarities between L1 an L2 writing at superficial levels as well as between the processes that L1 and L2 writers go through. In addition, Zamel (1984), based on the results of her study, suggested that “L2 composing processes indicate that the L1 process-orientated writing instruction might also be effective for teaching L2 writing” (p. 198). However, Raimes (1985) raised doubts about the applicability of L1 composition pedagogy to L2 classrooms and displayed that there are differences in their processing. It is also worth mentioning that although transfer studies have been conducted at both oral and written levels, written transfer has been of major interest among most researchers in recent studies. For instance, Dweik and Abu Al Hommos (2007) reported the positive transfer of writing skills of intermediate Arabic-English bilinguals in Jordan through examining their compositions in the two languages. Similarly, Alsamadani (2010) investigated the relationship between Saudi EFL learners’ writing proficiency in L1 (Arabic) and L2 (English). He examined the college level participants’ argumentative compositions in both languages and found a strong correlation between them. On the other hand, Carson, Carrell, Silberstein, Kroll, and Kuehn (1990) investigated Japanese and Chinese ESL students and found only weak to moderate correlations between L1 and L2 writing abilities. In the case of Japanese ESL learners, L1 and L2 writing scores showed weak correlation and for the Chinese students was not significant. In order to investigate the transfer of writing skills between Persian and English (as two languages that do not share the same writing features, grammar, graphic conventions, or even the same type of writing system) few research has been done. Studies conducted by Arefi (1997), and Zia Houseini and Derakhshan (2006) are two cases in point. Arefi (1997) studied the relationship between first and second language writing skills for Iranian students in Australia. In this respect, the students were asked to write descriptive and comparative essays in English and Persian. Then, their papers were evaluated using three writing indicators, including “linguistic productivity,” “holistic scheme,” and “technical skills.” In her study, linguistic productivity consisted of number of words, number of simple sentences, number of complex sentences, T-units, and mean T-unit length in students’ essays. Holistic scheme was assessed through the number of ideas introduced by the subject, the development of ideas, coherence, the connection between ideas, and the ending. Technical skills consisted of spelling, punctuation, grammatical correctness (knowledge of vocabulary and rules of word formation, spelling, and sentence formation), and capitalization. Finally, the results of Arefi’s study (1997) displayed that L1 (Persian) writing skill indicators of linguistic productivity and holistic scheme transferred to the English language despite the very different writing system of these two languages. Furthermore, in spite of no apparent transfer of technical writing skills from L1 to L2, she found a positive correlation between the technical skills of the bilingual children under the study and their length of residence in Australia. Consequently, Arefi (1997) concluded that this suggested that “a longer exposure to the language itself and the impact of schooling is important in developing technical skills.” In another research, which seems to be the most related research to the current study, Zia Houseini and Derakhshan (2006) investigated the relationship between first language (Persian) and foreign language (English) writing skill of Iranian college-level students who were majoring in English. Hence, the students were asked to write narrative and argumentative compositions in L1 and L2, and then, the compositions were evaluated based on ESL Composition Profile. As a result, they concluded the existence of a significant relationship between Persian and English writing tasks.

IJALEL 2 (2):43-52, 2013 45 Moreover, they displayed that there is a systematic difference between the performances of this group of students in L1 and L2 writing tasks, which pointed in the direction of transfer from L1 (Persian) to L2 (English). However, in Zia Houseini and Derakhshan’s (20006) research, the differences between mean performances of writing in Persian and English were not very large and the correlation coefficient of writing argumentative (but not narrative) compositions in Persian and English was only moderately significant. On the other hand, the participants of this study wrote the compositions at home, which might cause some maturation problems and put the internal validity of the testing measure under question. Accordingly, further research is required to replicate the study and confirm its findings to be able to make strong claims on this issue. Furthermore, Zia Houseini and Derakhshan’s (2006) study has not investigated the transfer of each of major writing components of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics separately. Actually, it examined the overall scores of compositions to investigate the transfer issue, and even in this case, it has not taken into account the role of writing technical skills (mechanics of writing and grammatical correctness) in evaluating the compositions overall scores. In addition, Although Arefi (1997) has already demonstrated that Persian writing technical skills of Iranian bilingual children studying in an English-medium country would not transfer to their English writing; further research is required in order to investigate the feasibility of such a transfer in an EFL context for adult learners. In conclusion, the significance of conducting this research is in considering comprehensive criteria for evaluating writing proficiency, through taking account of all major components of ESL Composition Profile (Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormuth, Hartfiel, & Hughey, 1981), in order to investigate the transfer of writing skill, especially in an EFL setting. Furthermore, the novelty value of this research is in investigating the transfer of each of five major components of ESL Composition Profile, including content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics separately, which have not yet been examined in similar studies. 1.2 Research Questions and Hypotheses The present study aims at finding whether there is a cross-linguistic transfer in writing skills of the Persian students studying English in Iran. Thus, in line with the literature reviewed above, it adopts a quantitative method to answer the following research questions:

1. Is there a significant relationship between Iranian upper-intermediate language learners’ overall proficiency in foreign language (English) writing skills and their first language (Persian) writing skills?

2. Is there a significant relationship between Iranian upper-intermediate language learners’ proficiency in each of foreign language writing sub-skills (i.e. five major components of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics) and their corresponding first language writing sub-skills?

According to the aforementioned research questions, the following null hypotheses have been formulated: Ho.1 There is no significant correlation between first language and foreign language overall writing skills of

Iranian upper-intermediate language learners. Ho.2 There is no significant correlations between each of first language writing sub-skills and their corresponding

writing sub-skills in English of Iranian upper-intermediate language learners. 2. Methodology 2.1 Introduction The current study is conducted in the academic year of 2011-2012 at the English departments of Guilan University and Payame Noor University in Iran. It aims at investigating whether there is a relationship between first language (Persian) and foreign language (English) writing skills of adult EFL learners at upper-intermediate level. This section addresses the methodology and the procedures of the study. In this respect, it presents detailed information regarding the participants and their selection procedure, the instruments, the data collection and the data analysis used in the study. 2.2 Participants 2.2.1 Raters Four expert raters were employed to evaluate the subjects’ compositions; two experienced high school teachers of Persian language who hold M.A. in Persian literature, for evaluating the Persian compositions, and two qualified English language teachers at M.A. level for rating the English compositions. The raters were all males and their age ranged from 29 to 45. They did not have any familiarity with the students (and the papers were also blind-coded) in order to have objective ratings. 2.2.2 Students In total, eighty-seven university students (33 males, 54 females) who were majoring in the English language in Guilan University and Payame Noor University participated in this study. They all were studying at BA level and they all have already passed at least one course in English writing. Their age ranged from 18 to 27, and they were chosen from three intact classes which the researcher had access to. In order to ensure the homogeneity of the participants’ proficiency level, a version of Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to all the students who voluntarily participated in this exam.

IJALEL 2 (2):43-52, 2013 46 Then, based on the result of OPT, 50 upper-intermediate students (18 males, 32 females) were selected through simple random sampling for this study (n= 50). Their age ranged from 18 to 24. At last, it is worth noting the reasons for choosing upper-intermediate level. First, based on Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis of Cummins (1979) and the results of some empirical studies (e.g. Ito, 2009; Behjat & Sadighi, 2010) low proficiency in foreign language impedes the positive transfer of writing skills from L1 to L2, while, as Ito’s study (2009) showed, this impediment does not happen for intermediate and advanced EFL learners. Hence, this study took the middle way between intermediate and advanced levels. Second, language learners at upper-intermediate level, especially those who are majoring in the English language are well familiar with writing argumentative compositions in English. The last reason for choosing upper- intermediate level was the availability of students at this level of proficiency in the context of the study. 2.3 Instruments and Materials Two testing instruments were employed to collect the relevant data for this study, including one proficiency (placement) test and two writing exams. The first testing instrument is Oxford Placement Test 1 (2004). This test was administered to determine the language proficiency level of the students. Those test takers who scored between 135 and 149 (OPT Band 5) out of 200 on this test were considered as “Upper- intermediate – competent user” (Allan, 2004). The second testing instrument includes two composition tasks, one in the first language (Persian) and the other one in the foreign language (English). In order for the subjects to have equal planning time for each composition and to avoid interference, two different argumentative topics were given to the subjects, one to write on in Persian and the other to write on in English. The reason for choosing argumentative topics is that “It is common in the academic disciplines and it is sensitive to task, audience, and community, and it is particularly difficult for non-native speakers” (Johns, 1993, p. 76). In addition, as mentioned in the Review of Literature, since in a study by Zia Houseini and Derakhshan (2006) the cross-linguistic transfer of writing abilities in argumentative compositions was only moderately significant, further research is needed to confirm the significance of such a transfer. The English topic and prompt were taken from “Task 2 of Academic Writing Module of IELTS Past Papers” out of the book Cambridge IELTS 5 (2006, p. 76). The Persian topic and prompt were the translated versions of another topic and its related instruction of the same type of task out of the book Cambridge IELTS 7 (2009, p. 31). The topics were randomly chosen from the past papers of the same international examination (IELTS Past Papers) so that they both have the same level of difficulty. 2.4. Procedures for Data Collection and Data Analysis To collect the relevant data, two testing sessions were administered within two sessions. During the first session, the Oxford Placement Test was administered which lasted up to 60 minutes and consisted of 200 multiple-choice questions. It was followed, after a two-week interval, by the second session where the writing tests were administered. During the second session of data collection, the 50 upper intermediate students who had already been selected through the OPT were asked to write two argumentative compositions on given topics, one in Persian and one in English. Therefore, the participants were instructed to write at least 250 words in about 40 minutes for each composition, and then the compositions were collected at the end of each set time. The participants were not allowed to use dictionary or any other additional sources of information such as grammar or reference books. In order to counterbalance the negative effect of the participants’ tiredness on the results of the tests, half of the participants were given the L1 topic to write on at first and then the L2 topic, while the other half were first given the L2 topic and then the L1 topic. There was also a 10-minute interval between the two compositions. Then, the compositions were evaluated based on ESL Composition Profile (Jacobs et al., 1981, p. 91) for analytical scoring. The rationale behind using this scale is that it is a valid rubric for assessing writing since its validity related issues, including face validity, content validity, concurrent validity, and construct validity have already been reported by Jacobs et al. (1981). Moreover, the efficacy of Jacobs et al.’s (1981) framework has been investigated by Brown and Baily (1984), and it is found to be a sound practice in assessing writing performance. Based on ESL Composition Profile (1981), compositions were rated through holistic judgments for 21 analytical subcomponents of five major components of writing including: 1) Content: knowledge of subject, range of substance, development of thesis, and relevance to assigned topic 2) Organization: fluency of expression, clarity of stated/supported ideas, succinctness, quality of organization, logical sequence of ideas, and cohesion 3) Vocabulary: range of vocabularies, effectiveness of word/idiom choice and usage, word form mastery, and register appropriateness 4) Language use: effectiveness and complexity of constructions, and grammatical correctness (agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions) 5) Mechanics: spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, and handwriting However, since capitalization is not an issue in Persian texts, it is not taken into consideration in evaluating Persian compositions.

IJALEL 2 (2):43-52, 2013 47 These five major components of writing (writing sub-skills) are differently weighed in assessing the compositions. Out of 100 as the aggregate score, a range of, 13-30 points is assigned to the “content,” 7-20 to the “organization,” 7-20 to the “vocabulary,” 5-25 to the “language use,” and 2-5 to the “mechanics.” It is worth mentioning that before evaluating the compositions, a briefing session was held to explain the scoring procedure to the raters and the issue of inter-rater reliability was dealt with subsequently. After examining the inter-rater reliability and evaluating all compositions, the mean scores were calculated for Persian and English compositions. The total score for each composition was the average of two independent ratings. Then, using SPSS 16, the Pearson product-moment correlation analysis was run to calculate the correlation coefficient between L1 and L2 compositions, and between their corresponding sub-components to test the first and the second null hypotheses respectively. Hence, in order to investigate the first null hypothesis of this study the correlation between the mean scores (average of two independent ratings) of Persian and English compositions were calculated. If it proved to be significantly high, the first hypothesis would be rejected which would indicate the existence of a relationship between the overall writing skill of first language (Persian) and foreign language (English). In the same way, for examining the second null hypothesis of this study, the correlations between the mean scores of each of five major components of Persian compositions and their corresponding components of English compositions were calculated. If they proved to be significantly high, the second hypothesis would be rejected which would indicate the existence of relationships between the respective writing sub-skills of first language (Persian) and foreign language (English). 3. Results and Discussion 3.1 Inter-rater Reliability In order to ensure the homogeneity and consistency of the ratings assigned by the four raters (two raters of Persian essays and two raters of English ones), the inter-rater reliability was examined. Based on Cohen’s (1988) classification of correlation strength, a correlation is considered small when r = .10 to .29, medium when r = .30 to .49, and large when r = .50 to 1.00. The inter-rater reliability indexes were high for both Persian raters (r = .832) and English raters (r = .875) which indicate a strong correlation and is therefore acceptable for a reliable writing assessment. 3.2 Descriptive Statistics for the L1 and L2 Compositions Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for the L1 and L2 compositions, including the number of compositions, the mean scores, and the standard deviations. Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Writing Overall Scores

N Mean Std. deviation

L1 Composition 50 83.80 7.149 L2 Composition 50 72.92 9.638

As shown in Table 1, the mean score of Persian (L1) essays (83.80) is greater than that of English (L2) essays (72.92). Furthermore, as displayed in Table 1, the standard deviation for Persian compositions (7.149) is lower than that of English compositions (9.638). 3.3 Correlation Analysis for the L1-L2 Essays Overall Scores The first research question of this study investigates the probable relationship (correlation) between Persian and English writing skills, which is measured through the compositions overall scores. Consequently, in order to test the first null hypothesis and answer the first research question, Pearson product-moment correlation was performed. However, before reporting this correlation, the assumption underlying Pearson correlation, namely, normality of the distribution was examined. Therefore, One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test (K-S Test) along with a Scatter plot was employed to test the normal distribution of the scores and their results indicated the normality of the distribution. After confirming the normality of the distribution, Pearson product-moment was run to examine the correlation between the overall scores of Persian and English essays. Table 2 presents the correlation coefficient between these two variables. Table 2. Correlation between Persian and English Essays

L2 essay

L1 essay

Pearson correlation .645**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 50

Note. **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

IJALEL 2 (2):43-52, 2013 48 As can be seen in Table 2, the correlation coefficient between Persian and English essays is 0.645, which is significant at the 0.01 level of probability. This finding rejects the first null hypothesis, and suggests that there is a significant correlation between the first language and the foreign language overall writing skills of Iranian upper-intermediate language learners in Iran. 3.4. Descriptive Statistics for the L1 and L2 Writing Sub-skills Table 3 presents descriptive statistics for the five writing sub-components (sub-skills) of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics in the L1 and L2. This table includes related information about the number of compositions, the mean scores of each of the sub-skills, and their standard deviations. Table 3. Descriptive Statistics for Writing Sub-skills

Sub-skills N Mean Std. deviation L1 content 50 24.52 2.375 L2 content 50 20.96 3.410 L1 organization 50 16.84 1.448 L2 organization 50 14.68 1.911 L1 vocabulary 50 17.32 2.015 L2 vocabulary 50 15.12 2.256 L1 language use 50 21.44 2.251 L2 language use 50 18.36 2.981 L1 mechanics 50 3.68 .621 L2 mechanics 50 3.48 .707 As illustrated in Table 3, the mean scores for Persian sub-skills of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics are 24.52, 16.84, 17.32, 21.44, and 3.68 respectively. The mean scores for English sub-skills of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics are 20.96, 14.68, 15.12, 18.36, and 3.48 respectively. This demonstrates greater mean scores for all Persian writing sub-skills in comparison to their corresponding English ones. Furthermore, as shown in Table 3, the standard deviations for Persian sub-skills of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics are 2.375, 1.448, 2.015, 2.251, and 0.621 respectively. The standard deviation for English sub-skills of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics are 3.410, 1.911, 2.256, 2.981, and 0.707 respectively. As can be seen, the standard deviations of all Persian writing sub-skills are smaller than their corresponding English ones. 3.5 Correlation Analysis for the L1-L2 Writing Sub-skills Scores The second research question of this study investigates the probable relationships (correlations) between Persian writing sub-skills (i.e. skills regarding content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics) and their corresponding English writing sub-skills, which are measured through their scores in the assigned compositions. Consequently, in order to test the second null hypothesis and answer the second research question, Pearson product-moment correlation was performed. Table 4 presents the correlation coefficients between these pairs of variables. Table 4. Correlations between Persian and English Writing Sub-skills

Writing sub-skills L2

Content Organization Vocabulary Language use Mechanics

L1

Content Pearson correlation .506**

Sig.(2-tailed) .000 N 50

Organization Pearson correlation .335*

Sig.(2-tailed) .017 N 50

Vocabulary Pearson correlation .620**

Sig.(2-tailed) .000 N 50 Language use

Pearson correlation .535**

Sig.(2-tailed) .000 N 50

Mechanics Pearson correlation .543**

Sig.(2-tailed) .000 N 50

Note. **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed), *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

IJALEL 2 (2):43-52, 2013 49 As illustrated in Table 4, the correlation coefficients between Persian and English writing sub-skills of content, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics are .506, .620, .535, and .543 respectively, which are all significant at the 0.01 level of probability. The correlation between Persian and English sub-skill of organization, however, is .335, which is significant at the 0.05 level of probability, but not at the 0.01 level of probability. These findings reject the second null hypothesis, and suggest that there is a significant relationship between Iranian upper-intermediate language learners’ proficiency in some foreign language writing sub-skills (specifically, skills regarding content, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics) and their corresponding first language writing sub-skills. 3.6 Discussion In order to investigate the relationship between writing skills and sub-skills in Persian and English, descriptive and correlation analysis were conducted on the composition scores written in the two languages. These compositions were evaluated based on ESL Composition Profile (Jacobs et al., 1981) by two raters for Persian essays and two raters for English ones. Descriptive analysis of compositions revealed higher mean scores for Persian essays in comparison to English ones, which indicates that writing in English is a more challenging task for the students. However, the result was not surprising since Persian is the students’ first language, while they were only at upper-intermediate level of proficiency in English (Table 1). This is also consistent with the result of a similar study by Zia Houseini and Derakhshan (2006) which displayed higher mean scores for Persian essays rather than English ones. They found a significant difference between these mean scores, which lead them to conclude the direction of transfer from Persian to English. The smaller value of standard deviation for Persian essays comparing English ones indicates a greater homogeneity between Persian essays of the current study (Table 1). The same result was also shown in a similar study by Derakhshan (1996) who found smaller standard deviation for Persian essays in comparison to English ones. In a similar way, the mean scores of all Persian writing sub-skills were higher than the mean scores of their corresponding English writing sub-skills. This might also be attributed to the participants’ lower proficiency in the second language (English), and indicates that English writing sub-skills are more challenging for the EFL learners (Table 3). The values of standard deviations were also lower for all Persian writing sub-skills in comparison to their corresponding English writing sub-skills (Table 3), which suggest greater homogeneity between each of Persian writing sub-skills. Then, in order to test the first null hypothesis, after confirming the normality of distribution of the compositions scores through a K-S test as well as a Scatter plot, correlation analysis was conducted. Hence, Pearson product moment analysis was run to examine the correlation between the overall scores of Persian and English essays. The results, based on Cohen’s (1988) classification of correlation strength, showed a large correlation (r = .645, P < .01) (Table 2), which rejected the first null hypothesis. Thus, it suggests a significant relationship between L1 (Persian) and L2 (English) overall writing performance of upper-intermediate language learners. This finding supports the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH), which postulated transfer of language skills from L1 to L2 provided sufficient exposure to L2 and motivation to learn the language (Cummins, 1979), especially at high levels of L2 proficiency, which is congruent with Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis (LTH). It is also consistent with the results of similar studies investigating L1-L2 writing relationships (e.g. Arefi, 1997; Ziahouseini & Derakhshan, 2006; Dweik & Abu Al Hommos, 2007; Alsamadani, 2010). Next, in order to test the second null hypothesis, the correlation coefficients between writing sub-skills of Persian and English essays were examined. Therefore, the Pearson product-moment correlation was run to the scores of each writing sub-skills in the two languages. The results showed large correlations (p < .01) between four out of five investigated writing sub-skills in L1 and L2 (Table 4). The highest correlations were observed between the writing sub-skills of vocabulary, mechanics, language use, and content in L1 and L2 in a descending order. However, the correlation between writing sub-skill of organization in the two languages was not significant. These findings, thus, rejected the second null hypothesis and indicated that there is a significant relationship between Iranian upper-intermediate language learners’ proficiency in some foreign language writing sub-skills (specifically, skills regarding content, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics) and their corresponding first language writing sub-skills. Consequently, the results confirm the transfer of these writing sub-skills between L1 and L2.These findings also support the LIH and are congruent with LTH. In other words, although Persian and English writing are very different at surface levels such as vocabulary, grammar, and so on, due to the existence of an underlying proficiency which is interdependent across languages the cognitive/academic or literacy related skills can be transferred across these two languages (Cummins, 1984). However, it is worth noting that although there are several studies that suggest cross-linguistic transfer of some writing sub-skills (e.g. Arefi, 1997), there is no other research investigating the relationship between the aforementioned sub-skills in L1 and L2 in order to be compared with the results of this study. In conclusion, the results of this study could reject both null hypotheses and display a relationship between overall proficiency in writing skill and most writing sub-skills of first and foreign language. Therefore, it suggested the cross-linguistic transfer of writing skill and most writing sub-skills, which supports the theoretical foundation of LIH, is congruent with LTH, and corroborates the results of similar studies. 4. Conclusions and Suggestions 4.1 Summary There is a growing body of research and theories, especially LIH, assuming a common underlying proficiency among languages, which provides the potential for the transfer of language skills between them. This cross-linguistic transfer

IJALEL 2 (2):43-52, 2013 50 facilitates language learning since it dilutes the need for re-learning the skills previously learned in another language. On the other hand, writing, as an important and grueling language skill, plays a determining role in students’ academic success, especially at university level, since the students are mostly evaluated through their written products (e.g. written examinations or research papers). In this regard, this study investigated the relationship between writing skill and sub-skills in L1 and L2, hoping that its findings with regards to the catalyzing effect of transfer in language learning open new horizons in teaching writing for all stake holders in first and foreign language teaching arena. Hence, 50 randomly selected upper-intermediate EFL learners at BA level who were majoring in English were asked to write argumentative essays in L1 (Persian) and L2 (English). The topics were different for L1 and L2 essays, and the students had to write on them in a limited set time without any access to additional sources such as dictionary. The compositions then, were evaluated by four expert raters (two raters for L1 and two raters for L2) employing ESL Composition Profile (Jacobs et al., 1981). Using SPSS 16, Pearson product-moment correlation was performed to calculate the correlation between the overall scores of the compositions in L1 and L2.The results showed a significant correlation between the overall scores of the composition in Persian and English. This means that students who scored higher in L1 compositions, scored higher in L2 ones, and vice versa, which indicates a relationship between L1 and L2 composition scores. This attests the existence of a common underlying writing proficiency even between languages that do not share the same orthographic system (i.e. Persian and English). This finding was in line with the findings of similar research and Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH), suggesting the cross-linguistic transfer of writing skill. Furthermore, in order to find which writing sub-skills are more apt for such a transfer, the same test (Pearson product-moment correlation) was run to examine the correlation between each of five major components (sub-skills) of compositions in the two languages. The writing sub-skills under investigation, based on the Profile, were “content,” “organization,” “vocabulary,” “language use,” and “mechanics”. The results displayed significant correlations for all of them but “organization.” The highest correlations were observed between sub-skills of vocabulary, and then of mechanics, language use, and content of the two languages in a descending order. This, in its own turn, determined the magnitude of transfer of each of these sub-skills. 4.2 Pedagogical Implications The present research attested the cross-linguistic transfer of writing skills between first language (Persian) and foreign language (English) which entails the following pedagogical implications. First, since there is a significant relationship between writing scores in L1 and L2, it suggests that L1 writing proficiency can be an appropriate predictor of L2 writing proficiency. This means that the students’ L1 writing scores can be used as aptitude tests for L2 writing classes. Second, since there is also cross-linguistic transfer of writing sub-skills (esp. vocabulary, mechanics, language use, and content), student’s scores on these components of writing could act as diagnostic tools, both for precaution and remedy. With precautionary purposes in mind, when language teachers see weaknesses in any of the writing sub-skills in a student’s L1, they would notice that the student might not still be able to utilize the facilitating effect of the transfer of that skill from L1 to L2. Therefore, for successful learning of that specific skill in L2, the student should be taught the same skill in L1 again. Similarly, and with remedial purposes in mind, when language teachers diagnose some problems with any of the writing sub-skills in L2 – in cases that L1 is the source of error – they can easily handle that problem just by holding remedial sessions on the same skill in L1. Third, there is a difference between the correlation values of different writing sub-skills in two languages, which indicates a difference between the transfers of different sub-skills. Therefore, it could be suggested that some of these sub-skills (due to their higher correlations) have higher potential for being transferred into an L2 successfully, and consequently they call for more attention. In other words, sub-skills of vocabulary, mechanics, language use, and content (in order) should be the focus while drawing on the facilitating role of cross-linguistic transfer of writing skills. Fourth, the findings of this study entail some implications for all stake holders in first and foreign language teaching arena such as language researchers, material developers, test designers, and decision makers in the department of education and the department of higher-education. For example, language syllabuses at school could be collaborated in a way that the order of presentation of learning materials would be the same in both L1 and L2, or even bilingual course books could be designed. In this way, the students would benefit the reinforcing effect of recycling similar skills in two languages, which in turn would pave the way for cross-linguistic transfer of these skills. In addition, teachers could raise students’ awareness of the similarity and differences between the languages and consequently enhance the positive transfer as well as inhibit the negative one. It is worth mentioning that Cummins (2005) has already demonstrated the effectiveness of “teaching for cross language transfer in dual language education.” He proposed complementing monolingual instructional strategies (e.g. use of the target language for large blocks of time) by bilingual instructional strategies (representing less time in both languages than monolingual instruction) that focus on teaching directly for two-way transfer across languages. Dweik and Abu Al Hommos (2007) also, according to the result of their study, suggested the integration of the instruction of first and foreign language writing skills in students’ textbooks. In conclusion, the findings of this study, in line with the results of similar studies, indicate that appropriate teaching in L1 may benefit students when they learn an L2 (or even vice versa). In other words, they suggest that first language teachers (esp. of writing) need to pay more attention to the common deep underlying writing skills in a way that they can be tapped into when learning a foreign language. Foreign language teachers should also try their best to get most of

IJALEL 2 (2):43-52, 2013 51 this underlying proficiency potentiality by drawing students attention to what they have already acquired in their first language, and to how they can apply them in a second language. 4.3 Future Research Proposals Although the results of the present study displayed the relationship between the first language and foreign language writing skills, writing as an intricate cognitive skill calls for more research to dissect its various aspects while considering different intervening variables.. However, the findings of this study could shed some light on the new lines of research in this field, and pave the way for investigating the following proposals. First, since the present research is the only study that examined the transfer of five major components of writing based on ESL Composition Profile (Jacobs et al., 1981), further research is needed to confirm its findings while considering other variables such as gender, proficiency level, and type of essay. For instance, if significant gender differences could be found in cross-linguistic transfer (e.g. of writing), it would imply that teaching both L1 and L2 (and even designing teaching materials) should be implemented rather differently for male and female language learners. In this way, each gender could be able to cope with cross-linguistic transfer and learning a foreign language in its own most efficient way. The same implications might hold true for probable differences in different levels of language proficiency or for teaching different types of essays. Second, although this study investigated five major component of writing, based on ESL Composition Profile (Jacobs et al, 1981), future studies could even go a step further and investigate them in depth through examining transfer of each of their sub-components (see Procedures for Data Collection and Data Analysis). Third, the current research examined the cross-linguistic transfer of writing through product-oriented approach, while further research is required to investigate the same phenomenon through process-oriented approach. Fourth, it seems that future studies should focus on proposing innovative techniques as well as examining the degree of their efficacy in improving the enhancing effect of cross-linguistic transfer in language learning. Collaborative / integrative language classes, which have corresponding syllabuses, team-teaching by both L1and L2 language teachers, and bilingual course books are a few examples of such techniques. At last, it is hoped that the findings and pedagogical implications of this research as well as its suggestions for future studies could supplement the growing body of research on cross-linguistic transfer and foster more interest for similar research in this area, especially in EFL contexts. References Agustin Llach, M. P. (2010). An overview of variables affecting lexical transfer in writing: A review study. International Journal of Linguistics, 2(1). Allan, D. (2004). Oxford Placement Test1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Alsamadani, H. A. (2010). The relationship between Saudi EFL students’ writing competence, L1 writing proficiency, and self-regulation. European Journal of Social Sciences, 16 (1). Retrieved July 2, 2012 from http://www.eurojournals.com/ejss_16_1_06.pdf Arefi, M. (1997). The relationship between first and second language writing skills for Iranian students in Sydney: An application of the Interdependence Hypothesis. (Doctoral Dissertation).Nepean: University of Western Sydney. Retrieved January 18, 2011 from http://www.Irandoc.ac.ir Behjat, F., & Sadighi, F. (2010). Iranian English major students’ L2 grammar development: Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis. The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 13(4), A-6. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej52/a6.pdf Blackmore-Squires, S. (2010). An investigation into the use of blog as a tool to improve writing in the second language classroom. (MA dissertation). Submitted to the University of Manchester. Retrieved August 10, 2011from http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/Thesis/Thesis-Squires.pdf Brown, J. D., & Baily, K. M. (1984). A categorical instrument for scoring second language writing skills. Language Learning, 34(4), 21-42. Cambridge IELTS 5. (2006). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge IELTS 7. (2009). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Carson, J. E., Carrell, P. L., Silberstein, S., Kroll, B., & Kuehn, P. A. (1990). Reading - writing relationships in first and second language. TESOL Quarterly, 24(2), 245-266. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power and analysis for the behavioral science. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Connor, U. (1996). Contrastive rhetoric: Cross-cultural aspects of second-language writing. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Cummins, J. (1979). Linguistic interdependence and educational development of bilingual children. Review of Educational Research, 49(2), 222–251.

IJALEL 2 (2):43-52, 2013 52 Cummins, J. (1984). Bilingualism and special education: issues in assessment and pedagogy. Clevedon, Avon, England: Multilingual Matters. Cummins, J. (1991). Interdependence of first-and second-language proficiency in bilingual children. In E. Bialystok (ed.), Language Processing in Bilingual Children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cummins, J (2005). Teaching for cross-language transfer in dual language education: Possibilities and pitfalls. TESOL Symposium on Dual Language Education: Teaching and Learning Two Languages in the EFL Setting. Istanbul, Turkey: Bogazici University. Derakhshan, K. (1996). Effects of first language on second language writing - A preliminary contrastive rhetoric study of Farsi & English. Unpublished MA dissertation. Tehran: Allameh Tabatabai University. Retrieved March 15, 2011 from http://www.irandoc.ac.ir Dweik, B. S., & Abu Al Hommos, M. D. (2007). The effect of Arabic proficiency on the English writing of bilingual‐ Jordanian students. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED497505) Ito, F. (2009). Threshold to transfer writing skills from L1 to L2. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED506378) Jacobs, H. L., Zinkgraf, S. A., Wormuth, D. R., Hartfiel, V. F. & Hughey, J. B. (1981). Testing ESL composition: A practical approach, Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publication. Johns, A. M. (1993). Written argumentation for real audiences: suggestions for teacher research and classroom practice. TESOL Quarterly, 27(1), 75-90. Joy, R. (2011). The concurrent development of spelling skills in two languages. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 3(2). Kaplan, R. B. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education. Language Learning, 16,1-20. Odlin, T. (2005). Crosslinguistic influence and conceptual transfer: What are the concepts? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 25, 3-25. Raimes, A. (1985). What unskilled ESL students do as they write: A classroom study of composing. TESOL Quarterly, 19, 229-258. Sparks, R., Patton, J., Ganschow, L., & Humbach, N. (2009). Long-term cross-linguistic transfer of skills from L1 to L2. Languge Learning, 59(1), 203-243. Tan, B. H. (2011). Innovative writing centers and online writing labs outside North America. Asian EFL Journal, 13 (2), 391-418. Retrieved September 5, 2011 from http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/PDF/June_2011.pdf Zamel, V. (1984). In search of the key: Research and practice in composition. In Handscombe, J., Orem, R. A., & Taylor. B. P. (Eds.) On TESOL ’83. Washington, DC: TESOL Ziahouseini, S. M., & Derakhshan, K. (2006). Transfer of first language of foreign language writing: A contrastive rhetoric study of English & Farsi. Quarterly Journal of Humanities, Alzahra University, 16(58), 75-91.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Classroom Interactions in a Cooperative Translation Task

Hui-chuan Wang (Corresponding author) Department of English, Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages

PO box 80793, 900 Mintsu 1st Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R. O. C. Tel: +886-7-342-6031-5339 E-mail: cwfranceswang@gmail.com

Received: 14-11- 2012 Accepted: 24-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.53 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.53 Abstract For the past decade, translation learning has become one of the main foci for university language students in Taiwan. However, many studies have shown that translation teachers tend to adopt traditional teaching methods without considering class dynamics and student interactions. This paper therefore looks into the interactions in the researcher’s designed cooperative translation task, the Cooperative Translation Task, to see how these interactions helped or hindered students’ translation learning. A small class of 25 translation students and two translation teachers were participants. Videotaping and interviews were conducted in order to investigate the interaction modes and student participants’ perspectives toward each interaction mode. Six interaction modes were found in this task: within group, between group, translator group and comment-giver group, instructor and students, guest teacher and students, and instructor and guest teacher. Based on the results and participants’ responses, suggested teaching guidelines are provided. Keywords: classroom interaction, interaction mode, Cooperative Translation Task, translation teaching 1. Introduction 1.1 Background of the Study For the past decade, translation learning has been one of the main foci for university language learners in Taiwan. Since 2003, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has included English Translation I and English Translation II as core courses for students majoring in applied English/foreign languages to develop their translation competence. A close look at the MOE’s official syllabi and their teaching guidelines reveals that the MOE suggests a variety of learning activities for translation teachers to utilize in the classroom, including (a) group discussion and presentation, (b) peer correction, (c) error analysis, (d) translation criticism, and (e) comparative analysis. These activities generally share two main features. First, they encourage more interaction and cooperation among students through such activities as group discussion and peer correction. Second, translation problems are not identified by the instructor alone, but also through students’ error analysis, translation criticism, and comparative analysis. These main features show MOE’s expectation of seeing multiple interactions and students’ engagement in translation classrooms. Apart from the expectations shown in the MOE’s official syllabi, it is found that interaction has become one of the key elements in translation work. In the past two decades, translation work has undergone a dramatic change. According to Ulrych (2005), professional translators need client-related skills in sound interpersonal relations with authors, publishers, and requesters. Therefore, interactions like between teacher/student and student/student should be more encouraged in the translation classroom for students’ future professions. As such, more and more translation scholars and teachers have called for alternative methods of translation instruction. Colina (2003) and Kiraly (1995) advocated Communicative Translation Teaching (CTT), which has underlying philosophies resembling those of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The main instructional goal of communicative translation teaching is to cultivate students’ communicative translation competence and to emphasize the social contexts of texts, which takes customers’ needs as priorities and considers the effects on the users of the translation. To build up communicative translation competence, teachers need to integrate multiple tasks such as cooperative learning and peer tutoring, which all encourage interactions. However, a number of studies have found that many translation teachers still utilize traditional translation teaching methods (Chang, Yu, Li & Peng, 1993; Liao, 2009; Mu, 1992). In traditional classrooms, students tend to depend heavily on teacher-centered instruction, and teachers accept or encourage the students’ passive learning attitudes (Kiraly, 1995). When implementing teacher- and text-centered, and writing-based teaching methods, class dynamics and student interactions are frequently neglected (González Davies, 2004). There are almost no interactions between the teacher and students and among students. As a result, students only follow the teachers’ suggestions and rarely reflect up their own translating process, translation styles, and problem-solving approaches. To date, only a few studies have attempted to apply cooperative learning to translation in Taiwan and there has been limited exploration in the literature about interactions in translation learning activities. With a purpose of developing an interactive and collaborative translation learning context for Taiwanese translation learners, I have been attempting to

IJALEL 2 (2):53-58, 2013 54 develop a translation learning task, named the Cooperative Translation Tasks (CoTT) in the past two years. The implementations of Prototype I and II of the CoTT have shown the possibility to transform a teacher-centered translation classroom into a student-centered classroom, and more interaction modes have been built up. The interaction modes in Prototype I have been presented and published in a 2010 international conference on language, literature and teaching (Wang, 2010). This paper is a continuing study working on the interaction modes found in Prototype II of the CoTT and to see how the participants interacted in a cooperative translation task and how those interaction modes shape and influence their learning. Research questions of this study are (1) How did the participants in each mode interact with one another? (2) What can be done to enhance the effectiveness of interactions for translation learning? 1.2 Design of the Cooperative Translation Tasks (CoTT) The usage of the term task of the Cooperative Translation Tasks (CoTT) here follows González Davies’ (2004) definition. Her definitions distinguish the relationships among the three instructional actions: activities, tasks, and steps. González Davies (2004) defined a task as follows:

Task will be understood as a chain of activities with the same global aim and a final product. The full completion of a task usually takes up several sessions. In each of these, the activities lead along the same path towards the same end. (p. 23)

Based on her definition, the Prototype II of the Cooperative Translation Task (CoTT) includes five sessions (see Table 1), which can be divided into three stages: Pre-presentation Stage, Presentation Stage, and Post-presentation Stage. These sessions were constructed based on the following rationales. 1. The teaching guidelines in the official syllabi for English Translation I and English Translation II (2005), issued

by the Ministry of Education (MOE), 2. Five major features of cooperative learning, 3. Related literature on peer response and teacher response, 4. Process-oriented and product-oriented translation evaluation, and 5. The researcher’s previous implementation of the Prototype I of the CoTT.

Table 1. Five Sessions of Prototype II

Sessions Prototype II Session 1 Written Peer Response Session 2 Student Seminar & Teacher Seminar Session 3 Oral Peer Response Session 4 Oral Teacher Response Session 5 Final Revisions

Below are the brief descriptions of each session of Prototype II of the CoTT for the current study. 1.3 Prototype II of the CoTT (Cooperative Translation Tasks) Pre-presentation Stage: Session 1 In Session 1, Written Peer Response, two randomly selected groups exchange translations for written peer editing. Each group gives comments and suggested translations on a peer response sheet and returns it to the translator group by email. The translator group decides whether to accept the suggestions and makes appropriate revisions for the class presentation. Presentation Stage: Session 2, 3, 4 In Session 2, Student Seminar & Teacher Seminar, to keep students more engaged in discussions and avoid within-group chatting, there is a between-group discussion, named Student Seminar. To encourage the students to consult the teachers, Teacher Seminar is arranged to give students a chance to engage in face-to-face discussion and cooperation with the teachers. These two seminars are conducted simultaneously. Each group (five members) sends one member to Teacher Seminar, and the other four members go to four different student seminar tables. All the seminar participants’ job is to review a translator group’s presented products. A seminar sheet is given as an organizational construct for the students to take notes and list their suggestions. In Session 3, Oral Peer Response, after peer review activities, each translator group orally presents comments and discussion results collected in Teacher and Student Seminars. The instructor plays a role of a moderator to create various interactions in this session. The instructor leads the translator groups to share comments and invite more questions from the class. In Session 4, Oral Teacher Response, to provide the students with the teachers’ perspectives on their translations, one or two teachers give their oral comments. If there is a guest teacher, his or her comments are given first. The acceptable

IJALEL 2 (2):53-58, 2013 55 and unacceptable translations are pointed out and the teachers provide the suggestions for final revisions. Post-presentation Stage: Session 5 In Session 5, Final Revisions, after the translation reviews in class, students are asked to use both process-oriented and product-oriented methods to present their final revision process and product. Each translator group is required to use a new mediating artifact, the Comment function in word-processing software, to insert (1) comments from teachers and peers, (2) acceptance level of comments, and (3) the final translation. 2. Method 2.1 Participants The participants were 25 technological university students who majored in Applied English and two translation teachers. There were 3 males and 22 females taking this course, named English Translation. They were divided into five groups. They were all seniors, but they did not have any translation learning experience before. The class met two hours each week, and the Prototype II took three weeks, six hours in total. The genre for the translation assignment was story, which was decided by the instructor. However, each group could select a story they liked and translate it from English to Chinese. The average translation words were around 450-500. A consent form written in both Chinese and English was given to the student participants to ensure that all the student participants knew that they were taking part in a research study. The teacher participants, two female teachers who played the roles of the instructor and the guest teacher respectively, took part in this study. 2.2 Video Recording Because the classroom was not equipped with video cameras, a video camera was mounted in the back of the classroom by the researcher. However, when group work began, the camera could not capture group interactions. Hence, the researcher took the camera in her hands and moved to each seminar table to film the within-group and teacher-student interaction. Each session in Prototype II was videotaped. The permission to record the class on video had been obtained from the students before the camera was set up. 2.3 In-depth Interviews Two kinds of interviews were conducted. First, weekly interviews were conducted with a group of students in order to monitor the students’ changes in perspectives and observations of the interactions. Prototype II consumed three weeks of class time, so three interviews with the same group were conducted. The weekly interviews were conducted immediately after class. Since each member of a group went to different seminar tables, interviewing a single group could provide the researcher sufficient data to understand what happened in each student seminar. Therefore, the present study employed Patton and Patton’s (2001) purposeful random sampling to select one group from the five groups by drawing lots, and this group showed their willingness to participate in the weekly interviews. These five students were given numeric labels from II-1 to II-5, with Roman numeral II representing Prototype II and the Arabic number referring to the order in which the interviewee spoke. In other words, II-5 was the last student who spoke in the interview. Each interview lasted for around 40 minutes and was recorded. 2.4 Data Analysis In this study, all the interviews were transcribed and the transcriptions were translated into English for data analysis. Interview transcripts and notes were analyzed by using the constant comparative method, which was derived from the “Ground Theory” proposed by Glaser and Strauss (1967). The constant comparative method is a process in which data were coded, categorized, and theorized. The videos were viewed twice in order to find possible interaction modes and how the participants interacted with one another. 3. Results and Discussion 3.1 Within-group Interaction It is clear that friendship plays an important role for the students to help group members. Friendship can be seen as a social attraction for grouping. The benefits of this grouping are that students with similar linguistic and cultural backgrounds will show a strong preference to be in the same group for peer support because social attraction usually comes from perceived similar backgrounds, proximity, and emotional ambience (Liu & Hansen, 2005). These similar backgrounds, attitudes, or viewpoints will be likely to promote affiliative feelings (Deutsch, 1962). Students in the current study showed a strong preference for forming groups based on friendship or a pre-existing cooperative relationship. They also complained the difficulty in working with the members of other groups in Student Seminar, as they had not cooperated before. They did not how to stimulate the other members to contribute their opinions. As Dörnyei (1997) suggested, the affective domain plays an essential role in the success of cooperative learning. He attributed this positive interaction to the interrelated roles in group dynamics. His suggestions for enhancing group cohesiveness are similar to those of Johnson et al. (2002) for increasing positive interdependence. He emphasized the need of team building for team members to know each other and develop the trust and skills to work together. This is especially true when a group is formed by the teacher or at random, and not by the students. Thus, if the CoTT is conducted under time constraints, it is suggested that the teacher allows students to form groups based on friendship, acquaintance, or their previous cooperative experience so that the learners may generate more comments in a short discussion time.

IJALEL 2 (2):53-58, 2013 56 3.2 Between-group Interaction In Prototype II, the between-group interaction took place in Student Seminar. The members came from separate groups, and they were all assigned one language level (vocabulary, sentence, discourse and extralinguistic levels) for review. The discussions were not as smooth as expected, as the students were not acquainted with each other. Moreover, having no leader to initiate discussion, sometimes they did not know how to start. With a lack of acquaintance and group cohesiveness among members, there were no established group dynamics to increase the members’ engagement. The students did not dare to accuse the others of avoiding responsibility, for they did not want to damage their friendships. If the members were acquainted each other, it would be easier for members to negotiate the job assignments and responsibilities. It can be inferred that for a success in between-group discussion, complicated activities should be avoided, as students usually become confused about their roles in the task. Complicated tasks generally require division of labor among group members, so if the cooperative relationship has not been formed previously, it will be hard for group members to help each other. This situation may worsen when there is no leader and the members have similar roles in the discussion. Some students may try to avoid responsibility, as the other members can finish the task just as well without their contributions. Even though they might care for their friendships, those students may still act very passively, acting more like listeners. For situations like this, it appears that the principles of the Discussion Group, one of the cooperative learning activities, can provide some help in solving this problem. In a Discussion Group, it is important to give students a well-defined aim, and a leader should be assigned by the teacher or chosen by the members. This leader’s main responsibility is to ensure member participation and engagement. Here, in the CoTT, it is suggested that this group leader confirm that all members understand their roles, the task they should complete, and the flow of the discussion. Slavin (1997) suggested three ways to ensure student participation: asking members to write down opinions, assigning certain parts of a topic, and giving sufficient time. If incorporating Slavin’s suggestions, a translation teacher can ask each group to take notes of what has been discussed, ask the leader to assign responsibilities, and give more discussion time or ask a group member to play the role as time controller. Moreover, to ensure that all group members are participating, one main feature in cooperative learning can be employed: individual accountability. Students should take individual notes, and the notes should be turned in by the group, so that individual accountability contributes to the grade on group performance. The leader should be responsible for asking the members to finish their own jobs in order to ensure that every member contributes a fair share. 3.3 Translator Group and Comment-Giver Group Interaction As for the interactions between the translator group and comment-giver group, generally the comment-giver group gave comments politely for fear that the translator group might lose face, and they attempted to protect their friendship. However, their comments became more critical when giving oral comments. It is interesting to note that one reason for being critical was that students wanted to exact revenge for being criticized by another group. Because their face had not been saved, they felt that they did not need to concern about the others’ faces. Thus, their remarks were more critical, with a slightly impolite tone. Critiquing is a face-threatening act, and we can see that most of the students tried hard to save face for their classmates in order to protect their friendship. However, when they felt they were ‘under attack,’ and they wanted to ‘fight back.’ This finding was consistent with the results of my studies in translator seminars (Wang, 2009). Students’ arguments gained in strength, from mild to strong, when they heard more arguments against them, and they started getting used to debating. Even though some students were slightly impolite during discussions, it seemed that students had learned the skills to argue and support their assertions. As most Taiwanese students have little experience in discussion and debating, teachers should provide as much experience as possible, even though some strong arguments may develop when students become more critical. Teachers should stir their students and help them discover their potential for critical thinking by experiencing different developmental stages. However, rude or impolite behavior has to be dealt with by the instructor. Some social and communication skills should be taught during the training of peer responses so that some conflicts can be avoided. Second, the translator groups did not actively respond to the comment-giver groups, as they believed the speaking time belonged to the comment givers. To interrupt or argue with them might offend them. Thus, they did not talk until the instructor encouraged them to talk or gave them permission to speak. In other words, students were trying to protect their friendships and to be polite to both the comment-giver group and the teacher. To improve this situation, the teacher should act as a mediator to remind the translator group that they can argue in favor of their opinions and encourage debate. 3.4 Instructor and Student Interaction It is found that the students tended to rely on the instructor’s instructions to complete the tasks. The instructor’s talk seemed authoritative to learners. Whenever the instructor joined the discussion or interrupted the presentation, the audience’s attention was drawn. When the instructor asked the comment-giver group questions or required the translator group to respond to the comments, or asked the audience to vote for alternative translations, most of the students were attentive to what was happening on the stage. The authority conferred on the teachers in the students’ minds is obvious, and the students got used to being extrinsically motivated by the instructor.

IJALEL 2 (2):53-58, 2013 57 However, students pointed out several advantages of joining Teacher Seminar. First, teachers could help them solve the problems that Student Seminar could not solve. Moreover, they learned that the teachers had different opinions on the same translation, and they were interested to know how the teachers looked at the translation from different perspectives. They used to think that teachers had so-called ‘correct translations.’ The learners pointed out that the biggest problem in peer discussion was that it was easy for them to abandon their own opinions, especially when their classmates insisted on their opinions. The teachers’ discussion taught them that they could hold different opinions or argue with peers. The third advantage was that the teachers increased their confidence, and they became aware of their own abilities in translation. Student Participant II-2 mentioned her excitement during Teacher Seminar:

The discussion with the teachers was exciting. At the beginning, we dared not to express ourselves because the teachers did not point out any problems. It could have meant that the teachers thought the translation was acceptable. But when we pointed it out, it seemed that the teacher simply did not notice it, not that it was a good translation.

To alter the traditional perception of a teacher’s role, students’ new awareness of the teacher’s role may need to be raised. It can be done right after the discussion in Teacher Seminar. The instructor can ask the seminar participants what they have observed about the teachers’ roles and students’ roles in the seminars, and what they have learned from this activity. The students will be able to see the value of Teacher Seminar and their contributions to their own learning. If students are used to teacher-centered learning, the teacher should shift the approach gradually. A sudden change may make students feel insecure, and they may even believe that the teachers are lazy. The scaffolding should be drawn little by little until students are accustomed to a student-centered discussion. 3.5 Guest Teacher to Student Interaction The guest teacher expected more active participation from the students who took part in Teacher Seminar. She gave the power to the students and let them initiate discussion. If she found the students did not actively ask questions or raise questions for discussion, she invited one or two students to start and listened to their opinions first. However, not many of the students had the courage to speak to the guest teacher face to face. They were afraid that they would bring up ‘stupid’ questions and did not know how to start a discussion with a teacher. In other words, personal contact with a teacher and a lack of self-confidence caused the stress. Therefore, the first priority for positive interaction between the guest teacher and students is to help students believe in the role the guest teacher plays. The teacher can play a more supporting role and act more like a group member. Instead of expressing professional suggestions, the guest teacher should first invite more opinions and listen to students first, and then guide students to think from multiple perspectives. The teachers’ suggestions can be drawn inductively by the students. 3.6 Instructor to Guest Teacher Interaction The interactions between the instructor and the guest teacher demonstrated the advantages of team teaching in a translation classroom. First, the two teachers’ different comments on the same translation raised the students’ awareness of alternative translations. The students discarded the belief that there was a ‘correct translation.’ Second, the negotiation process between the two teachers helped students understand that a better translation was achieved through negotiation, especially when the guest teacher raised translation problems and the instructor continued the issues. The students observed the discussion process and later might imitate the process in their own discussion. Finally, a translation draft can be discussed in terms of the two teachers’ professions, so validity and reliability of teacher reviews can be achieved. The clear benefits of team teaching in reviewing translations are found in the present study. However, in reality, teachers may find it difficult to invite a guest teacher for regular translation exercises. It is herein suggested that the team teaching be conducted for the midterm or final evaluations only. The target teacher can be another translation teacher in the same department, or ideally one from another school, as in the present study. These two teachers can work together on the translation evaluation of two classes. 4. Conclusions Interactions used to be a neglected part in traditional translation class. The six interaction modes found in Prototype II of the CoTT has proved how interactions among students and teachers benefited students in a deep learning of translation, development of critical thinking, and cooperation between/among translators. However, each mode had different problems due to students’ learning nature. The current study provided the teaching implications for translation teachers to solve those problems. For a more active and productive within-group discussion, group formation can be based on friendship, acquaintance, or previous working experiences. To ensure student participation, a leader and individual responsibility should be assigned according to a well-defined aim. When students are used to peer response tasks, it is critical to teach students social and communication skills to avoid a negative climate from impolite behavior. Finally, turning a teacher-centered translation classroom into a student-centered one can start with a shift from a traditional teacher’s role into a moderator by removing scaffolding instruction gradually. This study is limited to the size of the class. The interaction modes may be different from the bigger class. The implementation of the CoTT in a big class can be the next step for the teachers who teach a big translation class.

IJALEL 2 (2):53-58, 2013 58 References Chang, P., Yu. Y., Li, Z., & Peng, M. (1993). 英漢翻譯教程 (English to Chinese Translation Courses). Taipei: Bookman. Colina, S. (2003). Translation teaching, from research to the classroom: A handbook for teachers. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Deutsch, M. (1962). Cooperation and trust: Some theoretical notes. In M. R. Jones (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (p. 275-319). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. Dörnyei, Z. (1997). Psychological processes in cooperative language learning: group dynamics and motivation. Modern Language Journal, 81 (4), 482-493. Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co. González Davies, M. (2004). Multiple voices in the translation classroom: activities, tasks, and projects. Benjamins translation library. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins Pub. Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Holubec E. J. (2002). Cooperative Learning in the Classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Kiraly, D. C. (1995). Pathways to translation: Pedagogy and process. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press. Liao, B. S. (2009). The Implications and Implementation of Communicative Translation Teaching. Compilation and Translation Review, 2, 65-91. Liu, J. & Hansen, J. (2005). Peer response in second language writing classrooms. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Mu, L. (1992). 中國翻譯教學研究 (Translation Teaching in China). Taipei: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Patton, M. Q., & Patton, M. Q. (2001). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park, Calif: Sage Publications. Slavin, R. E. (1997). Cooperative learning: Theory, research, and practice. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon. Ulrych, M. (2005). Training translators: Programs, curricula, practices. In Tennent, M. (2005). Training for the new millennium: pedagogies for translation and interpreting. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. Wang, H. C. (2009). Experiential learning and negotiation in translation classrooms: Simulated seminar. 2009 International Conference on Translation and Interpretation, 221-236, 日昇. Wang, H. C. (2010). Interaction modes in a cooperative translation task. 2010 International Conference on Language, Literature, and Teaching, 131-144, 全華.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Eugene O’Neill and the Celebration of The Other

Sayyed Rahim Moosavinia (Corresponding author) Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz

E-mail: moosavinia@yahoo.com

Yasaman Kocheili Islamic Azad University – Karaj Branch

Received: 11-11- 2012 Accepted: 25-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.59 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.59 Abstract The present paper examines Eugene O’Neill’s three selected plays, Anna Christie, The Iceman Cometh and The Hairy Ape, in the light of cultural studies by focusing on finding the notion of the "other", here women, blacks and the working class. The chosen groups here are among the ones that have been "otherized" by the white, male, bourgeois society. In this study, through the elements of cultural studies, it is shown that the mentioned groups are treated as Others because of their gender, class or race which are considered as inferior ones by the Power. We are going to find out that thinking in terms of binary oppositions is not an acceptable point of view in cultural studies. Therefore, the boundary between the superiority of the Power and inferiority of the Other is broken in this approach. O’Neill’s view point in the selected plays is in line with the core ideas in cultural studies. His wide point of view toward the events of his country and his pluralistic and skeptical outlook does not let any simple categorization or generalization takes place in his works. He criticizes the dominant discourses of the society and makes room for other voices to be heard. Keywords: Hegemony, binary oppositions, ideology, identity, multiculturalism, the other 1. Introduction Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) is the father of serious American drama. Before him what was known as drama was mostly farce or melodrama. He brought depth to American drama by discussing serious social, cultural, political and economic issues of his society in his plays. In many of his plays especially the three selected ones for this article, The Iceman Cometh, Anna Christie and The Hairy Ape, the multicultural society of the United States and the socio-political events of the day are seen. The Iceman Cometh was written in the year 1939-in the 30s- which was a very crucial decade in the history of America due to the fact that the failure of capitalism and the rise of Stalin happened then. It also was a post-war decade and the beginning of another war. In the play, there are references to these events and other important social, philosophical, economic and political issues of the day. The play takes place in a bar downtown New York which is a place for a community of drunk people who once had important roles or jobs in the society but now seeking oblivion by keeping alcohol their company. Each character of the play is the representative of a group of the society, but now these people do not have any direct contact with the outside world and society. The only people who live in the outside society are three prostitutes and a salesperson, Theodor Hickman. From the different layers, themes and characters of the play, this paper focuses on the job and life of one of the characters, Joe Mott, who is the representative of the black society to elaborate on the relationship between race and culture. The other play, Anna Christie, is a story of a woman who due to the bad economic conditions of her family becomes a prostitute but she expects her father and her lover to respect her even as a prostitute. She does not accept to marry her lover, Burke, unless he accepts her as a free thinking woman. In the play when Burke found out that Anna is a prostitute he wanted to let her go and Anna, in order to preserve her pride and identity, wanted to leave, but at last with the acceptance of her past and thoughts and identity by her lover, she accepted to stay and marry Burke. Here, the importance of the relationship between gender and culture is highlighted. In the last selected play, The Hairy Ape, there are a group of firemen, the leader of them, Yank, who from the beginning of the play have discussions about their lives and the difference of it with the lives of Bourgeois. They are working and living until one day a girl on the same ship, Mildred Douglas wanted to go and see where the firemen work. When she saw Yank and other men who were filthy because of their job she could not stand to be there. From this moment on Yank’s life changes. He starts looking for his shattered pride and identity by going to Fifth Avenue, which was a neighborhood of rich people, he went to I.W.W, a center he thought might support workers, but at last he could not find any place in the society. Desperate he went to a zoo and he died there. Therefore, here the interrelation of class and culture is discussed.

IJALEL 2 (2):59-64, 2013 60 Here some earlier ideas on the topic are considered as the literature review. Clive Bloom in the book The American drama (1995) talks about the history of American drama and American dramatists and their changes throughout the years. This book is useful here because through it we understand that the themes in O’Neill’s plays, as a good example of a particular type of dramatists, are exactly related to American history, society, culture and ideology. In the book The Plays of Eugene O’Neill: A Critical Commentary (1964) David Rogers analyzes O’Neill’s plays including the three selected ones. In this book we find out how his plays are rooted in the American historical, social, political, economic contexts. Eugene O’Neill’s America, Desire under Democracy (2007) is an interesting and useful book which shows the engagement of O’Neill’s plays, especially The Iceman Cometh, to the American history, politics, society, and so on. It is a very useful source for proving that cultural studies can be beautifully applied to O’Neill’s plays. The article “Eugene O’Neill” (1967) is another important source for this study. Raleigh, the writer, in this article states that in all O’Neill’s plays the past is more alive and at work than the present. This is a very important point through which we can see why cultural studies can be applied to O’Neill’s plays because all the approaches involved in cultural studies tend to examine the backgrounds, the contexts and processes in which people are born and grow. Stephen Grecco in his article “High Hopes: Eugene O’Neill and Alcohol” (1974) talks about The Iceman Cometh and some of its characteristics like distortion of the time and the dreamlike atmosphere of the play. These are among some of the elements we have in Post-modernism and also in American culture and ideology in which the illusion is more real than reality. 2. Discussion In a society like America which has a long history in being considered as the "Dream Land", there are high expectations of experiencing success, happiness and equality in reality for every human being. But, in the works of many writers including Eugene O'Neill, there is a negation of the promises of the "American Dream." Harold Bloom (2007) in the preface to The Iceman Cometh says "O'Neill is not a celebrator of the possibilities of American life." In the selected plays here a different world, which is in sharp contrast with the promises of the “American Dream," is shown; a society of people who struggle with hopelessness and failure. So what happened to these people? Why are they so desperate and miserable? What happened to the "Dream Land?" Reading the plays, these questions and so many others may come to reader's minds. From O'Neill's and cultural studies point of view, what is universal and known about the U.S as the "Promised Land" is not the absolute reality. It is just a part of the reality, the reality of the lives of people who are in power, economic, political or cultural. This "power" which is White, Male, High class group of the society imposed their ideologies on the "Other" group which are Blacks, Women and Working Classes by creating a picture of the society and life for them that is just an illusion or in O'Neill's words in The Iceman Cometh, "Pipe Dream." The "power" which created the "pipe dream" either otherizes them or accepts them just in their own terms. In other words, women are either prostitutes or angles, working classes are accepted till they are working machines for power and blacks are either treated as non-person or they are accepted with negation of their own cultures. Therefore, this article tries to find answers to these questions:

1. Why women, blacks and working classes are otherized? 2. Are the binary oppositions such as white/black polar binary oppositions?

The belief, in cultural studies, is that people are marginalized by the power because of their class, race gender and other factors. In this article these are the three important ones. There is a relationship between these issues and culture to the extent that they are used by the power to disaffect people's ideology and identity. Each of the selected plays elaborates on one of these issues; The Iceman Cometh will be read through Post-colonialism to focus on the issue of race, The Hairy Ape will be read through Marxism (the issue of class) and Anna Christie will be discussed through Feminism and Gender studies (the issue of gender). These approaches all gather under the umbrella term cultural studies. 2.1 The Hairy Ape: the Manifestation of Two Classes in Binary Opposition Marxism believes in a one-way relationship between economy and culture. Economy is a base and other things are affected by it. What Cultural Studies got from Marxism is that economy, culture and consciousness are related but what is different is the belief that culture can be and is dependent from economy. What is important here and thesis is that "class" is an issue that is raised in both of the approaches and it is believed that due to this issue people are divided to high and low class while the low class are driven to the margins. In Cultural Studies this boundary is broken. John Hartley (2003) in the book A Short History of Cultural Studies says:

Marx believes that Culture is a product of the interests of the "ruling class" of the time. Such ideas achieved their fullest and purest expression in the U.S. In there the capitalist "belief system" of individual freedom in the pursuit of private prosperity was most fully "socialized." And this was the origin of Anti-Americanism in radical writing, including cultural studies. America became shorthand for corporate monopolistic capitalism. Belief in such American "values" as freedom, democracy, progress, technology, science, modernity and prosperity came to seem like so much more "false consciousness"(p.95) The play is written in the expressionistic style of the theater. In expressionism everything such as the name of

the characters, the setting and so on can be telling. Therefore, if the setting is a ship where firemen work, it is symbolic and it is not chosen by chance. It is chosen to highlight the themes of the play which are focusing on the lives of Bourgeoisie.

IJALEL 2 (2):59-64, 2013 61 The major characters of the play are Yank, Paddy, Long, Mildred Douglas and her aunt. The first three ones are the representatives of the working class and the last two ones are representatives of bourgeoisie. The play's scenes can be divided into two halves. In the first four scenes, the major character of the play, Yank, is unaware of the class struggle in the society and the effects of "class" on people's lives. In the last four scenes he becomes aware of the gap between the classes by confronting with Mildred Douglas. In the first four scenes, Yank's belief is that he is a useful and important member of the society and he is feeling happy and successful. He is introduced in the first act of the play as follows" Yank seems broader, fiercer, more truculent, more powerful, more sure of himself than the rest."(p.2) But confrontation of Yank and Mildred is the turning point of the play also Yank's life. Mildred called Yank "filthy beast" and this was the beginning of the shattering of Yank's belief in himself as a successful and useful member of the society. Yank began a quest to find his identity but by and by he understood that he belongs nowhere and considered as nobody in the society. Therefore, it is shown that a worker like Yank is just a tool for the economic power and if he wants to be treated as an equal human being, he belongs nowhere and has no identity. The power, economic and cultural, accepts the working class in a frame they defined for them; that is they are "other", lower and they are accepted as this or otherwise they have no other identity. But, this is a hidden secret until they become conscious of that. Antonio Gramschi, the Italian Marxist, in a book talks about “cultural hegemony." He says "Workers remain oppressed not simply by the economic and political power capitalism but instead by its “hegemony," its influence over popular culture and public opinion"(Diggins, 2007: 44) Therefore, it is this "cultural hegemony" which influences individual's consciousness and identity. In The Hairy Ape O'Neill shows that the American Dream is a pipe dream created by the capitalists to rule the working class. Contrasting the promises of democratic America and the "dream land" to the reality of people's lives, people who are driven to the margins of the society, he shows the hidden part of the reality in the working class's lives. Therefore, the working class are manipulated by the economic and cultural power, that they are important and successful but this is just a trick to use them for their goals. According to the book Eugene O'Neill's America: Desire under Democracy" we should not allow the society to shape the self. O'Neill protested against "idealism" of moral hypocrisy and self deceit that society imposes on the individual."(Diggins, 2007: 4) Yank thinks that he belongs because of the "false consciousness" that capitalism imposed on him. The capitalists created a class system where workers are just subjects for the capitalist's exploitation. According to Clive Bloom (2007) in the book The American Drama, "O'Neill's naturalism was and is deeply constituted in American popular economic and existential beliefs."(p.20) Therefore, not only Yank's belief in himself as the core of the society shatters, but he also couldn't find any place to fit in. His fate in O'Neill's point of view is determined by the economic and cultural hegemony of his society. 2.2 Joe of The Iceman Cometh: the African-American as the Other Eugene O'Neill lived at a time when Americans of African descent were known as “Negros” or "colored" people. He was living in a country where black people were considered "second-class" citizens. He was familiar with the profound effects of ethnic prejudice on marginalizing people. He created sixteen black characters in a total of six plays between 1913 and 1939. This shows his concern about the black society. One of these black characters is Joe Mott in The Iceman Cometh. What O'Neill intends to discuss about Joe's life is how "race" can be a tool for the power for marginalizing people. The power draws a border between the white race and other ethnicities, here the black race, and consider themselves superior, better and more cultured and treat the black as second-class citizens. Thus, O'Neill wants to reveal the ideologies of the white race that are imposed on the black race, he makes the society conscious of the interrelations of race and culture and how they can affect each other. Therefore, here again there is a cultural hegemony of white Americans and Europeans over the black race. In the play, Cecil Lewis (The Captain) is the representative of the former and Joe Mott is the representative of the latter. There is a dialogue, in the play, between the two characters which is noteworthy.

Lewis. Good God! Have I been drinking at the same table with a bloody Kaffir? Joe. Kaffir? Who's he? (p.21)

After Wetjoen, one of the characters of the play, explains to Lewis that he is not Kaffir and he is white, Lewis continues as follows:

Lewis. My profound apologies, Joseph, old chum. Eyesight a trifle blurry, I'm afraid. Whitest colored man I ever know. Proud to call you my friend, no hard feelings, what? Joe. No Captain, I know its mistake. But I don't stand for "nigger" from nobody. Never did. (p.21)

What is implied in these dialogues is that white Americans and Europeans (Lewis as the representative) either look at people like Joe (the black society) as inferior and call them "nigger" and Kaffir, consequently legalize treating them differently, not as equal human beings, or they are considered white and they are treated equally but their whole identity and culture is negated. Either way their whole identity and culture is negated. This treatment of the black society comes from an ideology which says Black is savage, childlike and lower and white is cultured, educated and better. As Neil Campbell and Alasdair Akeen (2000) mention in the book American Cultural Studies

Native-Americans and African-Americans as well as immigrants from Europe and elsewhere, were seen as a thread until they brought within the acceptable definitions of "Americanness" or exclude from it entirely. White-Americans in position of cultural power defined Native-Americans as radically inferior, savage and in

IJALEL 2 (2):59-64, 2013 62 need of radical readjustment to the "better" life of the dominant culture. Alongside the struggles of African-Americans within the dominant white culture. During the 1960s, there was also resurgence in many ethnic literatures – Native - Americans in particular. (p.48)

Thus, in a situation that African-Americans should be in the framework defined by the power or they are excluded, they start to find their own voice and regain their identity and place in the American history that its dominant historical voice has been white. Joe Mott of the play is the representative of this group of people. He tries to preserve his pride and identity among others. In the second act of the play when Joe says he does not want to drink with Hicky, one of the characters, one of the bartenders sides with Hicky and then Joe says

Dat's my business. I ain't buttin' in yours, is I? sure you think he's all right. He's a white man, ain't he? Listen to me white, you white boys! Don't you get it in your heads I's pretendin' to be what I ain't, dat I ain't proud to be what I is, get me? Or you and me's goin' to have trouble." (p.48)

There are other similar dialogues by Joe in the play. He persistently wants to preserve his identity and he wants to be accepted as he is. He struggles for having an equal place among others and not be treated as other, to have the right to talk and do what he wants and to be who he is. Other. But others think that they have the right to bully and underestimate him. Other characters of Hope's saloon think that Joe should be thankful because they consider him as white and he belongs to their group as a consequence. They pretend that they are doing him good but Joe is aware of their racist and exclusive points of view. Due to Campbell and Keen "…. the master/slave system was grounded in denials of black history, identity, humanity, community, knowledge and language." (p.73) As it is mentioned in the quotation, the whole system is built on the binary opposition of power/other, master/slave and on ignoring the other/slave. This struggle continues to the end of the play and of the last things Joe says is, "Scuse me, white boys. Scuse me for livin. I don't want to be where I's not wanted." (p.93) Therefore, although Joe was conscious of racism and its effects on his life he, he could not find an equal place in the society but at least he questioned the system which divided white/black into superior/inferior races. The fact of questioning the ideology of the power through Joe is one crucial step O'Neill takes to break the boundary of superioty of power and inferiority of other. 2.3 Anna Christie: the Other Struggles to be Heard Female characters in the works of many writers come in special terms and specific categories. They are usually presented in extremes. Either they are good mothers, wives and so on or they are prostitutes or evil-like figures. The difference of O'Neill's female characters with many others who categorize women easily, is that women come in all types in his plays. The roles they have in his plays are so various that they escape generalizations. He writes about women at a time in American history when feminists are making demands for divorce, education and so on. These issues show that he is concerned about women and he has a more humane point of view about women than many others. He does not put women into the framework he desires. Anna Christie is one of his most important plays in depicting the theme of women's equality. In this play, he gives prominence to the female character; something that many writers do not do. As Steven F. Bloom (2007) mentions “Anna Christie marks the transition from his early naturalistic period to his middle experimental period, with its bold depiction of a realist, strong female character at the center of a metaphysical drama."(p.175) In both Cultural Studies and Feminism the belief is that "gender" and "sex" are two different issues. They focus on gender because it is something that is created and defined not something people born with. It is created and defined by men. Therefore, all the points of view about women, all the categorizations and special roles defined for them in marriage, society and so on stems from a male-dominated ideology of a patriarchal society. One of the radical French Feminists, Helen Cixous, in her essay, "Sortis," (1975) argues that

Thought has always worked by opposition, by dual, hierarchized oppositions. All these oppositions are couples. Logocentricism subjects thought – all of the concepts, the codes, the values – to a two-term system so there are activity/passivity, culture/nature, day/night, head/heart, father/mother, intelligible/sensitive and so is about men/women. Theory of culture, theory of society, the ensemble of symbolic systems – art, religion, family, language – everything elaborates the same systems. She concludes that in these binary oppositions, always one is superior but this superiority is cultural not natural and therefore can be seen or defined in some other way. (p.287)

Men define women as less rational and associate them with "nature." They also categorize them either as objects of sexual desire or maternal figures, but women tried to define themselves a cultural role away from male points of view. In Anna Christie, O'Neill through Anna, a free thinking woman, tends to interrogate and break the binary opposition of power/other in this play men/ women. In the play from the moment Anna starts to talk, it becomes clear that what kind of woman she is. She talks to Marthy, one of the characters, and she says," I never stand being caged up nowheres." And when she is telling the story of her life to her she says," It was all men's fault – the whole business. It was men on the farm ordering and beating me – an giving me the wrong start. Then when I was a nurse, it was men again hanging around, bothering me, trying to see what they get. And now it's men all the time, Gawd, I hate 'em all." (p.13)

IJALEL 2 (2):59-64, 2013 63 As we see in these dialogues, Anna hates being caged up, so she likes freedom. Furthermore, she is not optimistic about men. She believes that they affected her life in a bad way. Therefore, from the beginning, we see the traces that show she wants to be free and live her life independently and one of the huge obstacles on her way are men. As the play goes on, we see more references to the feminists’ demands that I have talked about before. For example, when Chris sees his daughter for the first time he says, "Ay bet all men see you fall in love with you, py yimmy!" Anna answers," Cut it, you talk same as they all do."(p.15) In the dialogue of Chris, there are references to the "male gaze" – The sexual look of men toward women. Anna gets mad. Her anger equals the resistance of the feminists to the male gaze and the way women are seen and represented by them. More and more we see the traces of the struggle between "mastery" and "servitude". In the play Chris and Burke are arguing with each other because Chris does not want Anna to marry him because he is a sailor. Each wants Anna to do what he wants her to do.

Burke. (to Anna) Go get dressed, I'm saying. Chris. You stay right here, Anna, you here. Burke. She'll not! She'll not! She'll do what I say! You've had hold her enough. That's my turn! Chris. You don't do one tang he says, Anna! Burke. She will so! Anna. Orders is good!... You can go to hell, both of you! You're just like all the rest of them. Gawd, you'd think I was a piece of furniture!... Nobody owns me, see? 'cepting myself. I'll do what I please and no man can tell me what to do! I ain't asking either of me talk for a change! (p.p 42-43)

These dialogues are very significant. Reading them we see men's belief in being superior to women. Because they think this way, they assume they have the right to treat women as their properties, to order, to force them to do what they want them to do and they do not even leave a place for them to say their opinions. So in their dialogues, we see the point of view of men towards women. Then when Anna talks, in her sayings, we find out that she sees herself independent and free and she does not allow them to decide for her and therefore, she rejects the traditional belief that men are superior, they are more rational and they know better what is right. Anna stands up against her father's and Burke's bulling attitude towards her and she cannot tolerate that they are ignoring her like this and they want to impose their will on her. Consequently, in her sayings that "nobody owns me" and "I'm my own boss", she makes an assertion of feminism's belief in freedom and equality of women. Also, when she says, "I can make myself a living", it shows that when men are money-makers of the family, they can subordinate women easier. This is very important because feminists always say that women should work for themselves and should be independent financially as well.

Anna's most constant emotions are her hatred of being owned and her love for the sea with the freedom it represents. All her life, other people have represented only suffering and slavery for Anna. Ana seems only to love a man when she sees weakness first. Otherwise, the man in his strength is too much a thread for her independence. (Rogers, 1964:14)

Therefore, Anna moves towards being free as much as possible and because in her new situation she feels freer she likes to be there. Also as it is said in the quotation as well as in the play, she cannot tolerate men. In fact when she came to the bar, she hated men but she loved Burke because she saw him after a shipwreck and generally she thought that he is different from other men. So now either Burke should prove his difference or she leaves. After all the discussions and struggles to preserve her own pride and identity, Anna tells the truth to her father and lover about her job. She tells them before she came here she was a prostitute. Knowing this, Burke gets mad at her and Anna says she leaves him and goes back to where she was, Burke argues, "You mean you'll be doing the same again?" Anna's answer is affirmative. Then again he says," You'll not." Anna could not accept him being mad at her. She says," You been doing the same thing all your life, picking up a new girl in every port. How're you better than I was?”(p.56) This is a very notable and interesting issue which Anna points out. It shows that even at this level she wants equality and she wants not to be looked at as the other; men are doing it for fun but she is doing it for money but they are accepted like this and she is not. Here in these dialogues the inequality of men/women is highlighted by Anna. After the discussions about Anna's job, Anna talks to Burke about her love of him and she says she never loved a man before and this is the first time for her. Anna expects Burke to believe her and consider her love valuable. With this expectance, Anna is probing deeper into finding the goodness and difference of Mat Burke. At last, Burke accepts Anna. It is important for Burke that Anna really loves her and it is important for Anna that Burke forgets about her past. Therefore, Anna, with preserving her pride and independence, gets what she wants and she can find and love man who respects and understands her the way she thinks and the way she is. Anna is a representative of women who hate men because they think they are superior; they are the center of everything. Through her life and her dialogues, we think of the effects of male-defined gender roles deeply and with understanding the male ideology otherized because of the male cultural hegemony and we see the deconstruction of the traditional beliefs about women through Anna who is the voice of all women.

IJALEL 2 (2):59-64, 2013 64 3. Conclusion Studying the three plays of Eugene O'Neill leads the writer to draw interesting conclusions. Some are represented here. Firstly, the United States was a country which considered itself as the center of the universe. It had a long history in colonization and imperialism and invested its political, economic and cultural hegemony over its colonies and also its own people. The White, Male, Bourgeois-dominated ideologies ruled everywhere. There was one voice, one identity one unified culture and that was of that group. But, from the 1960s onwards, with the social movements of Blacks, Women and other minorities also literary movements like cultural studies, the whole view changed. When Women, Blacks and working classes became aware of their oppression by the Power, deconstruction of the Center began. America is the country O'Neill writes about. In his works he moves towards this deconstruction and it is very meaningful in America because it has a long history in being considered as the "promised land." Therefore, when a writer like O'Neill writes about men and women, blacks and whites, bourgeois and working classes, one being in the Center and the other in the Margin, but he focuses on the lives and cultures of the Marginalized not the Center, it shows that he is in line with those who challenge and call into question the dominant discourses of the society, the most importantly the American Dream of success and equality for everyone. Thus, he does not believe in one center and one absolute truth. Secondly, O'Neill establishes a link between drama and history. According to him past is the only valuable thing to write about and history is not only what is told but also what is remembered by people. Through this belief he interrogates the authority and validity of what is told and this is where other narratives come into the center and there is no longer one narrative but multiple narratives with the same level of importance and validity. Thus, the very fact that he establishes a dialogue between drama and history, whether it is racial, political, social, philosophical, etc, is to reveal that nothing is absolute and there is a possibility of seeing things from the perspective that is not known and orthodox for the power and maybe the society itself. Thirdly, in O'Neill's works the characters are mostly immigrants from Europe and elsewhere who speak with their special dialects and in this various mixture of his characters, we see the American society. Therefore, his pluralistic view is approved of because the scene he sets includes different classes, genders and ethnicities of the society. Fourthly, when O'Neill writes about women, he shows the ideology of power/ men in opposition to other/ women. Against a background of history of male-dominated ideologies, he introduces a woman who negates all the meta-narratives of patriarchal society. The very fact of having a female character who is not the way that power has defined cancels the authority of men. It should be noted that he does not want the authority of women either. He just shows that in the binary opposition of men/women, women do not have the chance to be seen and heard as equal human beings. They are always represented as the "second sex," according to Simon De Beauvoir. So the traditional, known truths that are created and defined by men are no longer valid because the only reason of their validity is that they are one-dimensional and exclusive. Fifthly, in identifying with the working classes, he shows that the American Dream of success and happiness is an "ideological myth" that is created by the power(here capitalists) to exploit the working class. He shows this exploitation by uncovering that these working classes do not have any ideology of their own. They also do not have an independent identity. By focusing on their lives he brings them to the center so that they could find their identities. Of course, they are not successful in finding their identities and in finding their equal place in the society. But the fact of focusing their lives and showing that they are mere tools for the power proves that O'Neill's view is not in line with those in power and in his plays he is not the voice of authority but the voice of the worker who does not belong to the capitalist society. Sixthly, by referring to colonial history and an era in Africa and America by Europeans and Americans, he contrasts Power/Other which in The Iceman Cometh are White Europeans and Americans/ African-Americans and White-Africans and he shows the major discourses of colonialists and the effect of them on the colonized ideology and culture. On the other hand, he shows the colonized struggling for being themselves and for having their own ideology and culture. References Bloom, H. (2007). Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Eugene O'Neill. New York: BLOOM'S LITERARY CRITICISM. Bloom, S. F. (2007). Students Companion to Eugene O'Neill. London: Greenwood P. Campbell, N &Alasdair, K. (2000). American Cultural Studies. (3rd ed). London: ROUTLEDGE. Diggins, J.P. (2007). Eugene O’Neill’s America: Desire under Democracy. Chicago: Chicago UP. Hartley, J. (2003). A Short History of Cultural Studies. London: SAGE. O’Neill, E. Anna Christie. (1921). O’Neill, E. The Hairy Ape. (1922). O’Neill, E. (1946). Rogers, D. (1964). The Plays of Eugene O'Neill: A Critical Commentary. New York: MONARCH.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Lacanian Orders in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night

Sima Farshid (Corresponding author)

Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch PO Box: 31485-313, Karaj, Iran

Tel: 98-26-3418-2917 Email: sima.farshid@kiau.ac.ir

Bita Darabi Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch

PO Box 31485-313, Karaj, Iran Email: bitabita00@yahoo.com

Received: 28-10- 2012 Accepted: 25-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.65 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/ijalel.v.2n.2p.65 Abstract This paper presents a Lacanian reading of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night (1941) by drawing on the psychic orders the well-known French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan has propounded. He holds that human psyche is formed of three orders (the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real) which mold the unconscious mind and motivate human actions and reactions. He also argues that the Other has an immense impact on the formation of psychic orders, especially the Symbolic, and hence on one’s identity. The present article attempts to investigate the three orders of the characters O’Neill has portrayed in Long Day’s Journey into Night, besides the role of the Other in the formation of those orders. The reactions of these characters to the outside world are regarded here as the outer presentation of their troubled mind. It is also discussed that the mental and physical problems and disorders of these characters, such as their addiction to alcohol and drugs, are the outcome of their repressed desires which have remained unfulfilled because of the rules defined and imposed on them by the Other – hence the frustrating sense of lack observed in all four characters. Keywords: psychic orders, the unconscious, the Other, desire, lack 1. Introduction The present article is an attempt to apply Jacque Lacan's ideas to Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night (1941). First, Lacan's seminal orders (Imaginary, Symbolic, Real) are explicated and then the role of the Other in generating desires and lacks in O'Neill's characters is discussed. It is argued here that those characters, as Lacanian subjects, are imprisoned in their Symbolic Order, and their desires are formed by the rules created by the Other. In other word, it is the Other that shapes their identity and orients their desires. Although the events in of the play take place in the world without, the causes of those events should be traced in the world within and the formation of characters' unconscious in its interaction with the Other. The most controversial psychoanalyst since Freud, the well-known French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) has highly affected Western intellectuals since the 1960s. His reinterpretation of Freudian psychoanalytic theory, influenced by Ferdinand de Saussure's structural linguistics, has influenced contemporary critical theory and poststructuralist philosophers. Lacan's most famous statement is that the "unconscious is structured like a language" (S14, 1966, p. 11)i, which means that the unconscious comes to being through language, and works in the same way. Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (1888- 1953) is the first American dramatist who has regarded the stage as a literary medium, and as the result of his efforts, the serious American drama took form during the 1920s. He is the only American playwright who has received the Nobel Prize for Literature (1936), besides he has won the Pulitzer Prize for four of his plays: Beyond the Horizon (1920), Anna Christie (1922), Strange Interlude (1928), and Long Day's Journey into Night (1941). Critics have approached his works in different ways, and several of them have discussed the psychological layers of them, but a Lacanian analysis of his works has not yet been offered by anyone, seeing that most critics interpret his plays in the light of Freud's ideas. The prominent critic Harold Bloom (2007) who observes a hidden ting of Freudian psychology in O'Neill's plays, considers him the "elegist of the Freudian family romance, of the domestic tragedy of which we all die daily", and contends that the "helplessness of family love to sustain, let alone heal, the wounds of marriage, of parenthood, and of sonship, have never been so remorselessly and so pathetically portrayed" by anyone else (p. 7-8). Steven F. Bloom (2007) who refers to the Long Day's Journey as "one of the great works of drama primarily because of the characters, their story, the issue they raise and the emotions they stir in the audience" (p. 152), argues that the play depicts a fragmented family that "spin[s] an endless cycle of guilt, blame, and denial" around itself, and "each member of the

IJALEL 2 (2):65-70, 2013 66 family simultaneously contributes to, and is a victim of, the family's trials and dysfunction"(p. 160). He has also noted how O'Neill "explores many of the family dynamics that have been analyzed by Freud and his clinical disciples in the last century, including oedipal conflicts and sibling rivalry" (p. 160). And David Krasner (2007) who regards O'Neill as the one who brought "to the stage a richness of detail and psychological depth rarely seen before in American drama" (p. 142), affirms that some of O'Neill plays, especially Long Day's Journey, draw one's attention to his personal life: "his alcoholism … his father’s disappointments, his mother’s drug addiction, his brother’s suicide by alcohol, and his own shortcomings" (p. 152-153). With regard to the psychological layers of the play, he states that "no doubt [it] depicts a journey into the subconscious" (p. 155). 2. Lacan's Psychoanalysis Lacan holds that human psyche is formed of three orders (the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real) which mold the unconscious mind and motivate human actions and reactions. He believes that in the formation of the first psychic order, the Imaginary, "the child, in the presence of his mother, begins to manifest his needs. It is here that he encounters the mother as a speaking subject" (S5, 1957, p. 425). It is a world of satisfaction for the child where" the infant emerges from satisfaction, and not from frustration, to construct a world" (p. 424) that is the realm of ideal completeness in which the child feels no lack or loss, since it is governed by the illusive joyful unity of the child and its mother. Moreover there are no traces of language in this order. When the child is six-month old, Lacan holds, it starts to distinguish itself from its mother in a phase that Lacan terms the Mirror Stage in which the child sees its own image distinct from that of its mother, and thereby the illusion of unity with the mother crumbles down. In the next stage, Lacan argues, the Symbolic Order is formed in the child's mind. In contrast to the Imaginary, the Symbolic is an order in which the identity of the subject is formed, since it is associated with language and signs. Whereas mother governs the Imaginary Order, the symbolic Order is the territory of father whose laws and rules shape the identity of the child. In the Imaginary Order, the desire of the mother is mediation necessary for the child, whereas this mediation is "precisely given by the position of the father in the symbolic order" (S5, 1957, p. 163). The Symbolic Order is also the realm of the Other presented by the law of the father and the ideology in which the child learns to speak. Lacan holds that the meaning of "the Other as another subject" is strictly secondary to the meaning of "the Other as Symbolic Order", since "the Other must first of all be considered a locus, the locus in which speech is constituted" (S3, 1955, p. 274). Another key notion in Lacan's terminology is Object petit a which is the lack created by the subject's entry into the Symbolic – the lack which will never be compensated for and attained, since the subject has fallen into the web of language and its floating signifiers. From the moment the subject feels lack, Lacan argues, s/he is in search of what is lacked, in search of satisfying it by different means such as knowledge, love and sexual fulfillment. Regarding those means, he affirms that ''the Object petit a ... serves as a symbol of the lack. It must be an object firstly separable and secondly that has some relation to the lack'' (S11, 1964, p. 112). However as we live in the world of signs and ideologies, no desire can bring us back to the initial Imaginary world of completeness. The Real Order in Lacanian terminology resists representation, as it emerges as something outside language, resisting "symbolization absolutely" (S1, 1953, p. 66). This remains a constant theme through the rest of Lacan's work and leads him to link the Real with the concept of impossibility. He believes that the "Real is the impossible" (S11, 1964, p. 167), because it is impossible to imagine, impossible to engage the Symbolic Order, and impossible to attain. The Real is an unknown zone, as Homer tries to define it: "exists at the limit of this socio-symbolic universe and is in constant tension with it" (2005, p. 81). It is the most inaccessible part of human psyche that cannot be experienced, since nothing real exists in the Symbolic Order, Lacan argues, and what we see as reality is just ideology imposed by the Other on us. However he holds that we can experiences the Real in the fleeting moments of joy and terror (Jouissance) or in our traumas which cut the process of signification and representation. These feelings of disturbance and sufferings, as Booker calls them, place the person in the Real which is "available to consciousness only in extremely brief and fleeting moments of joy and terror that Lacan describes as Jouissance" (1996, p. 35). 3. A Lacanian Reading of Long Day's Journey into Night Lacan's key concepts such as the Imaginary Order, the Symbolic Order, the Real Order, the Other representing the law of the father, Object petit a, desire and lack are traceable in O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night (1941). The play dramatizes one day of Tyron family's life through which the personalities of its members are revealed via their memories and also their disputes with each other. O'Neill shows that the mind of all four members of the family is haunted by the past, and all suffer from some lacks they try to compensate for by such means as drinking alcohol, using morphine, acting as an actor or a man of literature, while they constantly fail to do so, as they are entangled in the web of ideology and the law of the Other imposed on them, though in different ways. The members of the family make efforts to escape from the unbearable reality of their life to experience the Lacanian Real which remains, however, impossible to experience throughout the play. One of the noteworthy features of O'Neill's play is the fogginess of the stage throughout the play that creates a gloomy atmosphere, and signifies the delving into the unconscious mind, since fog is the symbol of unconsciousness. Lacan believes the child does not acquire the unconscious till its initiation into the symbolic world of language wherein all desires are repressed by the law of the father and hence stored in the unconscious. The fog symbolizes that process for the whole family that seems to experience the loss, lack and repression of the Symbolic Order. This is somehow illustrated in the play when Mary the mother of the family expresses her feelings toward the fog in this way to Cathleen

IJALEL 2 (2):65-70, 2013 67 (the maid): "hides you from the world and the world from you. You feel that everything has changed, and nothing is what it seemed to be. No one can find or touch you anymore", thus it is "the foghorn I hate. It won't let you alone. It keeps reminding you, and warning you, and calling you back. But it can't tonight. It's just an ugly sound. It doesn't remind me of anything" (LDJ, III. P. 2044)ii. Mary hates the fog, because it reminds her of the past, happy times to which she cannot return. It seems that the fog has detached her and other members of the family from the rest of the world, as Jean Chothia argues that "the audience learns through references in the dialogue and through the repeated sounding of the foghorn in the latter part of the play that fog has descended on the surrounding world and presses close around the house, isolating its occupants the more thoroughly" (1998, p. 199). Considering Lacan's ideas, her annoyance of remembering the past, besides the fogginess of the stage signify loss, lack and repression – all residing in the Symbolic Order where the desire for return to the Imaginary Order is repressed and stored. Every character of the Long Day's Journey into Night wishes to re-experience the lost union of the Imaginary Order which they ultimately find, nonetheless, impossible to regain. As the result of that wish, their mind is obsessively haunted by the past, as Mary says: "the past is the present, isn't it? It's the future, too. We all try to lie out of that but life won't let us" (LDJ, II. P. 203). The characters seek to fill in the lack they have experienced in their life (after the Imaginary and through the formation of the Symbolic Order), via such means as poetry, alcohol, and morphine, however they fail to fill in their lack. Regarding the matter of loss in the play, it has been already been argued by Shaugnessy that it "confirms the timeless mystery of loss" (2007, p. 68). 3.1 The Mother's Desires to Return to Imaginary Order One of the characters of the play who tries to re-experience the feeling of wholeness at the stage of Imaginary Order is Mary whose desires, however, are of no help to her. There are some hints in the play that signify the convent, to which she likes to return, as the symbol of Imaginary Order for her. She has spent a period of her life among nuns, studying religious materials. Once she had asked Mother Elizabeth to stay there and become a nun, as she felt at home and liked to stay over there for the rest of her life. Mother Elizabeth, however, was not certain that Mary could bear the situation, therefore asked her to go out and experience the world, and then, if she was still sure that she liked to be a nun, she could come back. Mary had got annoyed, as she did not expect her to reject her wish. MARY: I had a talk with Mother Elizabeth. She is so sweet and good. A saint on the earth. I love her dearly. It

may be sinful of me but I love her better than my own mother ... I told her I wanted to be a nun .... But Mother Elizabeth told me I must be surer than that, even; that I must prove it wasn't simply my imagination .... I said, of course, I would do anything she suggested, but I knew it was simply a waste of time. (LDJ, IV. P. 2082)

As it is obvious here, Mother Elizabeth is like a mother to her – hence her desire to stay with her. After leaving the convent, she never feels at peace, even when she falls in love with James Tyson and marries him; nothing can renew the perfect life she has had in the convent. Several times in the play, she talks like a young girl or wears the same kind of clothes that remind her of the time she was in the convent. Her feeling and mood is best described in this stage direction; "there is at times an uncanny gay, free youthfulness in her manner, as if in spirit she were released to become again, simply and without self-consciousness, the naive, happy, chattering schoolgirl of her convent days" (LDJ, III. P. 2043). This shows how much she desires to return to her adolescence when she lived in the convent. This is more vivid at the end of the play when she holds her wedding dress in her hand, while not knowing what she wants to do with it, rather affirms that she wants something she has lost. Nothing can heal the wound of her desires toward an assumedly perfect past which are perpetually replaced by other desires, and thus remain floating, whereas none of them can help her reach the perfection she seeks, since she is caught up in the symbolic world of social orders where her Object petit a can never be fulfilled. 3.2 Unfulfilled Desires of the Sons In the first scene of the play, the younger son Edmund talks to his mother about his illness to convince her that it is not as terrible as she assumes, after which his mother pampers him. This shows how much he needs his mother's attention and also his desires to re-experience the satisfaction the feeling of wholeness with the mother had created in him in the Imaginary Order. His mother tries to assure him that he would be healthy again, while referring to the fact that the only thing he needs is her nursing.

MARY: [almost resentfully] Oh, I'm sure you don't feel half as badly as you make out. You're such a baby. You like to get us worried so we'll make a fuss over you. You need to rest all you can. Sit down and I'll make you comfortable. EDMUND: Grand. Thanks, Mama. MARY: [kisses him—tenderly] All you need is your mother to nurse you. Big as you are, you're still the baby of the family to me, you know. (LDJ, I. p. 2020)

The love and attention of the mother and the lost union he had experienced in the Imaginary Order are the object of his desire – what he is in search of, but would never attain. He thinks that his mother can fill the lack he has suffered from since the Imaginary Order, but his actual mother, as she is now, completely differs from and cannot match the mother-image he has in his mind, with which he could feel safe and secure. His mother is now an addicted person who takes drugs to pacify her pains. This incongruity causes some disorders in Edmund's personality. To fulfill his desires, he

IJALEL 2 (2):65-70, 2013 68 leaves the house for a while, going on a journey on the sea where he thinks he may relax, while it does not work. Then he leans to alcohol and literature through which he thinks he might find solace. This feeling of lack is presented in another way in the elder son Jamie whose anxieties are depicted in the disputes he has with other members of the family. As we learn through the play, he felt complete wholeness with his mother in his infancy, as no obstacle or threatening force existed in his union with the mother. Nevertheless, as he enters the world of difference and language (the Symbolic Order), he realizes that there is another boy to whom the attention of the mother is tended, and hence threatens his solace. This boy is his younger brother Eugene who dies early because of measles transmitted to him by Jamie who thereby causes his untimely death. He intentionally goes to Eugene's bedroom, while he has measles and is asked not to get near him, because of seeing Eugene as a counterpart in his love toward their mother and the cause of separation from her. Now Mary reproaches herself for that: "I was to blame for his death .... Jamie would never have been allowed, when he still had measles, to go in the baby's room, I've always believed Jamie did it on purpose. He was jealous of the baby. He hated him" (LDJ, II. ii. P. 2040). Afterward Jamie sees no opponent in stealing the mother's attention away from him for a while, till Edmund is born, robs the attention of the mother and makes him jealous. Jamie sees him threatening his security and wholeness with the mother. To feel the lost wholeness again, he goes to whorehouses and starts drinking as the object petit a he assumes can fulfill his needs, while they are of no help, and simultaneously perseveres to annoy Edmund and ruin his life. Regarding his distressed case, Abbotson argues that Jamie's "bitterness is exacerbated by the loss of the guiding hand of his mother to drugs that has resulted in a life of dissipation filled with alcohol and prostitutes" (2005,p. 105). Sometimes he seemingly tries to make friends with Edmund by taking him to whorehouses and bars, while all the time he just thinks of spoiling his life. Near the end of the play, he confesses what he has tried to do: JAMIE: Nix, Kid! You listen! Did it on purpose to make a bum of you. Or part of me did. A big part. That part

that's been dead so long. That hates life .... Made my mistakes look good. Made getting drunk romantic. Made whores fascinating vampires instead of poor, stupid, diseased slobs they really are. Made fun of work as sucker's game. Never wanted you to succeed and make me look even worse by comparison. Wanted you to fail. Always jealous of you. Mama's baby, Papa's pet! (LDJ, IV. P. 2074).

He loves Edmund, but at the same time cannot put up with him, as he seems to have caused his separation from the mother who previously loved him. As he confesses here, he has done all these things to compensate for the loss of the ideal unity with the mother as the result of Edmund's birth he has taken his revenge on by having "rotten bad influence on him" (LDJ, IV. P. 2074). 3.3 Entanglement of Characters in the Web of the Other Lacan holds that the Symbolic Order is the stage in which the subject recognizes themselves as having a separate identity from that of their mothers'. Moreover the law of the father is gradually presented to and imposed on the subject by the social rules and ideologies engendered by the Other that equals the symbolic order, language, and the law of the father in Lacan's terminology. The Symbolic Order is the realm of the Other or the symbolic father that is not, however, the real father, but a function that imposes rules and regulates desires. The real father is the agent of the symbolic father that shapes desires and has a decisive role in shaping the subject's identity. There is no escape from the law of the father; it is inevitable, because "the law is the father, the thing before, the inheritance, the compulsion, the inescapable, the inevitable, and the desire for the law itself" (Mottram, 1995, p. 25). Lacan holds that the law of the father is symbolized by the phallus "the primacy of [which] is established by the existence of the symbol, of discourse and of the law" (S5, 1957, p. 169-170). In the Long Day's Journey into Night, James Tyson represents the Other and his rules have a crucial impact on shaping the desires and identities of his wife and sons. He plays the role of the big Other who sets the desires of the other members of the family in motion and expects their obedience. For instance Mary is not satisfied with the place they live in, but Tyson has decided to be there. She tells Edmund that it is his father's desire to be there not hers: "not that I want anything to do with them. I've always hated this town and everyone in it. You know that. I never wanted to live here in the first place, but your father liked it and insisted on building this house, and I've had to come here every summer" (LDJ, I. p. 2020). And this is one of several things he has decided for Mary. The suppression of her desires gradually becomes a complex and causes her abnormal deeds at the end of the play. Tyson also encourages Jamie to become an actor, while he does not like it, as he says here: "I never wanted to be an actor. You forced me on the stage"( LDJ, I. p. 2015) – hence his present unemployment for which he condemns his father. Moreover Mary blames Tyson for his role in making Jamie a drunken loafer. She believes that when Jamie was young, Tyson made him drink alcohol when he drank himself, as we read here: "you brought him up to be a boozer. Since he first opened his eyes, he's seen you drinking. Always a bottle on the bureau in the cheap hotel rooms! And if he had a nightmare when he was little, or a stomach-ache, your remedy was to give him a teaspoonful of whiskey to quiet him" (LDJ, III. P. 2050). Even Edmund's desire to become a so-called man of literature is his father's desire, not his own. Tyson appreciates Edmund's writing and asks him to read books and write poetry to be a journalist, though he is not a good writer and the journal he works for does not like his writing. There is a dialog between Jamie and his father that shows the father's desire to make Edmund a journalist, while he has no talent for it:

IJALEL 2 (2):65-70, 2013 69 TYSON: He's been doing well on the paper. I was hoping he'd found the work he wants to do at last. JAMIE: [sneering jealously again] A hick town rag! Whatever bull they hand you, they tell me he's a pretty bum reporter. If he weren't your son— [ashamed again] No, that's not true! (LDJ, I. p. 2015)

Regarding the role of the father as the big Other in shaping his sons' desires and destiny, Abbotson argues that "Tyson pushes his sons to make something of their lives to compensate, but usually in the wrong direction, exploiting rather than assisting them. James despises acting and Edmund sees working on a newspaper as a waste of time" (2005, p. 104). The desires of the father for them have caused a frustrating life for them. Another notable case regarding the functioning of the Other in the play is a mother's functioning as the big Other in Mary's desire to be a nun that has originally been her mother's wish that was later internalized by her – representing her wish for a perfect place where she could feel secure. Mary's mother was a strictly religious person who did not like her daughter to get married, as Mary relates to James: "My mother didn't. She was very pious and strict. I think she was a little jealous. She didn't approve of my marrying—especially an actor. I think she hoped I would become a nun" (LDJ, III. P. 2052). After a while, however, it becomes her own desire, as she internalizes her mother's wish. This time Mother Elizabeth acts as the big Other who decides for her by asking her to go away and experience the world for a while. Though she does not like to do so, she has to accept it as the big Other's order. 3. 4 Traumas and Jouissance of Characters The Real Order is the most inaccessible part of human psyche, according to Lacan, since we live in the symbolic world where we have to adopt ourselves with ideologies and imposed on us by the Other. However there are times when one can experience the Real for fleeting moments of joy and terror, in traumas, and of course while seeing through ideologies. The symbolic world is the only world through which the subject has the understanding of reality, since their understanding of reality is shaped through language that is made of signs which do not represent the real essence of the things. Therefore reality, as it really is, does not have any place in the unconscious mind, instead some representations of it exist there, consequently we can experience the real only when a cut happens to the Symbolic Order, such as in the case of having trauma, especially a sad one. Many times in the play, Mary experiences the trauma of being with her father. Whenever she looks at Edmund, she compares his situation with that of her father's whose trauma comes to life again, since he had tuberculosis and drank a lot, like Edmund, and that caused his death. In one scene Tyson tries to hide the truth that Edmund has tuberculosis, since it reminds her of her father: "She has control of her nerves—or she had until Edmund got sick. Now you can feel her growing tense and frightened underneath .... What makes it worse is her father died of consumption. She worshiped him and she's never forgotten. Yes, it will be hard for her. But she can do it! She has the will power now! We must help her, Jamie, in every way we can!" (LDJ, I. p. 2017). In another scene, she blames Tyron for letting Edmund drink, since she is afraid that he would die because of it: "did you take a drink? Don't you know it's the worst thing? You're to blame, James. How could you let him? Do you want to kill him? Don't you remember my father? He wouldn't stop after he was stricken. He said doctors were fools! He thought, like you, that whiskey is a good tonic!" (LDJ, I. p. 2030). To experience the Real, Jamie drinks a lot and spends his time with whores in whom he looks for pleasure, for an extended Jouissance which never happens. To find himself out of the symbolic and the big Other's rules through this, he drinks more and more to experience and maintain the feeling of Jouissance, but it is just a short, fleeting moment. In one scene, his father criticizes him for spending time with the whores in the bars: "at the end of each season you're penniless! You've thrown your salary away every week on whores and whiskey!"( LDJ, I. p. 26), though Jamie does not care for such a loss, and only wishes to get rid of the symbolic world of the big Other. The same thing is observed in the mother who uses morphine to forget her loss, and to escape from the ideologies imposed on her, as Thaddeus Wakefield argues: "Mary takes morphine to escape the reality that she has failed ... prescribed by the society in which she lives" (2004, p. 49). Moreover she uses morphine to keep herself "high" in pleasure, to forget the present situation in which she just changes desire after desire to feel real, and to experience Jouissance. When she is "high", she sees herself as a girl in a perfect situation in the past – free from the pains of the Symbolic Order and the rules imposed on her by the Other. Morphine alleviates her pains, as she tells Cathleen:

CATHLEEN: [stupidly puzzled] You've taken some of the medicine? It made you act funny, Ma'am. If I didn't know better, I'd think you'd a drop taken. MARY: [dreamily] It kills the pain. You go back until at last you are beyond its reach. Only the past when you were happy is real. (LDJ, III. P. 2047)

Edmund too drinks a lot to forget the present situation which he suffers from, and to experience Jouissance, though he knows he is sick and drinking is detrimental for him. He tells his father that there is no problem with being drunk, as he forgets the pains of his conditions by drinking: "let us drink up and forget it .... Well, what's wrong with being drunk? It's what we're after, isn't it? ... We know what we're trying to forget, [hurriedly] But let's not talk about it. It's no use now" (LDJ, IV. P. 2059). Moreover there are some hints in the play that shows he has decided to commit suicide to get rid of the symbolic world and the rules of the big Other. He speaks of death as an outlet that brings permanent feeling of Jouissance: "yes, particularly the time I tried to commit suicide at Jimmie the Priest's, and almost did. ... I was stone cold sober. That was the trouble. I'd stopped to think too long" (LDJ, IV. P. 2067). As the result of reading books and getting aware of ideologies at work in society, he is quite aware of what he is doing when he commits suicide. Once when he speaks about the English poet Arthur Symons, he talks about the experience of real and how everything is just

IJALEL 2 (2):65-70, 2013 70 a hoax granted to us: "The fog was where I wanted to be. Everything looked and sounded unreal. Nothing was what it is. That's what I wanted—to be alone with myself in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself ... Who wants to see life as it is, if they can help it?" (LDJ, V. p. 2059). Each of these characters has their own "method of escape", as Rogers calls it: "Mary has her drugs, Tyron and Jamie their liquor, and Edmund has poetic sense of personal dissolution" to escape from suffering that "has formed their lives and their feeling" (1965, p. 720), the suffering that is caused by ideology. Edmund is the only character of the play that has realized the point and seen through ideology, hence he wishes to go beyond, since it seems to be just a bunch of lies and craps to him, thus attempts to commit suicide. 4. Conclusion O'Neill Long Day's Journey into Night dramatizes the relations of a family whose members suffer from mental problems caused by losing the desired conditions of the Imaginary Order. They go after some object petit a to divest themselves of their lacks and losses, but constantly fail to do so due to being entangled in the web of ideology and the law of the farther imposed on them by the big Other whose function is to repress and orient desires. The big Other is represented in this play by religious restrictions and also the father of the family in whose web the characters are entrapped. The only thing via which they try to satisfy themselves is the temporary pleasure they gain from unsustainable things which leave them frustrated in consequence of not bringing back the desired perfect conditions of the past. They use drugs and alcohol to escape from their bothering life, but to no avail, since nothing can help them to sustain the fleeting moments of Jouissance. References Abbotson, S. (2005). Masterpieces of 20th Century American Drama. Westport: Greenwood. Bloom, H. (2007). "Introduction". Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Eugene O’Neill. Ed. Harold Bloom New York: Infobase Publication. 1-12 Bloom, S. F. (2007). Student Companion to Eugene O'Neill. Westport: Greenwood. Booker, K. M. (1996). A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism. London: Longman. Chothia, J. (1998). "Trying to Write the Family Play: Autobiography and the Dramatic Imagination". The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O'Neill. Ed. Michael Manheim. Cambridge: Cambridge U P. 192- 206. Homer, S. (2005). Routledge Critical Thinkers: Essential Guides for Literary Studies. Ed. Robert Eaglestone, et al. New York: Routledge. Krasner, D. (2007). A Companion to Twentieth American Drama. Malden: Blackwell. Lacan, J. M. (1953-1954). The Seminar, Book I. Freud's Papers on Technique. Edit. Jacques-Alain Miller. Trans J. Forrester (1988). New York: Norton. ---. (1955-56). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book III: The Psychoses Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Trans. Russell

Grigg (1993). London: Routledge. ---. (1957-1958). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book V: The Formations of the Unconscious. Trans. Cormac

Gallaghe (1998). New York: Seuil. ---. (1964–1965). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. Ed.

Jacques-Alain Miller. Trans. Alan Sheridan (1977). Harmondsworth: Penguin. ---. (1966–67). Seminar XIV: The Logic of Fantasy. Trans. Cormac Gallagher (1998). New York: Seuil. Mottram, E. (1995). "Eugene O'Neill". American Drama. Ed. Clive Bloom: London: Macmillan. 21-30. O'Neill, E. (1941). Long Day's Journey into Night. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eds. Nina Baym, et al. (2003). Sixth ed. New York: Norton. 2005-2082. Rogers, D. (1965). The Plays of Eugene O'Neill. A Critical Commentary. New York: Simon and Schuster. Shaughnessy, E. (1996). "Down the Nights and Down the Days: Eugene O’Neill’s Catholic Sensibility". Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Eugene O’Neill. Ed. Harold Bloom (2007). New York: Infobase Publication. 69-82 Wakefield, T. (2004). The Family in Twentieth Century American Drama. New York: Peter Lang. Notes: i The letter S with a number in front stands for the number of Lacan's Seminar ii LDJ Stands for O'Neill's play, Long Day's Journey into Night

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

On Situating the Stance of Practice in SLA

Parviz Maftoon College of Foreign Languages and Literature, Science and Research Branch, IAU, Tehran, Iran

pmaftoon@srbiau.ac.ir

Nima Shakouri (corresponding author) Roudbar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran

shakouri.ni@gmail.com

Ogholgol Nazari Sama Technical and Vocational Training College, IAU, Gorgan Branch, Gorgan, Iran

nazari97@yahoo.com

Received: 20-11- 2012 Accepted: 28-12- 2012 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.71 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/ijalel.v.2n.2p.71 Abstract The study of skill acquisition, as DeKeyser (1997) declares, is an important area within cognitive psychology. What is undeniable in skill acquisition is the fact that through extensive practice, the degree of attention on a task decreases and the task is performed without stopping; furthermore, the rate of error considerably decreases. The paper, in an attempt to work on situating the concept of practice in skill acquisition, goes on to hold that since each context has its own specific encoding cues, and that the skill achieved in that specific context is too specific to be transferred to other contexts, the degree of automaticity in employing the skill in that context is plausibly more than the other contexts. Keywords: Skill specificity, Practice, Automaticity, Fluency, Interface 1. Introduction Skill specificity as a new issue within the skill acquisition theory has attracted the attention of several researchers (e.g., Anderson, 1985; Dekeyser, 1997). However, research in this field is still scarce. What the linchpin of skill acquisition theory is centered on is the claim that no transfer of practice between comprehension and comprehension skills takes place (DeKeyser, 1997; Van Patten & Cardieno, 1993). Quite on the same par, skill acquisition theory “accounts for how people progress in learning a variety of skills, from initial learning to advanced proficiency” (DeKeyser, 2007a). Henceforth, according to DeKeyser:

the basic claim of skill acquisition theory is that the learning of a wide variety of skills shows a remarkable similarity in development from initial representation of knowledge through initial changes in behavior to eventual fluent, largely effortless, and highly skilled behavior and this set of phenomena can be accounted for by a set of basic principles common to the acquisition of all skills. (p. 97)

The paper, in revisiting the nature of specificity of practice, asserts that those who develop the knowledge specifically enjoy some form of privileged status in memory because information can be retrieved more easily and faster. In this regard, Schunk (2012) claims, “retrieval depends on the manner of encoding” (p. 201). That is, the manner in which knowledge is encoded determines which retrieval cues will effectively activate the knowledge. Imagine students were given a partial list of U.S. states to read; others read no list. Subsequently all students recalled as many states as they could. Students who received the list recalled more of the states on the list and fewer states not on it (Brown, 1968, cited in Schunk, 2012, p. 201). 2. On the nature of skill specificity Skill specificity refers to the issue that performance improves most in the type of task that has been practiced (Dekeyser, 1997), i.e., production practice leads to increased production skills, and comprehension practice to increased comprehension skills. Some influence between the two types of tasks may occur as a result of the more flexible declarative knowledge, but not proceduralized knowledge (de Jong, 2005). Several scholars (e.g., Bates & MacWhinney, 1989) claim that comprehension and production make use of the same system of representation view, but the real-time exigencies of processing may be quite different. Rather on the same par, Truscott and Sharwood-Smiths (2004) go on to hold that production involves the same items and mechanisms as comprehension except in reverse. It implies that acquisition takes place when processing adds new items, alters old items, or raises resting levels of activation. As de Jong (2005) reports:

IJALEL 2 (2):71-76, 2013 72 If learners receptively process a sentence with a case-marked noun, the syntactic processor will connect the noun to one of the case items in syntactic structure (e.g., nominative or accusative). If no suitable case item exists, a new item is created. Although the new item was specifically created for the purpose of building the current representation, it does not disappear. Its resting level of activation is low initially but rises quickly through continued use. The new representation is now available for comprehension as well as production. (p. 19)

Having no answer to this question whether the practice of components of a task is better or worse than the whole components, DeKeyser (2007b) brings us to the related question of specificity of practice effects in skill acquisition. Along the same line, skill specificity, as to Byun (2007), is “the output practice as a valuable factor affecting a learner’s linguistic developing system” (p. 16). The importance of production practice in SLA has been emphasized by many researchers (DeKeyser, 1997; Swain, 1985). In this regard, DeKeyser and Sokalski (2001, as cited in Byun, 2007) argue that "a morphologically complex structure may be easier to notice but harder to produce correctly than a simpler structure; a simpler structure may be inconspicuous and therefore harder to notice, but easier to produce by virtue of its simplicity" (p. 24). In fact, skill specificity argues that performance improves most in the type of task that has been practiced. Thus, production practice leads to an increase in production skills, and skill-specificity may not apply to the acquisition of comprehension ability (Byun, 2007). This specificity of the practice effect can also be explained via the distinction made by Anderson (1985) between declarative and procedural knowledge. According to Anderson declarative knowledge is knowledge that can be declared, usually in words. Procedural knowledge, in contrast, is ‘knowing how’ to perform a task such as washing an engine. To Anderson, declarative and procedural knowledge are different kinds of knowledge as they are stored differently. As Anderson (1985) claims practice enables declarative knowledge to become preoceduralized knowledge. Along the same line, DeKeyser (2007a) goes on to hold that in most forms of skill acquisition, people are first presented with declarative information, and then through initial practice, this declarative information is converted into behavioral routines. As procedural knowledge possesses specific rules that can be used very fast and with low rate of errors, such knowledge lacks generalizability (Dekeyser, 2007b). That is, research, in line with skill specificity, shows that each context favors or requires specific types of practice activities; as a result, different learning contexts promote significant skill-specific improvement (DeKeyser, 1997). What we need here to better appreciate the concept of the newly developed knowledge (i.e., procedural knowledge) and further our discussion is to know that knowledge is more than the end product of previous learning; it also guides new learning (Woolfolk, Winne, & Perry, 2002). In the same line, Alexander (1996) asserts what we know is a scaffold that supports the construction of all future learning. Henceforth, initially, a learner acquires a bit of knowledge about a skill without an ability to use it. In most cases, such knowledge is transmitted from one expert to a novice, mostly in verbal forms. Then, the ‘knowledge that’ is converted into the ‘knowledge how’—declarative knowledge to procedural knowledge. That is, at this stage, declarative knowledge is to be demonstrated. Anderson (1985) goes on to hold that for declarative knowledge to become preoceduralized knowledge, practice is needed. To him, all knowledge starts out in declarative; however, such declarative-to-procedural concomitance was not later generalized by Anderson, especially with respect to second language learning. Anderson, inspired by Fitts and Posner (1967), formulated three stages to explain how skill acquisition takes place, or, better to say, how declarative knowledge is turned into procedural knowledge: (1) the cognitive stage (i.e., a description of procedure is learned, e.g., singular –s must be added to the verb preceded by a singular subject), (2) the associative stage (i.e., a method for performing the skill is worked out), and (3) the autonomous stage (i.e., the skill becomes more and more rapid and automatic). DeKeyser (2007b) asserts proceduralized knowledge is a big advantage over declarative knowledge, as it no longer requires the individual to retrieve bits and pieces of information from memory to assemble them into a program for a specific behavior. DeKeyser, pointing out that a relatively small amount of practice may lead to proceduralization, puts forth that the advantage of procedural knowledge over declarative knowledge rests in the fact that it is available as “a ready-made chunk to be called up in its entirety each time the conditions for that behavior are met” (p. 98). However, the acquisition of procedural knowledge does not guarantee that the target skill will be performed proficiently (Mystkowska-Wiertelak & Pawlak, 2012). Furthermore, for the proceduralized knowledge to be displayed efficiently, it needs to be automatized; that is, the behavior needs to become automatic. For this to happen, DeKeyser (2007a) holds “a large amount of practice is needed to decrease the time required to execute the task (reaction time), the percentage of errors (error rate), and the amount of attention required” (p. 98). DeKeyser goes on to assert that the “process of porceduralization and automatization cannot get started if the right conditions for proceduralization are not present” (p. 100). Elsewhere, DeKeyser (1997) has contended when forms are practiced repeatedly in a meaningful context, proceduralization and automatization can take place. Henceforth, DeKeyser recommends explicit instruction followed by meaningful activities be designed to promote proceduralization. These activities, according to (Hattem, 2011), should not be rushed and should allow the learner ample time and opportunities to access their declarative knowledge before proceeding to more free-based exercises and activities. 3. Practice and the power law of learning Carlson (1997, cited in DeKeyser, 2007b) defines practice simply as a “repeated performance of the same (or closely similar) routines” (p. 2). However, the notion of practice is controversial. It may be equated with mechanical drills. To

IJALEL 2 (2):71-76, 2013 73 stop misunderstanding and offering such misjudgment regarding the notion of practice, DeKeyser (2007b) presents a focused definition of practice as “specific activities in the second language, engaged in systematically, deliberately, with the goal of developing knowledge of and skills in the second language” (p. 1). Therefore, practice should be meaningful and should employ intentional focus on form. Along the same vein, DeKeyser argues that one of the central questions regarding practice in SLA is whether practice affects SLA, and if so, whether the effect is skill-specific or not. In line with the power law of learning, it is frequently claimed that learning performance improves with practice according to the so-called power law of learning. In its simplest form, a power function is a function of the shapes

, where μ is the learning rate parameter, and t is number of learning episodes or time. P may refer to how accurate or how fast we carry out a learned activity (Murre & Chessa, 2011). Thus, what is implied is that our learning does not occur at a constant rate. Research by Logan (1992) suggests that the theory of automaticity can be used to explain why the power law is deemed an accurate portrayal of reaction time learning curves. In effect, a skill becomes automatic when there is no effort on the part of learners to retrieve information. However, automatization is not easy to be defined. DeKeyser (2007b) reports the reason as the term is used at three levels of generality:

In the broadest sense, it refers to the whole process of knowledge change from initial presentation of the rule in declarative format to the final stage of fully spontaneous, effortless, fast, and errorless use of that rule, often without being aware of it anymore. In a narrower sense, it refers to the slow process of reducing error rate, reaction time, and interference with/from other tasks that takes place after proceduralization. In the most specific sense, it designates a merely quantitative change in the subcomponents of procedural knowledge to the exclusion of any qualitative change or restructuring (i.e., excluding changes in which small subcomponents make up procedural knowledge at a given stage of skill development or how they work together. (p. 4)

Generally speaking, the power law of learning is the central concept of skill acquisition that relates to the last two levels of generality mentioned above (DeKeyser, 2007b). DeKeyser (2007a) holds that “both reaction time and error rate decrease as a consequence of practice” (p. 99). Accordingly, he declares this decrease follows a very specific mathematical function referred to as the power law. As Dekeyser asserts practice in each skill--production/comprehension skills--reinforces the declarative knowledge that is applicable to both. However, the procedural knowledge is too specific to be transferred from one skill to another. One can, therefore, arrive at the conclusion that practice effect is highly skill-specific. 4. Interface discussion The relation between implicit and explicit knowledge, more specifically, whether one can change into the other or whether they interact, has been much debated (Anderson, 1985; DeKeyser, 1997; Krashen, 1985). In a nutshell, there are three possible interfaces. The proponents of interface position (Anderson, 19985; DeKeyser, 1997) put forth that explicit knowledge can turn into implicit knowledge after a sufficient amount of practice. In a non-interface model, according to Hulstijn (2001), what is learned explicitly cannot turn into implicit knowledge. A notable figure who is in favor of non-interface position is Krashen (1985) who was first to make a distinction between learning and acquisition. To him, learning is a conscious process that results in knowing about language, while acquisition is a subconscious process that results in tacit linguistic knowledge. To Krashen, learning and acquisition cannot change into each other. Schwartz (1993), in line with Krashen (1985), maintains that the theory of modular mind is considered as a reinforcement of Krashen’s learning and acquisition hypothesis. That is, Fodor’s (1983) concept of modular systems that are unaffected by conscious knowledge supports Krashen’s non-interface position. In other words, conscious learning and subconscious learning are unrelated, and that both the grammar of language and the uses of language are acquired unconsciously. Schwartz (1986), attempting to reconcile Fodor’s (1983) Language Module with Chomsky’s (1957) Language Faculty, declares that there is an innately given module specific for the domain of the language. This module, as Fodor (1983) maintains, is informationally encapsulated. It can only accept as input those representations that are compatible with it. Henceforth, de Jong (2005) declares as “explicit knowledge is not of the correct type, it cannot feed into the module and has no effect on the language system and processes” (p. 10). The third stance regarding interface discussion is a weak interface position which claims that explicit knowledge cannot turn into implicit knowledge but can influence the acquisition of implicit knowledge (VanPatten & Cadierno, 1993). As de Jong (2005) continues “explicit knowledge may make specific features of the input more available for learning, for instance, by focusing attention or changing the way input is processed, or by making learners notice the gap between the input and their own production” (p. 10). 5. Automaticity There is a commonly held belief that automaticity is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details. Posner and Boies (1978) and Newell (1990), for instance, both share in this view that automaticity is fast and ballistic. It is natural to think that once a mechanism has become automatic it will operate faster than it did earlier. However, Mirahmadi, Jalilzadeh, and Nosratzadeh (2011) claim that while automatic processing may entail fast processing, it does not follow that all fast processing is necessarily automatic. Along the same vein, Mirahmadi et al go on to hold:

This is because “fast” is nearly always understood in a relative rather than absolute sense. It is, for example, logically possible for a given individual to exhibit faster non-automatic processing on

IJALEL 2 (2):71-76, 2013 74 one occasion than on another, or for two individuals to differ in the speed of executing non-automatic aspects of task performance. Hence, merely observing that performance was fast does not necessarily indicate it was automatic.

In a more comprehensive definition, Kahneman (1973) defines automaticity as the absence of attentional control in the execution of a cognitive activity. Along the same line, Mitchell and Myles (2004) hold that automatic processes do not need attentional control. In fact, automaticity is the ability to perform a complex task quickly, with few attentional resources (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). LaBerge and Samuels also assert that automaticity develops as the result of extended practice, wherein a complex task that once was slow and required a great deal of attention gradually becomes automatic. Seen from this stance, we can claim that if one’s skill in a particular domain increases, his/her effort and attention to perform that skill decreases. Put similarly, while automatic processing may entail fast processing, it does not follow that all fast processing is necessarily automatic. The term automaticity covers a wide range of phenomena that often vary from one definition to another (Cohen, Servan-Schreiber & McClelland, 1992). Nevertheless, Cohen et al. believe that there are a core set of phenomena that seem to occur in most discussions of automaticity:

1. an increase in speed of performance with practice following a power law, 2. diminishing requirements from attention with practice, 3. a commitment release from attentional control--or involuntariness (i.e., the involuntariness of automatic

processes) 4. immunity from interference with competing processes, and 5. the requirement that practice be “consistently mapped” for these phenomena to develop. (pp. 241-242)

6. Fluency or automaticity According to Hudson, Pullen, Lane, and Torgesen, (2009), the terms automaticity and fluency are often used interchangeably. It is not in the realm of paper to make automaticity and fluency distinct, but what makes our mind obsessed is to find an answer to the following questions: How can you tell whether someone is fluent or automatic in a skill? What is the measurable indicator of fluency and automaticity? Although such questions are at the core of every learner’s performance evaluation, there is a commonsensical understanding that being fluent means achieving a useful pace of performance. However, fluency goes beyond rapid performance. Fluency, in fact, contributes directly to three types of critical learning outcomes: (1) the ability to recall knowledge long after learning program (retention and maintenance), (2) the ability to maintain performance levels and attention to task for extended period while raising distraction, and (3) the ability to perform and apply what is learned to perform more complex skills creatively (Binder, Haughton, & Bateman, 2002). Binder et al. further claim what makes a student who easily completes his/her task with the one who completes it with difficulty is a lack of fluency. The students who are fluent free up their attention for higher order applications. In other words, the students who struggle to recall a string of words will have less attention for composing what they are going to produce. In sum, word identification entails anticipation of what is going to come next. Henceforth, the ability to anticipate reduces the time required to execute the task and the amount of attention. 7. Conclusion As DeKeyser (2007a; 2007b) insists, the transfer between production/comprehension skills is determined by the fact that practice in each skill reinforces, to some degree, the declarative knowledge that is applicable to both. The procedural knowledge, however, is too specific to be transferred from one skill to another; therefore, practice effect is highly skill-specific. For instance, a mechanic having the procedural knowledge of how to work on a car does not necessarily have the procedural knowledge of working on an airplane. In this regard, this is a commonly-held belief that for a skill to be employed practice is inevitable. Regarding the importance of practice, Westwood (2004) asserts that “one of the main benefits resulting from practice is the development of automaticity” (p. 15). Westwood continues when recall of information becomes automatic, less effort is required on the part of learners and it becomes much easier to do two things simultaneously. What makes automatized knowledge distinct from implicit knowledge is that while implicit knowledge is always defined with reference to lack of consciousness, absence of awareness is not a requirement for automaticity. Hence, one can have knowledge that is implicit but not automatic because error rate is too high and speed is too low (Dekeyser, 2007b). However, as Ellis and Bogart (2007) state many aspects of a second language are unlearnable or are acquired very slowly from implicit processes alone. Grammatical functors, for instance, abound in the input, but, as the result of their low salience, they are simply not implicitly learned by many naturalistic learners whose attentional focus is on meaning and communication (Ellis, 2006). In sum, as Mystkowska-Wiertelak and Pawlak (2012) put, “an obvious advantage of Skill-Learning Theory is that it fits with other aspects of cognitive science” (p. 49). That is, the processes of SLA can be explained in the same way as those responsible for mastering other skills, such as riding a bike or learning to read.

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International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Gender-based Study of Metadiscourse in Research Articles’ Rhetorical Sections

Mahin Yavari (Corresponding author)

Islamic Azad University, Maragheh Branch, Maragheh, Iran E-mail: mahin.yavari@gmail.com

Alireza Fard Kashani, MA.

University of Science & Technology, Tehran, Iran E-mail: fakashani1984@gmail.com

Received: 03-11- 2012 Accepted: 01-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.77 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.77 Abstract This study investigated whether or not male and female writers of academic research articles were different in the use of interpersonal resources in English. In order to carry out the study, 32 applied linguistics research articles with the standard macrostructure of empirical research articles (Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion) were selected from amongst the highest ranked journals. The results of the current study indicated that, with respect to both interactive and interactional features, there were no significant gender-based differences in the overall distribution of interpersonal resources in the four sections of the articles (p-value> 0.05). It also confirmed the view that writing differences are not gender-specific, but rather section-specific. In this line, identification of male and female EFL learners’ use of metadiscourse elements will provide guidelines to EFL teachers to tailor their teaching methods and avoid mismatches between classroom practices and learners’ language use. Keywords: metadiscourse; interactive resources; interactional resources; gender 1. Introduction The term ‘metadiscourse’ was coined for the first time by Zellig S. Harris in 1959. Later on, a number of researchers such as Williams (1981), Vande Kopple (1985), Crismore (1989) and Hyland (2005) elaborated it much more. It has been widely defined as ‘metalanguage’ (Lyons, 1977), ‘non-topical linguistic material’ (Lautamatti, 1978), ‘metatalk’ (Schriffin, 1980), ‘discourse about discourse’ or ‘communication about communication’ (Vande Kopple, 1985), and ‘signalling devices’ (Crismore, 2004) among many other scholars’ definitions. Nonetheless, very few studies offer a specific definition of metadiscourse, partly because it constitutes a fuzzy nature (Hyland, 2005a; Adel, 2006). Of all these descriptions about metadiscourse, Hyland (2005a, p. 37) proposes the most advantageous definition of metadiscourse: “Metadiscourse is the cover term for the self-reflective expressions used to negotiate interactional meanings in a text, assisting the writer (speaker) to express a view point and engage with readers as members of a particular community”. In other words, in this new definition, he tries to show presence of the writer in the text and also the role of the reader in the construction of argument. Closely intertwined with metadiscourse is gender-based analysis of metadiscourse and metadiscoursal resources which is practiced to clarify whether (or not) and how men and women resort to different strategies and discourse markers to express themselves through the medium of written or spoken language. From what literature shows, it is crystal clear that although numerous studies have investigated gender and spoken language use in different countries, little research is conducted about this phenomenon in a writing context and more specifically with respect to all the four sections of a research article (RA). As Swales (1990) puts it “RA has a dynamic relationship with all the other public research-process genres. Even when we leave aside private and semi-private communicative activities connected with the RA (cover letters, reviewer’s reports, reprint requests, etc.), the RA still remains at the center of a spider’s web” (p.177). Thus, the present study, which is part of a larger study, sought to fill the intended gap through answering the following question: Do male and female writers utilize metadiscoursal resources differently in the four sections of research articles? The rationales and significances behind this current study are two-folded. At the theoretical level, this study sheds light on an area of research in English for Academic Purposes addressed extensively by language researchers and linguists worldwide. At the practical level, the proposed study would help teachers understand learners’ approaches to academic writing and type of metadiscoursal elements or markers they adopt in this process. 2. Theoretical Terms and Background 2.1 Metadiscourse Taxonomies In history of metadiscourse, several metadiscourse taxonomies have been suggested “so as to classify metatextual elements according to their form, meaning, or function” (Hernandez Guerra & Hernandez Guerra, 2008, p. 100). Most of these metadiscourse taxonomies are based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), primarily developed

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 78 by Michael Halliday (e.g. Crismore and Fransworth, 1990; Crismore et al., 1993; Hyland, 1998b, 2000, 2005a; Vande Kopple, 1985). The purpose of SFL is to examine the organization of language in relation to its use by means of analysing texts in their sociocultural contexts. According to Eggins (2004), SFL has four main principals:

1. That language is functional 2. That it’s function is to make meaning 3. That these meanings are influenced by the social and cultural context in which they are exchanged 4. The process of using language is a semiotic process, a process of making meanings by choosing (p. 3). In this functional-semantic approach, language is used for the realization of three broad metafunctions:

ideational, interpersonal, and textual. Ideational meaning is related to the real word and the representation of world’s ideas, experiences by means of language. But, Interpersonal meaning expresses the writer’s and reader’s way of behaving as well as their attitudes towards each other. Textual meaning is also related to the coherence, how we can organize the written or spoken genre to produce coherent genre (Eggins, 2004; Hyland, 2005). To Halliday, as stated in Hyland (2005a, p.27), all three metafunctions operate dependently not independently, because “discourse is a process in which writers are simultaneously creating propositional content, interpersonal engagement and the flow of text as they write”. Hyland (2005a) also points out that analysts by separating propositional content from metadiscourse resources, try to classify metadiscourse items into two groups of textual, i.e., resources used for organizing and making coherence of text, and interpersonal one, i.e., resources used for expressing writers attitudes. 2.1.1 Hyland’s Taxonomy Although Crismore et al.’s classification has been an influential one in metadiscourse studies, but it has its own limitations and critics. In an attempt to amend some of the shortcomings, Hyland (2005a) has proposed his own model of metadiscourse markers (see Table 1). Hyland (1998) modified Crismore et al.’s (1993) schema and introduced comprehensive model of metadiscourse. His metadiscourse model (1998) entailed two sub-divisions: textual and interpersonal metadiscourse. But, after a while, Hyland and Tse (2004) rejected the duality of metadiscourse functions (textual and interpersonal). This rejection by Hyland and Tse (2004) has been considered as an interesting point for most of scholars following the model. They claimed that all metadiscourse is essentially interpersonal because they need to take into account “the reader's knowledge, textual experiences, and processing needs and that it provides writers with an armoury of rhetorical appeals to achieve this” (p.168). To this end, Hyland (2005a) has made a change in his taxonomy by adopting Thompson's (2001) model of interactive and interactional instead of textual and of interpersonal respectively. He has made a clear distinction between interactive and interactional metadiscourse in which both have an interpersonal functions with the former concerned with guiding the readers through an unfolding discourse and the latter dealing with the writer's opinion and their interactions with their readers. Here, Hyland’s interactive and interactional metadiscourse are comparable to Halliday’s (1994) textual and interpersonal metafunctions. Another important fact in Hyland’s taxonomy is that it comprises of stance and engagement markers which are used by writers to convey their stance towards both the content and the audience of the text. This taxonomy suits the purposes of this study best, as it acts as a shield against controversies, such as the distinction between metadiscourse and propositional content (e.g., Williams, 1981; Crismore, 1983; Vande Kopple, 1985) and its advocating nature to view all metadiscourse as interpersonal. And moreover it is a move from traditional treatment of metadiscourse towards a model that can capture the underlying principles of academic writing. Table 1 shows this interpersonal model of metadiscourse. Table 1. An Interpersonal Model of Metadiscourse (Hyland, 2005a, p. 49)

Category Function Examples

Interactive Help to guide the reader through the text Resources

Transitions Express relations between main clauses in addition; but; thus

Frame markers Refer to discourse acts, sequences or stages Finally; my purpose is

Endophoric markers Refer to information in other parts of the text Noted above; see fig; in section 2

Evidentials Refer to information from other texts According to X; Z states

Code glosses Elaborate propositional meanings Namely; e.g.; such as

Interactional Involve the reader in the text Resources

Hedges Withhold commitment and open dialogue Might; perhaps; about

Boosters Emphasize certainty or close dialogue In fact; it is clear that

Attitude markers Express writer’s attitude to proposition I agree; surprisingly

Self-mentions Explicit reference to author(s) I; we; my; me; our

Engagement markers Explicitly build relationship with reader Consider; note; you can see that

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 79 2.2 Studies on Gender As the literature shows, amongst individual factors, gender can influence the choice of interpersonal metadiscourse resources. According to Grey (1998), the starting point for the comparison of the differences of male and female behaviour in using linguistic forms dates back to 1970s. Since then, many studies have been devoted to differences between men and women. While the volume of research into gender differences with respect to metadiscourse resources is not very large, most research has been conducted on oral communication; typically examining conversation and concluding that men and women use different linguistic devices available to them in interactions. Holmes’ (1984) study on English speakers’ essays revealed that the use of interpersonal metadiscourse was prominent in female writer’s essays. They used ‘attitude markers’, ‘commentary markers’ and ‘interpretive markers’ including code glosses, illocution markers and announcements more than men, but textual features namely, connectives, sequencers, topicalizers and reminders followed with hedges were used more by male writers. Similarly, Crismore et al. (1993) compared the use of metadiscourse in persuasive essays written by U.S. male and female university students. The results suggested that both genders used interactional metadiscourse more than interactive one, but female used them more than males. This is in line with the findings of Holmes' (1984) study in which female writers' priority was significant in using interpersonal type of metadiscourse. They identified male writer’s uncertainty by using more hedges and thereby interest in writer-reader interaction. Holmes (1988, 1989) studied the issue of politeness and revealed that gender patterns by considering hedges, tag questions, apologizes and compliments as politeness strategies. The prevalence of women in using these features as politeness strategies was evident in that study. In an investigation of connections between gender and conversation among English speakers, Tannen (1994) showed that women tended to use more supportive and cooperative styles and men enjoyed more competitive styles which resulted in male dominance in mixed gender talks. Janssen and Murachver (2004) in an investigation of the effect of gender on writing asked undergraduate learners to write passages involving socio-emotional content and political debates. Here, the topic played a role in male and female learners' language use; female writers tended to show their preferential features in socio-emotional content, but male preferential features were prominent in politics. They concluded that topic restriction can remove the trace of writer's gender. In another study, Herring and Paolillo (2006) conducted research on web logs restricted to diary and filter. They investigated this genre to understand whether there was any correlation between genre, stylistic features and gender. They found out that the correlation was only for genre. In this way, male preferential features were significant in filters, while female preferential features were frequent in dairies. In a recent study on gender, Tse and Hyland (2008) analyzed a corpus of academic book reviews written by male and female writers and also interviews with academics from both philosophy and biology fields. They found that the interactional kind of metadiscourse was used twice the interactive one by both genders, especially by male writers and accordingly showed the evaluative nature of this genre. Male writers made more use of ‘engagement markers’, ‘hedges’, ‘boosters’, and ‘self mentions’; Interviews with academics also confirmed this. Considering interactive features, female writers made more use of transitions which was the second significant feature in male writers' texts. This can be a proof for both genders' tendency in making the argument clear for readers. Female writers were heavy users of evidential markers, confirmed by academics interviews, but there was no significant difference between them in the use of code glosses. In sum, according to the genre (spoken or written) and community of practices in which genres happen, both genders make different uses of metadiscourse features. 3. Procedure and the Corpus The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether male and female writers utilize metadiscoursal resources differently or similarly in the four sections of research articles. To fulfil this purpose, the intended corpus including 32 Empirical/Experimental Applied Linguistics RAs, published between 2005 and 2011, were categorized into two groups: Female and Male writers’ articles: 16 articles belonged to Female writers and 16 articles belonged to Male writers (see Appendixes 1 and 2 for complete bibliography of articles). 3.1 Selection Process of the Journals and the Articles Two criteria were involved in choosing the intended journals: their rating among Applied Linguistics (AL) lecturers and their accessibility to the most important publications. During this process, ten lecturers holding PhD in AL were individually interviewed - this is known as informant nomination- (see Hyland 2000, 2002, 2007). They were asked to name and rank the five most prestigious international journals defined as journals with higher degree of popularity and reputation among academics which they would want/wish their research articles to be published in. Then the responses were scored and the journals were ranked based on their score (Kuhi et al., 2012). An important question at this point, however, might be to ask if writer’s nationality (native or non-native) can affect the study. According to Lindeberg’s (2004) view top English-medium journals severity in review processing and also their demands according to their specific guidelines “make it irrelevant whether the RAs were written by native English speakers or not” (p. 8). The highest-ranked journals were found to be as follows:

1. TESOL Quarterly (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Quarterly Journal) 2. AL Journal (Applied Linguistics Journal) 3. ESP Journal (English for Specific Purposes Journal) 4. Journal of Pragmatics 5. System Journal

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 80 At the next stage, to observe random sampling procedure, all articles of the five above mentioned journals published within the specified period (2005-2011) were listed. The number of the listed articles in each journal differed due to the variety in the publication frequency of the journals. The corpus, therefore, comprised of 32 articles, including 8 from Applied Linguistics, 7 from TESOL Quarterly, 7 from System, 6 from ESP, and 4 from Pragmatics. As the focus of this study was on the four different sections of applied linguistics RAs, namely, Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion/Conclusion (IMRD/C), the reference sections, tables, abstracts, figures, bibliographies, footnotes, direct quatations of other researchers and headings were excluded from the domian of the present study, so forming an electronic corpus of totalling 221, 284 words out of the four sections of the 32 articles. Moreover, considering the fact that different sections of articles perform different rhetorical functions realized through applying different linguistic resources (e.g., Salager-Meyer , 1994; Hopkins and Dudly-Evans , 1988; Adams-Smith, 1984), those articles with separate results and discussion/conclusion sections were chosen. 3.2 Data Analysis Procedure In order to achieve an acceptable degree of reliability in the data analysis procedure, two processes of researchers’ rating and inter-rater analysis along with consultation with one specialist in the intended field were applied in the present study. First, the four different sections of 32 RAs, regarding Hyland’s (2005a) framework of metadiscourse resources and Halliday’s functional approch, were read carefully by the researchers to identify both interactive and interactional metadiscourse resources. In order to increase the crediblity of the ratings, at the second stage of data analysis, an outside specialist in TEFL who had expertise on metadicourse, selected one page from each article randomly, and rated them seperately and the average counts were allocated to each element of discourse. The researchers made use of frequency counts to analyze the data in the study. Frequency counts (the below formula) was used to show the frquency of different interpersonal metadiscoursal categories as found in the four different sections of RAs produced by male and female writers.

Also, the researchers took advantage of percentage figures by means of the following formula (Hyland, 2005a) to show the distribution of each metadiscourse item between sections and also between groups.

Chi-Square with a significance of p-value =0.05 by means of SPSS (versian 14) was applied in the current study. 4. Results 4.1 Distribution of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources in Introduction Section of Male and Female Writers’ Articles Introduction section of both male and female writer’s articles were analysed to characterize difference between two groups of writers in terms of interpersonal metadiscourse resources. Here, the frequency of interpersonal metadiscourse resources was calculated per 1,000 words and analysed by Chi-square tests. As it can be seen in Table 2, the total frequency of interpersonal metadiscourse resources in Introduction section of male and females writers’ articles were 96.43 per 1,000 words (Interactive 61.91, Interactional 34.52) and 99.27 per 1,000 words (Interactive 62.81, Interactional 36.46) respectively. This finding along with Chi-square tests confirmed that there was not any significant difference between male and female writers’ use of metadiscourse elements. Table 2. Frequency of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources in Introduction Section of Male and Female Writers

Applied Linguistics RAs’ Introduction section Male Female 30590 28195 Total words

1894 1771 Total devices of Interactive

61.91 62.81 F per1,000words

1056 1028 Total devices of Interactional

34.52 36.46 F per 1,000words

96.43 99.27 Totals

Note: F=Frequency; RAs=Research Articles Chi-Square Test (Interactive features): Chi-Square=1.08, DF= 4, p-value=0.89 Chi-Square Test (Interactional features): Chi-Square=0.26, DF= 4, exact p-value=0.99

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 81 According to table 3, ‘Evidentials’ were the most frequent interactive resources with ‘Transitions’, ‘Code glosses’, and ‘Frame markers’ and ‘Endophorics’ following next. Considering interactional subcategories, ‘Hedges’ were the most frequent interactional resources with ‘Attitudes’, ‘Boosters’, ‘Engagement’ and ‘Self mentions’ coming next. Table 3. Categorical Distribution in Introduction Section of Articles Written by Male and Female Writers

Male Female Gender

F/M± Raw number P F Raw number P F

-3.6 876 46.25 28.6 705 39.80 25.0 Evidentials

2 408 21.54 13.3 434 24.50 15.3 Transitions

1.3 347 18.32 11.3 357 20.15 12.6 Code glosses

1.9 173 9.13 5.6 214 12.25 7.5 Frame markers

-0.8 90 4.75 2.94 61 3.44 2.1 Endophorics

0.9 1894 100 61.9 1771 100 62.8 Total Interactive

1.3 556 52.65 18.2 479 46.59 16.9 Hedges

2.4 295 27.93 9.6 339 32.97 12.0 Attitude markers

1.1 132 12.5 4.3 155 15.07 5.4 Boosters

-0.5 67 6.34 2.1 47 4.57 1.6 Engagements

0.1 6 0.56 0.1 8 0.77 0.2 Self-mentions

1.9 1056 100 34.5 1028 100 36.4 Total Interactional

2.84 2950 100 96.43 2799 100 99.27 Overall

Note: F=Frequency; P=Percent 4.2 Distribution of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources in Method Section of Male and Female Writers’ Articles As Table 4 displays, male writers used higher frequency of interactive devices (42.73 per 1,000 words) than female writers (37.03 per 1,000 words) in this section. But, from interactional perspective, female writers utilized almost more frequency (27.19 per 1, 000 words) than male writers (22.11 per 1,000 words). Accordingly, the overall frequency of interpersonal features was the same in method section of both male and female writers’ articles (i.e. 64.85 and 64.22, respectively) and the results of Chi- square test at α=0.05 with degrees of freedom of 4(DF=4) indicated that differences between male and female writers in the use of both interactive and interactional metadiscourse resources were not statistically significant. Table 4. Frequency of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources in Method Section of Male and Female Writers’ Articles

Applied Linguistics RAs’ Method section Male Female 20663 21548 Total words

883 798 Total Interactive devices

42.73 37.03 F per1,000words

457 586 Total Interactional devices

22.11 27.19 F per 1,000words

64.85 64.22 Totals

Chi-Square Test (Interactive features): Chi-Square=0.35, DF =4, p-value=0.98 Chi-Square Test (Interactional features): Chi-Square=0.28, DF =4, exact p-value=0.99 ‘Transitions’ along with ‘Frame markers’, ‘Evidentials’, ‘Code glosses’ and ‘Endophorics’ in male group and ‘Code glosses’, ‘Frame markers’, ‘Evidentials’ and ‘Endophorics’ in female group were the most frequent interactive metadiscourse elements. And with regard to interactional subcategories ‘Hedges’ were the most frequent interactional metadiscourse with ‘Attitude’, ‘self mentions’, ‘boosters’, and ‘engagements’ being the second, third, fourth and fifth (see Table 5).

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 82 Table 5. Categorical Distribution in Method Section of Articles Written by Male and Female Writers

Male Female Gender

±F/M Raw number P F Raw number P F

-2.44 268 30.35 12.97 227 28.44 10.53 Transitions

0.77 147 16.64 7.11 170 21.30 7.88 Code glosses

2.13 185 20.95 8.95 147 18.42 6.82 Frame markers

1.55 173 19.59 8.37 147 18.42 6.82 Evidentials

-0.31 110 12.45 5.32 108 13.53 5.01 Endophorics

-5.7 883 100 42.73 798 100 37.03 Total Interactive

1.13 199 43.54 9.63 232 39.59 10.76 Hedges

1.57 121 26.47 5.85 160 27.30 7.42 Attitude markers

1.51 57 12.47 2.75 92 15.69 4.26 Self-mentions

-0.4 54 11.81 2.61 65 11.09 3.01 Boosters

0.46 26 5.68 1.25 37 6.31 1.71 Engagements

5.08 457 100 22.11 586 100 27.19 Total Interactional

-0.63 1340 100 64.85 1384 100 64.22 Overall

Note: F=Frequency; P=Percent 4.3 Distribution of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources in Results Section of male and female Writers Turning to the distribution of interpersonal features in the Results section, considerably fewer interpersonal signals were found; the male writers employed approximately more of almost two categories, namely interactive and interactional; and the cross-gender differences were more significantly marked. Table 6. Frequency of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources in Results section of Male and Female Writers

Applied Linguistics RAs’ Results section Male Female 26970 35965 Total words

877 885 Total devices of Interactive

32.51 24.60 F per1,000words

941 962 Total devices of Interactional

34.89 26.74 F per 1,000words

67.40 51.35 Totals

Chi-Square Test (Interactive features): Chi-Square=1.46, DF =4, p-value=0.83 Chi-Square Test (Interactional features): Chi-Square=0.99, DF =4, exact p-value=0.91 The frequencies of overall interpersonal metadiscourse resources were computed per 1,000 words in applied linguistics RAs of male and female writers. As it is shown in the Table 6, the total frequency of interactive metadiscourse resources for males was 32.41 per 1,000 words while it was 24.60 per 1,000 words for females; similarly, in the case of interactional metadiscourse resources, male group used more of them with a frequency of 34.89 per 1,000 words, whereas it was 26.74 for female writers. The results were found similar to what was found in previous sections; the results of the Chi- square test at α=0.05 with degrees of freedom of 4(DF= 4) indicated that differences between male and female writers in the use of both interactive and interactional metadiscourse resources weren't statistically different. Regarding subcategories, ‘Transitions’ were the most frequent interactive metadiscourse in both groups, followed by ‘Code glosses’, ‘Frame markers’, ‘Endophorics’ and ‘Evidential’ in females’ writings and ‘Endophorics’, ‘Code glosses’, ‘Frame markers’ and ‘Evidentials’ in males’.

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 83 Table 7. Categorical Distribution in Results Section of Articles Written by Male and Female Writers

Male Female Gender

±F/M Raw number P F Raw number P F

-2.31 318 36.25 11.79 341 38.53 9.48 Transitions

0.29 158 18.01 5.85 221 24.97 6.14 Code glosses

-1.68 136 15.50 5.04 121 13.67 3.36 Frame markers

-5.01 222 25.31 8.23 116 13.10 3.22 Endophorics

-0.8 43 4.90 1.59 86 9.71 2.39 Evidentials

-7.91 877 100 32.51 885 100 24.60 Total Interactive

-6.07 430 45.69 15.94 355 36.90 9.87 Hedges

-1.53 321 34.11 11.90 373 38.77 10.37 Attitude markers

0.79 104 11.05 3.85 167 17.35 4.64 Boosters

-0.96 61 6.48 2.26 47 4.88 1.30 Engagement markers

-0.37 25 2.65 0.92 20 2.07 0.55 Self-mentions

-8.15 941 100 34.89 962 100 26.74 Total Interactional

16.05 1818 100 67.40 1847 100 51.35 Overall

Note: F=Frequency; P=Percent 4.4 Distribution of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources in Discussion/Conclusion Section of Male and Female Writers’ Article As it can be seen in Table 8, the total frequency of interpersonal metadiscourse resources in discussion/conclusion section of male and female writers’ research articles was 89.44 and 78.48 per 1,000 words, respectively. It suggested that there is no considerable difference between male and female writers. Table 8. Frequency of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources in Discussion/ Conclusion Section of Male and Female writers’ article

Applied Linguistics RAs' Discussion/Conclusion section Male Female 27660 29693 Total words

999 1194 Total devices of Interactive

36.11 40.21 F per1,000words

1172 1459 Total devices of Interactional

42.37 49.13 F per 1,000words

78.48 89.44 Totals

Chi-Square Test (Interactive features): Chi-Square=0.92, DF =4, p-value=0.92 Chi-Square Test (Interactional features): Chi-Square=1.20, DF =4, exact p-value=0.88 Again, the results of the Chi-square test at α=0.05 with degrees of freedom of 4 (DF=4) indicated that differences between two groups under study in the use of both interactive and interactional metadiscourse resources weren't statistically different.

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 84 Table 9. Categorical Distribution in Discussion/Conclusion Section of Articles Written by Male and Female Writers

Male Female Gender

±F/M Raw number P F Raw number P F

1.55 405 40.54 14.64 481 40.28 16.19 Transitions

-1.43 264 26.42 9.54 241 20.18 8.11 Evidentials

2.35 156 15.61 5.63 237 19.84 7.98 Code glosses

1.89 95 9.50 3.43 158 13.23 5.32 Frame markers

0.26 110 7.90 2.85 77 6.44 2.59 Endophorics

4.1 999 100 36.11 1194 100 40.21 Total Interactive

-1.32 642 54.77 23.21 650 44.55 21.89 Hedges

6.46 275 23.46 9.94 487 33.37 16.40 Attitude markers

1.18 149 12.71 5.38 195 13.36 6.56 Boosters

-0.11 84 7.16 3.03 87 5.96 2.92 Engagements

0.55 22 1.87 0.79 40 2.74 1.34 Self-mentions

6.76 1172 100 42.37 1459 100 49.13 Total Interactional

24.59 2171 100 64.85 2653 100 89.44 Overall

Note: F=Frequency; P=Percent Here, ‘Transitions’ were the most frequent interactive metadiscourse with ‘Evidentials’, ‘Code glosses’, ‘Frame markers’, ‘Endophorics’ being the second, third, fourth and fifth frequent subcategories. Regarding interactional subcategories, ‘Hedges’ were the most frequent interactional metadiscourse and ‘Attitudes’, ‘Boosters’, ‘Engagements’ and ‘Self mention’ stood next. 5. Discussion and Conclusions 5.1 Metadiscourse and Introduction Section of Male/Female Writers’ Articles As the results of the current study showed, male and female writers of applied linguistics research articles, tended to use much more metadiscourse in the introduction section of their articles. In this way, writers appealed to background knowledge by the inclusion of evidentials, and also to their authoritative and negative affective stance by means of hedges and attitude markers, respectively. Interestingly female writers used more attitude markers, while male writers tended to use more evidential. Tse and Hyland (2008) relate the two different genders’ preferences for different interactive and interactional devices “to very different ways of conceptualizing and argumentation and setting out ideas in a persuasive way” (p. 1242). One possible explanation for the frequent use of evidentials by male writers can be their interest in reviewing items of previous research which helps them to establish a territory as a third step of first move in their articles. But, this was not in line with D’Angelo’s (2008) study in which female writers utilized a higher number of evidentials than their male colleagues. The discrepancies not only stem from gender differences, but generally rooted in the individual styles of two groups or even ideational content. On the other hand, female writers’ greater willingness to make their discourse affective might be the result of their emotional or sentimental nature. It might be speculated that the greater use of adjectives as attitude markers can make the discourse interesting for readers so as to show the importance of their work. An interpretation is that female writers tended to be more concerned about paying attention to evaluation of discourse by means of attitudinal lexis. Generally, both male and female writers organized their texts in a similar way. So, it can be a support for Francis et al.’s (2001) and Tse and Hyland’s (2008) claim that the academic writing of both male and female writers shows more similarities than differences. But, Holmes’ (1984) claim on the preference of female speakers in using metadiscoursal elements couldn’t be in line with what was found in this study. This disagreement can be justified by the genre, which two different genres of spoken and written may not be the same in this case. 5.2 Metadiscourse and Method Section of Male/Female Writers’ Articles Here, in the process of gathering and analysing the data in a more meaningful way for readers, it seems that male authors have paid more attention. According to Tse & Hyland (2008) this makes the process of informing the readers of the process of work more manageable and also ‘reader friendliness’ (p.1242). In contrast, greater use of interactional devices by female writers can be a proof for different style of writing in the method section. Higher frequency of attitude markers (through different meanings of surprise, agreement, importance, and frustration) and self mentions can be considered as writer’s confidence about their commitment. Hyland (2001) attributed the use of ‘self mentions’, by means of first person pronouns and possessive adjectives, by research article authors to their intention to be closely associated with their work or to mediate in the relationship between their arguments and their discourse communities.

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 85 One explanation is that making author’s presence noticed in any written academic discourse gives a writer a community-approved persona and consolidates her credibility among other practitioners and community members. These findings went for the findings obtained in Tse and Hyland (2008). According to Tse and Hyland (2008), females made slightly more use of self-mention and attitudinal markers. So, here it can be concluded that attitudinal markers are the most–sizable inter-gender difference. 5.3 Metadiscourse and Results Section of Male/Female Writers’ Articles Turning to the distributions of interpersonal resources in results section of male and female writers’ articles, it was found that the overall frequency of interpersonal resources for female group was considerably low. It seems that male writers paid much more attention to how they projected themselves into their texts than female writers by transitions, endophorics, and hedges. Considering the significant differences that were found between male writers and their counterparts in the use of hedges, one might argue that the use of this subcategory is gender-specific rather than discipline-specific. That is to say authors’ gender constrains and conditions the use of hedges in realizing the results section of the articles. So the results of the present section supported Crismore et al. (1993) as well as McMillan et al.’s (1977) study. They attributed this overuse of hedging devices on the part of male writers to show more interest in uncertainty and writer-reader interaction. But it went against Tse and Hyland (2008) who found no difference in the use of hedges. It is not also in accordance with Lakoff’s (1975) theory about female writer’s tendency of using hedges. According to Lakoff, hedges show low statues of women and also the social pressure to talk like a lady. Lakoff's theory can’t be true for the corpus of this study because of two reasons. Although her theory was very influential in the history of language and gender studies and considered as the first theory, but it can’t be true to generalize about the present study. Firstly, the genre under study was everyday conversation especially in the use of pragmatic particles including I think, you know, and sort of in that of Lakoff’s study and secondly, according to Dubios and Crouch (1975), she intrudes her personal observation in making these ground-breaking ideas. According to them, her observation is based on a highly skewed and non-random sample of people. 5.4 Metadiscourse and Discussion/Conclusion Section of Male/Female Writers’ Articles Male and female writers show almost similarity in the use of interactional devices in the Discussion section except in the case of attitude markers. The use of attitudinal devices happened to be higher in female writers’ articles as they were generally considered to be sentimental or emotional in contrast with male writers. Female writers also appeared to give a higher priority to glossing wherever they felt that the reader might be burdened with unfamiliar terms or they might not have enough literacy to grasp what the writer intended to get across. In this way, they tried to make themselves as a friend to readers and also to be as an assistant for them in making clear the interpretations of discussion section by rephrasing, exemplifying the obtained arguments/results again. Therefore, here, the use of attitudes and code glosses seem to be governed by the author’s gender since, other things being equal, female writers displayed different rhetorical patterns of use regarding these two subcategories. The results of the present study in the Discussion/Conclusion section of the corpora regarding code glosses ran against that of Tse and Hyland’s (2008) study. They found that male and female writers showed the same pattern of use in regard to this category. But unlike code glosses regarding attitude markers and females’ priority can be a support for Lakoff’s (1975) theory that women’s more use of empty adjectives can be associated with their emotions and feelings. She also relates it to their nature as women. It can be concluded about attitude markers and different sections of articles that gender is better practiced and revealed through the use of this subcategory. Finally, the most evident and interesting point in this study, was the neutral nature of boosters, or items used for reinforcing arguments and expressing conviction, in all the four sections of articles. It was against the findings of Crismore et al. (1993), Francis et al. (2001) and also Tse and Hyland (2008) who observed male preference for more certainty markers and more confident style. They attributed it to male’s dominant and higher status in academic writing as well as supporting their confidence in a judgment. It also went against the findings of Johnson and Roen (1992) and Herbert (1990). They found female writers priority in the application of Boosters. These differences in the literature about the priority of men or even female in the application of this subcategory of metadiscourse can be attributed to different genres (especially sub-genres including Introduction-Method-Results and Discussion/Conclusion) and discourse communities under the study which can influence the use of metadiscourse. But it can be a support for the findings of Lynch and Strauss-Noll (1987), Rubin and Greene (1992) who found little difference in the use of assertion in the written argument patterns of male and female students. In the current study, the analysis of research articles written by two groups of males and females revealed that the author’s gender doesn’t seem to influence the frequency of used markers. Following what Tse and Hyland (2008), D’Angelo (2008), Francis et al. (2001) concluded, the overall use of metadiscoursal elements in soft disciplines appears to be more discipline-specific than gender-based; that the academic writing of men and women exhibits far more similarities than differences. Seemingly, author’s gender cannot be a determining factor in the incorporation of metadiscourse elements into a written discourse. It can be concluded that writers’ awareness of the metadiscourse in different rhetorical sections - along with their awareness of the needs of a discipline when writing in specific discipline- prevent them from misunderstandings and makes the road smoothly for them to follow the conventions of academic discourse in which they are writing. Knowledge of such cross sectional differences is important not only for researchers but also for novice students who are trying to acquire the appropriate academic knowledge. In other words, it is the purpose in each section which determines the frequency of linguistic features (metadiscourse features), for example, in

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 86 the method section the purpose is to be descriptive, while in the discussion section it is to be argumentative. Interestingly, no significant difference was found between male and female writers in their endeavour for both organizing and evaluating the discourse. Acknowledgements This paper is part of my thesis. Therefore, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Davud Kuhi, my supervisor, for his consistent efforts and true desire to keep me on track in the process of MA thesis. References Adams Smith, D.E. (1984). Medical discourse: Aspects of author’s comment. English for Specific Purposes, 3, 25–36. Crismore, A. (1983). Metadiscourse: What it is and how it is used in school and non-school social science texts. University of Illinois: Centre for the Study of Reading. Technical Report 273. Crismore, A. (1989). Talking with readers: Metadiscourse as rhetorical act. New York: Peter Lang. Crismore, A. (2004). Pronouns and metadiscourse as interpersonal rhetorical devices in fundraising letters: A corpus linguistic analysis. In U. Connor & T. A. Upton (Eds.), Discourse in the professions: Perspectives from corpus linguistics (pp. 307-330). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Crismore, A. & Farnsworth, R. (1990). Metadiscourse in popular and professional science discourse. In W. Nash (Ed.), The Writing Scholar: Studies in Academic Discourse (pp. 118-136). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE. Crismore, A., Markkanen, R., Steffensen, M.S., (1993). Metadiscourse in persuasive writing: A study of texts written by American and Finnish University students. Written Communication, 10(1), 39–7. D’Angelo, L. (2008). Gender identity and authority in academic book reviews: A metadiscourse analysis across disciplines. Linguistica e Filologia, 27, 205-221. Dubois, B. L., & Crouch, I. (1975). The question of tag question in women’s speech: They don’t really use more of them, do they? Language in Society, 4, 289-294. Eggins, S. (2004). An introduction to systemic functional linguistics. London, England: Continuum. Francis, B., Robson, J. & Read, B. (2001). An analysis of undergraduate writing styles in the context of gender and achievement. Studies in Higher Education, 26(3), 313-326. Grey, C. (1998). Towards an overview on gender and language variation. Retrieved November 21, 2006, from http://www.eche.ac.uk/study/schsubj/human/English/rh/modules/337-1.htm Harris, Z. (1959). The transformational model of language structure. Anthropological Linguistics, 1(1), 27-29. Herbert, R. K. (1990). Gender differences in compliment behaviour. Language in Society, 19, 201-224. Hernandez Guerra, C., & Hernandez Guerra, J. M. (2008). Discourse analysis and pragmatic metadiscourse in four sub-areas of Economics research articles. Iberica, 16, 81-108. Herring, S. C. & Paolillo, J. C. (2006). Gender and genre variation in weblogs. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 10(4): 439-459. Holmes, J. (1984). Women's Language: A Functional Approach. General Linguistics, 24(3), 149-178. Holmes, J. (1988). Paying compliments: A sex-preferential positive politeness strategy. Journal of Pragmatics, 12(3), 445–465. Holmes, J. (1989). Sex differences and apologies: One aspect of communicative competence. Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 194–213. Hopkins, A., & Dudley-Evans, T. (1988). A genre-based investigation of the discussion sections in articles and dissertations. English for Specific Purposes, 7(1), 113-121. Hyland, K. (1994). Hedging in academic writing and EAP textbooks. English for Specific Purposes, 13(3), 239-256. Hyland, K. (1998). Persuasion and context: the pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 30, 437-55. Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education. Hyland, K. (2001). Humble servants of the discipline? Self-mention in research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 20(3), 207–226. Hyland, K. (2002). Authority and invisibility: Authorial identity in academic writing. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(8), 1091-1112. Hyland, K. (2005a). Metadiscourse: Exploring interaction in writing. London: Continuum. Hyland, K. (2005b). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–191. Hyland, K. (2007). Applying a gloss: Exemplifying and reformulating in academic discourse. Applied Linguistics, 28(2), 266–285. Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). Metadiscourse in academic writing: a reappraisal. Applied Linguistics 25(2), 156–177. Janssen, A., & Murachver, T. (2004). The relationship between gender and topic in gender-preferential language use. Written Communication, 21(4), 344-367. Johnson, D., & D. H. Roen. (1992). Complimenting and involvement in peer-reviews: Gender variation. Language in society, 21(1), 27-57.

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 87 Kuhi, D. Yavari, M. & Sorayaeiazar, A. (2012). Metadiscourse in applied linguistics research articles: A cross-sectional survey. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 3(11), 405-414. Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and women’s place. New York: Harper & Row. Lautamatti, L. (1978). Observations on the development of the topic in simplified discourse. In V. Kohonen & N. E. Enkvist (Eds.), Text linguistics, cognitive learning, and language teaching (pp. 71-104). Turku, Finland: Finnish Association for Applied Linguistics. Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics. (Vols. 1 & 2). Cambridge: CUP. Lynch, C., & Strauss-Noll, M. (1987). Mauve Washers: Sex-differences in freshman writing. English Journal, 76, 90-94. McMillan, J., Clifton, R., Mcgrath, D., & Gale, W.S. (1977). Women’s language: Uncertainty or interpersonal sensitivity and emotionality?. Sex Roles, 3, 545-559. Rubin, D. L., & Greene, K. (1992). Gender typical style in written language. Research in the Teaching of English, 26, 7-40. Salager-Meyer, F. (1994). Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written discourse. English for Specific Purposes, 13(2), 149-170. Schiffrin, D. (1980). Metatalk: Organisational and evaluative brackets in discourse. Language and Social Interaction, 50, 199-236. Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research setting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tannen, D. (1994). Gender and Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tse, p., & Hyland, K. (2008). Robot Kung Fu: Gender and professional identity in biology and philosophy reviews. Journal of Pragmatics, 40, 1232-1248. Vande Kopple, W. (1985). Some exploratory discourse on metadiscourse. College Composition and Communication, 36, 82–93. Williams, J. M. (1981). Style: Ten lessons in clarity and grace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Appendix 1 List of Female Writer’s Articles No. Article 1 Pulido, D. (2007). The effects of topic familiarity and passage sight vocabulary on L2 lexical inferencing and

retention through reading. Applied Linguistics, 28(1), 66-86.

2 Larsen-Freeman, D. (2006). The emergence of complexity, fluency, and accuracy in the oral and written production of five Chineses learners of English. Applied Linguistics, 27, 590-619.

3 North, S. (2005). Disciplinary Variation in the Use of Theme in Undergraduate Essays. Applied Linguistics, 26(3), 431-452.

4 Yiakoumetti, A. (2006). A bidialectal programme for the learning of Standard Modern Greek in Cyprus. Applied Linguistics, 27, 295-317.

5 Mcdowell, H. & Lorch, M.P. (2008). Phonemic awareness in Chinese L1 readers of English: Not simply an effect of orthography. TESOL Quarterly, 42(3), 495-512.

6 Setter, J. (2006). “Speech rhythm in world Englishes. The case of Hong Kong”. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 763–782. 7 Li, Y. (2007). Apprentice Scholarly Writing in a Community of Practice: An Interview of an NNES Graduate

student writing a research article. TESOL Quarterly, 41, 55-79. 8 Winke, P. (2011). Evaluating the validity of a high-stakes ESL test: Why teachers' perceptions matter. TESOL

Quarterly, 45(4), 628-660. 9 Zareva, A. (2005). Models of lexical knowledge assessment of second language learners of English at higher

levels of language proficiency. System, 33(4), 547-562. 10 Shen, Helen H. (2005). An investigation of Chinese-character learning strategies among non-native speakers of

Chinese. System, 33, 49-68. 11 Diab, R. L. (2006).University students’ beliefs about learning English and French in Lebanon, System, 34, 80-96. 12 Sesek, U. (2007). English for teachers of EFL-Toward a holistic description. English for Specific Purposes, 26,

411-425. 13 McGrath, L., & Kuteeva, M. (2011). Stance and engagement in pure mathematics research articles: Linking

discourse features to disciplinary practices. English for Specific Purposes, xxx, 1-13. 14 Kaewpet, Ch. (2009). Communication needs of Thai civil engineering students, English for Specific Purposes,

28, 266-278. 15 Dafouz-Milne E. (2008): “The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the

construction and attainment of persuasion: A cross-linguistic study of newspaper discourse”. Journal of Pragmatics, 40, 95-113.

16 Adel, A. (2011). Rapport building in student group work. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 2932-2947.

IJALEL 2 (2):77-88, 2013 88 Appendix 2 List of Male Writer’s Articles

No. Article 1 Mackey, A. (2006). Feedback, noticing and instructed second language learning. Applied linguistics, 27/3,

405-430.

2 Alderson, Ch. (2007). Judging the frequency of English words. Applied Linguistics, 28/3, 383-409.

3 Vandergrift, L. (2005). Relationships among motivation orientations, metacognition awareness and proficiency in L2 listening. Applied Linguistics, 26/1, 70-89.

4 Forman, R. (2011). Humorous language play in a Thai EFL classroom. Applied Linguistics, 32(5), 541-565.

5 Field, J. (2005). Intelligibility and the listener: The role of lexical stress. TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 399-423. 6 Field, J. (2008). Bricks or Mortar: Which parts of the input does a second language listener rely on?. TESOL

Quarterly, 42(3), 411-433.

7 Folse, K. (2006). The effect of type of written exercise on L2 vocabulary retention. TESOL Quarterly, 40(2), 273-283.

8 Radwan, A. (2005). The effectiveness of explicit attention to form in language learning. System, 33, 69-87.

9 Goker, S.D. (2006). Impact of peer coaching on self-efficacy and instructional skills in TEFL teacher education. System, 34, 239-254.

10 Grainger, P. (2005). Second language learning strategies and Japanese: Does orthography make a difference?. System, 33, 327-339.

11 Alptekin, C. (2006). Cultural familiarity in inferential literal comprehension in L2 reading. System, 34, 494-508.

12 Lim, J. (2006). Method sections of management research articles: A pedagogically motivated qualitative study. English for Specific Purposes, 25, 282-309.

13 Ozturk, I. (2007). The textual organisation of research article introductions in applied linguistics: Variability within a single discipline. English for Specific Purposes, 26, 25-38.

14 Cheng, A. (2008). Individualized engagement with genre in academic literacy tasks. English for Specific Purposes, 27, 387-411.

15 Rothman, J. (2009). Pragmatic deficits with syntactic consequences? L2 pronominal subjects and the syntax-pragmatics interface. Journal of Pragmatics, 41, 951-973.

16 Hu, G., & Cao, F. (2011). Hedging and boosting in abstracts of applied linguistics articles: A comparative study of English- and Chinese- medium journal. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 2795-2809.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

“Can Man Be Free If Woman Be A Slave?” A Study in Feminine Leadership in the Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley & Bole Butake

George EWANE NGIDE

Lecturer, Department of English University of Yaoundé I

E-mail: george_wane@yahoo.co.uk

Received: 13-11- 2012 Accepted: 02-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.89 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/ijalel.v.2n.2p.89 Abstract This article studies the primal role of female characters in the works of two dramatists separated by time and space and yet convergent in their philosophical portrayal of the woman as an agent of socio-political mutations. It posits that although Bole Butake is a Cameroonian contemporary playwright, he shares convergent views with Percy Bysshe Shelley, an English Romantic poet who also wrote lyrical dramas, in the portrayal of the front role played by female characters in bringing about change to their societies. The article concludes that though separated by culture and historical epochs, both Butake and Shelley are visionary and insightful in using women to solve the socio-political predicaments of their times. Keywords: Feminism, Romanticism, post colonialism, comparative literature, drama, poetry 1. Introduction “Can man be free if woman be a slave?” That is the rhetorical question Percy Bysshe Shelley poses in The Revolt of Islam (II, XLIII, 1). The answer of course is an emphatic no, he cannot. This is to say that the freedom and liberation of the woman is concomitant with socio-political change and that the role of the woman in bringing about such change is undeniably important, be her African, European or from any other continent deadlocked by socio-political stagnation. The fights against political corruption, malleable careerism, tyranny, despotism and monarchical rule have been a bourgeoning field of academic investigations. From time immemorial, male characters have been used in literary works as the pivot and pacesetters of such fights. Little have female characters played any substantial role in bringing about a socially and politically just society. The woman’s role has hitherto been canopied to the kitchen and to other chores that are akin to her femininity, while the men do the political talking and decision-making that unfortunately also affect the voiceless woman. Oseni Taiwo Afisi, in Power and Womanhood in Africa: An Introductory Evaluation, quotes Bulkachuwa (1996: 15) as saying that:

In many areas women are still regarded as chattels to be inherited, they are given no formal education...given out in marriage at an early age. They are forever under the control of either their husbands or male relatives...they cannot inherit or own property, nor can they participate fully in public life and the decision-making process within their immediate community (235).

Even if this traditional role of the woman is fast changing and women have become more and more involved in decision-making, the quotation above brings to sharp focus the relegation of the woman to the background in matters of socio-political mutation in literary history. From British literary history, across the oceans to African literary discourse, the same female relegation in effecting and affecting socio-political change is patent and unquestionable. 2. The Woman in African and British Literary Discourse 2.1 Early African Literary Discourse In African literary discourse, the woman is viewed as a motherhood symbol. Kenneth Little (1980), Andrea Benton Rushing (1979), Emmanuel Obiechina (1997), G.C.M Mutiso (1971) quoted by Nol Alembong (2011) have specifically examined the role and behaviour of women in various societies and the literary discourse that their treatment of women have informed. The underlying message is that women have remained the possessions of men and counted among their property. Kolawole (1997), notes that most male writers in the early phase of African literature encouraged the marginalization of women. Chukukere (1995) confirms that the ideal female character created by male writers often acts within the framework of her traditional roles as wife and mother. Fonchingong (2006) supports this notion by saying that social values are so strong that the respect and love which a woman earns is relative to her degree of adaptation to these roles. Examples abound. Chinua Achebe’s Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart (1958) slaughters a goat for one of his wives who has had three sons in a row. Elechi Amadi’s Madume in The Concubine (1966) is terribly discouraged and demolarised by the inability of his wife to produce a male child. Ruthven (1984) thinks that the portrayal of the female

IJALEL 2 (2):89-95, 2013 90 persona has reduced women to mere objects of voyeuristic attention only fit and portrayed through types and stereotypes, for the cinders and smoke of the literary backyards of African Literature. Ngugi’s women represent the downtrodden and the pariahs in society. In I Will Marry When I Want (1980), for instance, “Two women are two pots of poison”, “A woman’s word is believed only after the event” and “Women cannot keep secrets”. Even Tanyi-Tang’s (2000) Ewa has no say in her marital home. She confirms and pathetically remarks that “we are living in a man’s world”. The same holds for Alobwed’Epie’s (2005) Emade. She is not woman enough to be a man. In spite of the beard she wears, she remains a woman as her “urine cannot cross the beam”. 2.2 The Woman in Early British Literary Discourse The same indictment and marginalization of the woman is also evident in British literature. Early British Literature, from Beowulf through Chaucer, Shakespeare to some contemporary British Writers, portrays that the woman’s role is less political and more muliebris, that is, in the kitchen and playing the traditional role of the woman to quote Marckwardt et al (1965). Caroline Lawrence (2008) has studied the role of women in early British literature. She holds that because “Beowulf is foundational for any study of Old English literature, its female characters are regularly the standards by which other women in Old English literature are examined.” Horner (2001) had earlier considered women in this light. With most images stemming from Beowulf, women progress and digress from that point in literature. One of the more poignant figures in Beowulf, Wealhtheow, the queen of Heorot and wife to Hrothgar, is given few lines and is introduced to the audience with the obedient task of ensuring that all cups are filled with beer. According to history, the woman of the household or kingdom serviced her husband and the men of the table as the consummate hostess, keeping quiet and keeping the drink poured. The woman was thus a “dutiful slave” of the man. Christopher Marlowe in Dr. Faustus explores the image of women as the downfall of man. Helen of Troy, the greatest beauty in literary history, is used as the symbol of seduction and sin, essentially representing evil herself. Showing the striking magnetism of evil, Marlowe sees women as the ultimate temptation, the consummate sin. The female image is further marred in the works of William Shakespeare. He too writes his women to be temptations, weak and powerless. Within his plays, the female form is frail and weak as in Hamlet, taciturn, voiceless and hackneyed as in Othello or manipulative and ambitious as in Macbeth. Yet, they are romantic and innocent, like Ophelia, Desdemona, and Juliet, but led astray by their emotional desires. Historically, women are categorized as servants to men, simply to be seen and not heard. Even if Lawrence concludes her study by asserting that in literature, “the women exceed their historical counterparts and blaze trails for females to follow”, this is true only recently. Neha K. Memphis thinks that it is an indisputable fact that women have always been considered as weaker and played subservient roles to the men. Yet, women morphed from being creatures dependent on their lord, and playing merely a functional role in the story, to asserting more independence and playing a more symbolic role in the story, to actually being one of the major characters in a work of literature, elaborately developed with flaws and possible redeeming potentials. Be it as it may, the underlying premise is that female characters have developed to self independence and have assumed important roles, that of attempting to stand up to their rights and not just being subservient to the men. The assumption of such roles is, however, limited to husband/wife relationships and other feminine implications in the social development of their societies. 3. Socio-political role of Women in Shelley and Butake With the advent of feminism, however, some writers have begun to give women some semblance of dominant roles. Gathoni in I Will Marry When I Want succeeds in making her own choice of a husband by contravening traditional precepts and rejecting the choice of her parents. Achebe in Anthills of the Savannahs moves from the residual and peripheral role of women in his early novels to making them play a central role in shaping and mediating the realms of power. Beatrice here champions the fight for female emancipation. That is as far as the emancipation of women can go. They have, hitherto, not been given primal political roles in the liberation of their societies from political tyranny, malleable careerism, despotism and monarchical rule by playwrights. This article, therefore, posits that Bole Butake is the Cameroonian Percy Bysshe Shelley of female liberation of the society from socio-political misdemeanour. It stresses that although Bole Butake is a Cameroonian contemporary playwright, he shares convergent views with Percy Bysshe Shelley, an English Romantic poet, who also wrote lyrical dramas, in the front role played by female characters in bringing about change to their societies. Mboysi, Kwengong and the Kil’u women give to the liberation fight a dramatic twist by becoming violent and killing Officer and the other symbols of corruption and careerism. But even when the female characters use violence, the end of the plays reveals both Shelley’s and Butake’s preaching of nonviolence. The female characters in both Shelley and Butake that lead violent revolutions by using violence against violence also end up tragically or at least are warned of what Shelley calls “the fallacy of revenge”. In all of Shelley’s revolutionary poems and lyrical dramas, the revolutionary leaders are women: Cynthia in The Revolt of Islam; Asia in Prometheus Unbound; Mab in Queen Mab; Iona in Oedipus Tyrannus or Swellfoot the Tyrant. All are champions not only of the common people, but also of the rights of their sex. They head revolutions that defeat tyranny and monarchy. Butake on the other hand is a champion of female rights and domination in an African patriarchal traditional society. Butake’s Kwengong in And Palm Wine Will Flow, the Kil’u women in Shoes and Four Men in Arms and Mboysi in The Survivors, all take up the challenge of the women liberation movement that Shelley’s female characters championed in the Romantic period. Of all the literary discourse on the empowerment of women in the Cameroonian literary landscape, only Ambanasom (2003) has come close to the main thrust of this investigation. In Education of the Deprived: Anglophone Cameroon Literary Drama, he ascertains that in Butake’s dramas women have moved from their traditional backseat role of

IJALEL 2 (2):89-95, 2013 91 passive players to the foreground as a powerful force to be reckoned with if any significant social change is to take place (p.35). While Ambanasom examines the role of women in Cameroon Anglophone drama in general, we examine the role of Butake’s female characters in bringing about socio-political change, comparing their action with that of the female characters of a titanic romantic poet and lyrical dramatist, Percy Bysshe Shelley. The goal here is to establish a direct link between romantic literary imagination and modern African drama, as well as points of convergence between Butake’s and Shelley’s empowerment of women in the struggle for socio-political freedom. 4. Shelley and Butake in History Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792 at Field Place, near Horsham in Sussex, England. Bole Butake was born in 1947 in Nkor, Noni Sub Division of the North West Province (now Region) of Cameroon. The one is English, the other Cameroonian. One hundred and fifty five years and thousands of kilometres separate both men. In other words both men were born into completely different cultures and in separate historical epochs. Shelley died at the prime age of 29 and today Butake is 65. By virtue of their age difference, one will readily believe that Butake should have gained more experience in life than Shelley. Without trying to question and judge the life experiences of both men, it is evident that Butake has seen many things in life than Shelley should have, and thus schooled by life. However, Shelley at 29 seems to have been older than his age. Dismissed from Oxford at 18 for publishing a pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism, disinherited and disowned by his own father for daring to question the existence of an omnipotent God, his early marriages and elopements, his fleeing from debtors and living a nomadic life, his personal involvement in political hotchpotch areas like Ireland, France, Spain and others, his friendships with William Godwin and Tom Paine, both of them radical philosophers, the court refusal to grant him custody of his children for reasons of his revolutionary ideas and works published, all contributed to making Shelley a man older than his age. On the eve of his anticipated death he told his friend, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, quoted by Mrs Shelley in the “Preface” to Edward Dowden’s The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley that “if I die tomorrow, I have lived to be older than my father” (21). Although he was drowned mysteriously and his corpse cremated, one thing is certain, Shelley’s experience about life is far reaching and his fight against oppression and repression of all forms is untainted. Does Butake have the kind of life experience that Shelley had? This is yet to be established by his biographers. From the published works of both men, however, there is reason to believe that though separated by age, culture, continent and historical epochs, both Shelley and Butake have convergent views on a number of issues. Shelley’s revolutionary fervent is present in Butake’s major works cited earlier. Ambanasom writes of Butake:

Whether drawing from a mythic imagination or from a contemporary social scene, Butake succeeds in making his plays scathing commentaries on contemporary social life, both in Cameroon in particular and Africa in general; especially where there is irresponsible political leadership, unconscionable dictatorial rule, rapacious greed, immorality and the misuse of power. This malpractice by the elite in control of the reins of power provokes the justified anger of the oppressed masses who advocate a change of the status quo, a protest in which women play a primordial role. (35)

Butake, like Shelley, is thus a revolutionary whose plays place the woman on the front seat of the revolution for socio-political change and who is influenced both by his own imaginative fertility and the social events of his time. Shelley’s fertile imagination is equally unquestionable and the influence of the social and political events of his day has also had a bearing on his revolutionary lyric plays. Mary Shelley writes in Notes on Queen Mab that:

Though Shelley's first eager desire to excite his countrymen to resist openly the oppressions existent during 'the good old times' had faded with early youth, still his warmest sympathies were for the people. He was a republican, and loved a democracy.... His hatred of any despotism that looked upon the people as not to be consulted or protected from want and ignorance was intense. (345)

5. Role of Female Characters In his quest to establish a just society Butake, like Shelley, uses female characters as champions of the revolution. Both Shelley and Butake have specific historical affinities with women in their lives. The love relationships shared with the fair sex have had a bearing on their consideration of women. For Shelley, it was a question of love in the erotic sense of the word. Condemning marriage which he considered as legalized prostitution, Shelley practiced and preached free love cultism. His marriages and elopement testify to this fact. Butake, however, shared both a filial attachment to and a working relationship with women. In an interview with him conducted in his office on June 12th, 2012, he said, “I had two kinds of women in my life. My paternal uncle’s wife who was very wicked to me and my maternal uncle’s wife who was very kind to me….the first pair of shoes I wore were her shoes. She had very big legs but I would stuck papers in it and wear them”. The role of the women in the northwest traditional societyi has also been a motivating factor for the role women play in Butake’s plays. According to him the women he has known have been “very strong women”. He ascertains that if the women for instance decide that “the Fonii will not leave the palace he will not until he apologizes”. Such women as the Kil’u women in Shoes and Four Men in Arms are examples of the kind of women Butake has met in his life. Like Shelley, his mother he said has not had such an impact on his life given that he “barely knew his mother”, having been an orphan at the age of 4. Another issue that brings both playwrights together is the possible influences socio-political events have on their writings. Shelley’s lyric dramas were influenced by the social and political events of his time. Upton Sinclair (2006) attests that Shelley’s play, Oedipus Tyrannus or Swellfoot the Tyrant, is based on the history of George IV sued by his wife for divorce. As she puts it, “The odious fat lecher, King George IV, was sued for divorce by his wife, Queen

IJALEL 2 (2):89-95, 2013 92 Caroline, and it was a most horrible scandal, which Britain hardly dared to whisper” (p.2). The Devil’s Walk, a poem by Shelley according to Dawson was written in 1812 by Shelley to protest the actions of the British government and harsh economic conditions in the country at the time. It emerged after the food riots in Devon where Shelley lived at that time. Prices for grain were at their highest level in 1812, there were shortages of food, and prices were inflated. Shelley attacked “a brainless King” and the “princely paunch” and “each brawny haunch” of the Prince Regent. The members of both houses of Parliament and the Church were also castigated. Political leaders and the wealthy were also attacked. The British war in Spain was similarly criticized. Other poetical works and lyric dramas and pamphlets of Shelley like Letter to Lord Ellenborough, Hellas and Prometheus Unbound were influenced by specific historical events. The same holds for Butake. Ambanasom quotes Ngugi Wa Thiongo’o as having written that “literature cannot escape from the class power struggles that shape our everyday life”, intimating that a writer has no choice because he is either on “the side of the people, or the side of those social forces and classes that try to keep the people down. What he or she cannot do is to remain neutral” (p.12). Butake’s plays are therefore not only the result of his fertile imagination but, like Shelley, the result of events that have occurred in the Cameroonian society in particular and elsewhere in Africa in general, to which events he gives a dramatic twist. Shoes and Four Men in Arms recalls, indubitably, the riots of the students of the then University of Yaoundé in the early 90s asking for social and political reforms. In their protest, they created a Students’ Parliament that decided on the actions to be taken against the government. On one of their meetings in the students’ residential area called Bonamoussadi, they were wantonly charged by the forces of law and order. In the general commotion, many lost their shoes. The hundreds of assorted pairs of shoes where piled in a heap on the confrontational spot. The Survivors and Lake God mimic the Lake Nyos gas explosion of 1986 in the North West of Cameroon during which some 2000 people, including cattle and other animals were killed. There have been missed feelings as to the main reasons for the explosion. The survivors were evacuated from the scene of the disaster, relocated to another area where they received assorted aid from the government and friendly countries. And Palm Wine Will Flow on its part is a scathing revelation and critic of corrupt political governance, the hallmarks of many African countries, particularly Cameroon. Both Butake and Shelley thus make recourse to real life events as well as to their own imaginative muscularity. The question as to who must have influenced the other has an obvious answer given the age difference between both writers. Whether both writers have also ever met is equally obvious. Shelley had died over a hundred years before Butake’s birth. The question is whether Butake ever read Shelley’s works. Butake studied in the University of Leeds in England and read British Literature in both the Universities of Yaoundé and Leeds. He certainly must have come across Shelley’s works, given that the revolutionary footprints and the role of the woman to lead such revolutions propounded by Shelley are present in his dramas. In an interview accorded me, Butake acknowledges that he had read Shelley but cannot remember anything about Shelley except that ”he was, I think, an Irish poet”. I told him Shelley was an English poet who took the question of the Irish Independence and Catholic Emancipation as a personal challenge and travelled to Ireland where he openly addressed the people. The fact that Butake thinks of Shelley as an Irish poet is enough justification that he came across Shelley’s revolutionary preachings to the Irish people found especially in his ”Address to the Irish People”. 6. Women: Champions of Socio-Political Revolutions in Shelley and Butake The Free Encyclopedia defines Political corruption as the use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Within the context of this study, we add that the misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, tyranny and monarchical rule, are also considered political corruption. The same definition includes illegal acts by private persons or corporations directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder also constitutes political corruption. This is so because the act is directly related to his official duties and is done under colour of law or involves trading in influence. Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. Both Shelley and Butake reveal such corruption in their works and devise means of fighting it for a just and democratic society. Shelley’s the Cenci, Oedipus Tyrannus or Swellfoot the Tyrant and The Revolt of Islam like Butake’s The Survivors, And Palm Wine Will Flow and Shoes and Four Men in Arms share the same thematic concerns. The works are scathing revelations of political corruption, oppression and repression of the masses by the ruling class. In the Cenci, the young Beatrice Cenci is kept with her stepmother, Lucretia, in the appalling isolation and darkness of a forbidding castle outside the Papal States by her cruel father, Francesco Cenci, whose enormous debts and misdeeds make him unable, as well as unwilling, to support his offspring. He wants to prevent Beatrice from marrying to avoid paying a dowry. She has suitors, among them a “smooth” prelate, but is unhappily resigned to her lot until her father rapes her. With the support of her brother, Giacomo, she commands two servants,Olimpio and Marzio,to kill her father, but they waver in their resolve. She taunts them and they return to strangle the man, tossing his body below a balcony as if he had fallen. She rewards them with a bag of coins. However, suspicions about the death are raised almost within the moment of its discovery because of the wounds on the body, bloody evidence in the bedchamber, and the apparent lack of grief in the family. Confessions are extracted by torture. Beatrice, her stepmother, Lucretia, and Giacomo are to be executed while a younger brother is forced to watch. The Pope who orders the execution justifies his act in the sense that it will serve as a lesson to other youths before all old men are murdered in their sleep. In the doleful final scene, the family accepts their fate with tenderness and courage. Like Beatrice and her family taken hostage by a senseless regime and oppressed by the society at large, Mboysi and the other four survivors in Butake’s The Survivors go through a similar humiliation. As survivors of a gas explosion, they

IJALEL 2 (2):89-95, 2013 93 are moved to a resettlement camp where they are not free to move. Hungry and thirsty, they have no food to eat and no water to drink even if the friends of their land and other benefactors have been sending them gifts of food items, clothing and drink because these are controlled by Officer. They are not also allowed to leave the camp because this will mean an end to the gifts and the end of Officer’s wealth. Caught in the web, The Old One says ”There is no going forward and there is no turning back”. (p.60). The only language Officer uses on them is ”stop! Silence! Kpo!”iii (p.65). That seems to be the language of power. They are used as instruments for the enrichment of Officer and his likes. With the children (Bolame and Tata) crying of hunger, Mboysi is advised by the Old One and Ngujoh to use her female power to get some food and drink from Officer. The wise old man tells them that “Today, women are the key to power. Even the door with seven locks on it can be unlocked by a woman” (p.65). Mboysi thus becomes the ”key” that opens Officer’s locked heart. He falls for her, makes love to her severally and in return gives her a few cloths, water and biscuts while he keeps the rest for himself. They realise that Officer has been ”Stuffing” his ”decaying stomach” and his ”bulging pockets on the calamity of the people” (p.93). Mboysi cajoles Officer and takes the gun from him. After treating him as a ”crawling, thieving maggot” she fires ”two shots” (p.84) at Officer. He is killed but Mboysi’s victory song is shortlived. She is also killed, like Shelley’s Beatrice, by her oppressors, other soldiers, the likes of Officer. The same holds for Oedipus Tyrannus or Swellfoot, The Tyrant and Butake’s Shoes and Four Men in Arms, in the same light as between Shelley’s The Revolt of Islam and Butake’s And Palm Wine Will Flow . In Swellfoot, the tyrant opulently boasts of his power and wealth. Together with his henchmen from the church and the state namely Mammon who represents Liverpool, and Purganax who represents Lord Castlereagh, they torment and oppress the swine of Thebes who represent the masses. As the Sows put it, it was Swellfoot’s “kingly will/ Us wretched swine to kill”. The pigs and sows live a life of misery, poverty, hunger and even famine, while the king lives in affluence and pride. The sows and pigs feed on their own “litter”, they suck “but no milk will come from the dug” and all of them are skeletal and bony. The Pigs, through the chorus, ask for better living conditions in a pleading and compassionate tone. They think that theirs is “an unhappy nation” and all they need is the barest minimum to sustain their existence. The demand of the pigs and sows is considered “sedition and blasphemy” and Swellfoot instead summons his henchmen (Jews, Solomon the court porkman, /Moses the sow-gelder, and Zephaniah/ The hog-butcher) (pp.69-71) to kill the pigs. His instructions are clear and limpid:

SWELLFOOT: Out with your knife, old Moses, and spay those Sows [THE PIGS RUN ABOUT IN CONSTERNATION.] That load the earth with Pigs; cut close and deep. Moral restraint I see has no effect, Nor prostitution, nor our own example, Starvation, typhus-fever, war, nor prison-- This was the art which the arch-priest of Famine Hinted at in his charge to the Theban clergy-- Cut close and deep, good Moses. (72-79)

Because of the suffering, hunger, humiliation and oppression incurred by the masses or the pigs, they are impatient to see the end of the brutal regime of King Swellfoot. This is why they all rally behind Iona who represents Queen Caroline. They see in her a deliverer. There is general unrest around the kingdom and reports reaching the king are that his soldiers too are becoming treasonous by joining the masses against the king:

What is still worse, some Sows upon the ground Have given the ape-guards apples, nuts, and gin, And they all whisk their tails aloft, and cry, 'Long live Iona! down with Swellfoot! (320-323)

The government designs the “Green Bag” scheme to hoodwink the swine into believing that Iona is guilty of sin and thus undesirably ugly. In Act II Purganax explains to the full assembly of Public Sty that the Green Bag holds a magic potion that when sprinkled over “A woman guilty of- we all know what” (Act II, i, 83) will turn her into a hideous creature. If, however, she is innocent, the potion will turn her into an angel. This is to be the test of Iona. John Pollard Guinn in Shelley’s Political Thought argues that “the bag...is really filled with the concentrated poison of slander and sealed with the seal of fraud” (p.74). But before the despots execute their treachery, Iona empties the bag on them, thus trapping evil in its own villainy. She then mounts on the Minotaur, translated as John Bull, and leads the swine, transformed into bulls, in pursuit of violent revenge on Swellfoot and his acolytes. The Queen and the swine are thus victorious and they overthrow tyranny and villainy. Iona is like the Kil’u women in Shoes and Four Men in Arms. The military dictatorship in the play can be likened to Swellfoot’s rule of England in Shelley’s play. The corrupt regime led by General is involved in raping, maiming,

IJALEL 2 (2):89-95, 2013 94 killing, and looting. The leaders of the land who are against General and stage a protest march are flogged by General’s men. They are called vandals, terrorists, subversives and traitors. In the face of the corrupt regime, a group of old women with “long bamboos” (p.138) intervene to bring an end to the generalized looting. Their voices are heard off stage beckoning on the soldiers to come and make love to them since that seems to be the soldiers’ favourite sport. They say in pidgin:

Voices: Wusa dem dey? Shoes! Shoes! Shoes! Wuna come take shoes. Wuna come take lass. Shoes! Lass! Shoes! Lass! Wuna come take shoes. Wuna come take lass! Voices: Where are you? Shoes! Shoes! Shoes! You come and get the shoes. Come and have sex with us! Shoes! Sex! Shoes! You come and get the shoes! Come and have sex with us! (My translation)

These are the Kil’u women. The soldiers understand what it means for old women to expose their nakedness “before your eyes”. They are described by Third soldier as a “kind of Mountain of elephants and a “Sleeping volcano” (p.138). He contends that the Kil’u women are reacting mostly because the opposition leaders, Kwifon and Manjong were “whipped”. The pronouncements of Kil’u he says are “Law in the land. If kil’u says today …nobody’s nose should smell the outside air, that is law” (p.139). In the end, even the troops join the striking and downtrodden people. They agree to abandon “the wanton violence against others that was [their] way of life”. They vow to henceforth respect “basic rights of each and every individual” (p.142). 7. Conclusion The plays studied so far reveal the important revolutionary role that the female characters of both Shelley and Butake play to bring about a just and harmonious society. Mboysi in the Survivors uses bottom power to save the men from hunger and thirst. She is Butake’s revolutionary symbol in the same light as Shelley’s Beatrice in the Cenci story. Both female characters undergo sexual harassment. It is because they are sexually abused that they are encouraged to take revenge in order to satisfy, first, their own vengeful zeal and second save the people with whom they suffer the same fate of marginalisation by the ruling class. Shelley’s Iona in Swellfoot, the Tyrant is the same as Butake’s Kil’u women. They are witnesses of the corrupt military dictatorships of their various societies. Like Iona who leads the pigs and sows in a revolution that overthrows the regime, the Kil’u women put an end to the military dictatorship in Butake’s Shoes and Four Men in Arms. The Kil’u women like Shelley’s Iona are not killed in the respective plays whereas Mboysi and Beatrice are killed by the henchmen of those they kill. The message that Shelley and Butake are transmitting is not just that nonviolence is necessary in a revolution because a violent revolution leads to more violence, but that where a violent revolution becomes inevitable, there is need for organisation. Shelley thinks that violence begets violence and the tragic circle of violence continues even if the regime changes. This is what he calls ‘the fallacy of revenge”. Butake says that “the problem I have with Mboysi, even though I created her is that she did not prepare her revolution, she was thinking of her personal revenge” (interview with Butake). Though separated by cultural and historical epochs, therefore, both Butake and Shelley are visionary and insightful in using women to solve the socio-political predicaments of their times. They use both violent and nonviolent female characters. They both make the violent characters lose their lives as a way of condemning violence. The societies that they establish at the end of their plays are democratic and the leaders are chosen by the people. References Achebe, C. (1980). Arrow of God. London: Heinemann. Afisi, O. T. (2010). “Power and Womanhood in Africa: An Introductory Evaluation” The Journal of Pan-African Studies. Vol 3, No 6 (March 2010): 229-238. Alobwed’Epie, C. (2005). The Lady With A Beard. Yaoundé: Editions Clés. Amadi, E. (1966). The Concubine. London: Heinemann Ambanasom, S. (2003). Education of the Deprived: A Study of Four Cameroonian Playwrights. Yaoundé: Presses Universitaires de Yaoundé. Alembong, N. (2011). “Femininity in Cameroonian Birth and Nuptial Songs” Kaliao. Vol 3, Number 5: 113-125. Bulkachuwa, Z. (1996). “The Nigerian Woman: Her Rights and Obligations”. Women Herald. Vol 8: 15-17. Butake, B. (1999) Lake God and Other Plays. Yaoundé: Editions Clés. Beowulf and Other Old English Poems. (1988). Trans. Constance B. Hieatt. New York: Bantam Books. Brown, L. (1993). Ends of Empire: Women and Ideology in Eighteenth-Century English Literature. New York: Cornell University Press. Chukukere, G. (1995). Gender voices and Choices: Redefining Women in Contemporary African Fiction. Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publishing. Dowden, E. (1893). The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

IJALEL 2 (2):89-95, 2013 95 Fonchingong, C. C. (2006) “Unbending Gender Narratives in African Literature” Journal of International Women’s Studies. Vol 8, No 1: 135-147. Horner, S. (2001). The Disclosure of Enclosure: Representing Women in Old English Literature. Albany: New York University Press. Kolawole, M. E. M. (1997). Womanism and African Consciousness. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Little, K. (1980). The Sociology of Urban Women’s Image in African Literature. New Jersey: Rowman. Mutiso, G.C.M. (1971) “Women in African Literature”. East African Journal, 3: 3, 4-14. Ngugi, W., & Ngugi, W. M. (1980). I Will Marry When I Want. London: Heinemann. Obiechina, E. (1997) “Feminine Perspectives in Selected African Novels”. Nwanyibu: Womanbeing & African Literature, eds. Phanuel Akabueze Egejurn and Ketu H. Katrak, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 33-46. Rushing, A. (1979). “Images of Black Women in Modern African Poetry: An Overview”. Sturdy Black Bridges, eds. Roseann P. Bell et al. New York: Anchor Press/ Doubleday. 18-24.S Ruthven, K. (1984). Feminist Literature Studies: An Introduction. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Tanyi-Tang, Anne (2000). Ewa and other Plays. Yaoundé: Editions Clés.

Notes i The Northwest is one of the ten regions of Cameroon, a country of about twenty million inhabitants in Central Africa. ii The Fon is the supreme traditional ruler in the Northwest traditional society of Cameroon. He is the custodian of the values of the society. At the national level he is the equivalent of the President of the Republic. He therefore has powers given to him by the people but which powers are sometimes misused. iii “Kpo” is an onomatopoeic sound that mimics the sound of the gun.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

The Importance of Culture in Translation: Should Culture be Translated?

Ahmad Al-Hassan

Petra University English Department Amman, Jordan PO box 940937 Amman 11194

Telephone +962795565486 E-mail: dral_hassan@hotmail.com

Received: 29-10- 2012 Accepted: 05-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.96 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.96 Abstract Recognizing the importance of culture in translation, this article presents a descriptive study of translation of literary texts from English into Arabic. Using the data taken from works of Shakespeare and others which were translated by eminent translators, it first describes the study background, research contexts and procedures and problems. It then addresses some research questions on: (1) Will the translation be accepted by the new community of readers; 2) Is the relation between culture and translation important? It is worth noting that this study is significant for translators and readers of the target language, which is Arabic in this case. This has been substantiated by surveying the interests in cultural aspects of translation as early as the 19th Century. Thus translations do not only include lexical content and syntax, but also ideologies, values and ways of life in a given culture, which form translating problems. Therefore, translators have to know the audience. Keywords: culture, translation, semiotics, familiarization, foreignization, source 1. Introduction The domain of translation studies has expanded beyond the limits of language to include the cultures of the source and the target languages. Translation theorists, however, showed interest in cultural aspects of translation as early as the nineteenth century, probably earlier. Thus in 1811, the German philosopher, Goethe wrote (cited in Robinson, 1997)

There are two maxims for translation, the one requires that the foreign author be brought over to us so that we can look upon him as our own; the other that we cross over to the foreign and find ourselves inside its circumstances, its modes of speech, its uniqueness. (p. 222)

Two years later the German translation theorist Schleiermacher (cited in Robinson 1997) asked: But what paths are open to the true translator? He answers:

I believe there are only two, the translator either (1) disturbs the writer as little as possible and moves to the reader in his direction, or (2) disturbs the reader as little as possible and moves the writer in his direction. The two approaches are so absolutely different that no mixture of the two is to be trusted, as that would increase the likelihood that the writer and the reader would miss each other entirely; it is important, therefore, that one or the other be followed as closely as possible. (p. 229)

The first method, the reader-to-the writer, and the second method, the writer-to-the reader, have been termed foreignization and familiarization (or domestication) respectively. Culture may be defined as the whole way of life, which consists of the mores of a given society; their religion, values, traditions, habits, educational systems, family and social structures, political and governmental hierarchies, and use of advanced technology (Geertz, 1975, Lado, 1968). Halliday (1989) adopted a semantic definition when he says that culture is “a set of semiotic systems, a set of systems of meaning, all of which interrelate” (p. 4). Thus culture embraces all aspects of shared life in a community and these ‘ways; might be highly revered by the people who share them. Different cultures have different views on what constitutes moral and immoral behavior. Values tend to be absolute and immutable. And this is in itself has a direct influence on culture. As a specific example, polygamy is immoral in Western culture, whereas in Islamic culture it is considered immoral if one objects to it. Accordingly, Arab culture may reasonably be presumed to be different from the Anglo-American culture. Certainly, many people perceive it as very different. As a deeply religious society wherein God’s word is an absolute, there is none of the liberalism demonstrated in Western culture, where values are apparently more relative as seen above.

Accordingly, translation involves at least two languages and two cultures (Toury1978); and since language is an integral part of culture, the question that may be asked here is: Can translation be achieved in isolation of culture? As Pym (2000) states:

IJALEL 2 (2):96-100, 2013 97 The simple fact of translation presupposes contact between at least two cultures. To look at translation is immediately to be engaged in issues of how cultures interrelate. (p. 2) .

It is to be noted that I used above the vague verb ‘involve’ because in the case of language this normally means replacing one language by another. With regard to culture, things are not so clear; ‘involve’ might mean (a) preserving the original culture (foreignization), (b) substituting the source culture for the target culture (familiarization) and (c) mixing both (a) and (b) . Strictly speaking, only (b) is culture translation. However, the most practiced approach is (c), as the present article will illustrate. To separate (a) and (b) completely, as Schleiermacher (cited in Robinson, 1997) recommends, is often not feasible. Every translation is more or less a mixture of the two processes: foreignization and familiarization. My main concern here is literary texts. However, two other types of texts should be mentioned here, as they are closely related to translation and culture. First, scientific texts, which may be said to belong to what is termed ‘universal culture’; the translator here works within a neutral culture; he/she is most concerned with ‘content’: conveying facts and ideas, and is least interested in the cultural context of the text, since this context is assumed to be similar to source text and the target text. In this type of texts it is safe to say that very little cultural translation takes place when a text is transferred into another language. Advertisements, the second type, belong to the opposite extreme. They are culture specific, and normally cannot be translated. Usually they are rewritten in the new language. Advertisements are couched in their culture so deeply that they fail if they are transplanted into a foreign culture (cf. De Mooij, 2004). The rest of this article will discuss translation and culture in literary texts. The main points of the argument will be illustrated by authentic examples. 2. The relation between translation and culture In the early stages of translation theory, translation was defined as replacing a text in one language by another in a different language, with the two texts having approximately the same meaning. The main emphasis was on the linguistic and the semantic aspects of translation, whether in the process of the product. The meaning in translation has always been problematic; what meaning is intended? Is it semantic or pragmatic or social? Finally all these types of meaning were thought relevant, and have been resumed under ‘cultural aspects of translation. Nowadays translation is rarely envisaged without one taking into account the source culture and the target culture. Can culture be translated? Can a text be translated in isolation of its culture? It is a linguistic fact recognized by every scholar that language is interwoven with the threads of culture, and that it is difficult, probably impossible, to separate the two. If this is true, then every act of translation involves both language and culture when ‘market’, for instance, is rendered into Arabic as ‘suq’, the two words refer to two different things in different cultures, two different activities of buying and selling. If the reader of translation coming across ‘suq’ conceptualizes ‘the oriental market’, then the source culture has been replaced by the target culture and we are in the process of familiarization. If, on the other hand, the new reader, through his efforts or those of the translator, conceptualizes ‘an English market’, then we are dealing with the process of foreignization. This is a simple example, but it is adequate to clarify the relation between culture and translation. It is clear from this example that the new reader plays an important role in this relation. A well- educated reader reacts differently to a translation from a less educated reader. Great works of translation do not only transform texts, but also the mind of the reader in the target language. This is the most effective type of translation, of which we read in the books of history, taking place in certain periods of intellectual transformation like the one which took place at the time of the Abbasid period and reached its peak in the reign of the Caliph Al-Ma’mun. Through translation, Arab scholars mastered the learning of the Greeks, the Persians and the Indians; they assimilated the new ideas which became part of their own culture. The same process, or something similar, took place at the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe, when, through translating the learning of the ancients was rediscovered, often via the writings of the Arabs. All these great translations affected greatly the Arab and European cultures. A translator is a cultural mediator, who may move from the source culture to the target culture, choosing as much as he/she thinks appropriate to serve the aim of the translation. . One basic purpose why we translate from language A into langue B is to enrich linguistically and culturally language B. In this case the translator aims at preserving as much as possible the source culture. He/she translates the content and the style of the source text and introduces these into the target text. Gradually these foreign elements are integrated into the target language and culture and become part of the new environment. However, there is always the danger of rejection, similar to that which takes place in the medical transplant of organs in the new body. Integration or rejection awaits every work of translation. Obviously, our interest lies in integration, which is surely the characteristic of a successful translation. 3. Translation and Integration 3.1 Familiazation The translator moves cautiously between the two extremes of foreignization and familiarization and gropes for a happy medium, which will guarantee that his/her translation will be accepted by the new community of readers. Leaning too much towards the foreign elements in a translation might alienate the new reader, who may find it difficult to understand the new text. This and other factors will not encourage integration. In translating Hamlet, for instance, into Arabic, the translator may think that the reader will find certain aspects of life in Elizabethan England difficult to

IJALEL 2 (2):96-100, 2013 98 understand or accept; thus the translator moves gently towards bringing the author towards the new reader as in the following examples:

(1) Osrick. How is’t Laertes? Laertes: Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe. Osrick; I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery. (Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2. 315-307)

اوسرك : كیف أنت یالورتیس! لورتیس. كعصفور وقعت في شركیي یااوسرك لقد قتلت عدال بغدرك -

(Translated by Jabra I. Jabra) The unfamiliar bird ‘woodcock’ is replaced by ‘ عصفور (sparrow), which is easier to comprehend by the Arab reader. (2) Hamlet: Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin’s fee; (Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4. 67)

Ơƥ DŽƏƵǚ Ǜƹǃ Ǡ ƸƵǃ . ҖƶƹǛǁ ƼNJƄƶƨ LjҗǛNJҳ Ƽƺҝǐ Ǡ Ljƽǔ

(Translated by Jabra I. Jabra) Here again an unfamiliar expression ‘a pin’s fee’ is substituted for the familiar one ‘ بفلسینa small coin). Probably the translator has pushed the process of familiarization too far in this example, see section 3 B.

(3) King: Ay me! Says one, o Jove! The other cries. (Love’s Labour’s lost IV.3. 139)

أحدكما "واھالي" صباح الخیر " لطفك یاهللا"الملك. فان قال (Translated by Lewis Iwad)

In this example from Love’s Labour Lost, the pagan god ‘Jove’ is replace by هللا (God), the monotheist symbol, which the translator believes is more acceptable in an Islamic context. In the next example the translator uses over lexicalization (two words for one, to bring the original style nearer to the style of the target text...

(4) Polonius: I mean the matter that you read, my Lord. Hamlet: Slanders, sir. (Hamlet, II, Scene 2, 192)

بولونیوس . اعني الكلمات التي تقرأھا ، یاموالي ھاملت. قدح وذم ـ یاسیدي

(Translated by Jabra I. Jabra) Overlexicalizagtion is also found in the following example from Hamlet.

(5) Marcellus: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.) (Hamlet, Act I. Scene 4, 90)

فساد وعفن. في دولة الدانمرك مرسالس (Translated by Jabra I. Jaba)

3.2 Limits of familiarization Too much movement towards the new reader deforms the original text and destroys the main aim of translation- enriching the target culture. No one will approve turning Hamlet, through familiarization, from a prince of Denmark to a prince of Arabia. The main foreign elements of the source text should be preserved; Hamlet should speak and behave as a Danish prince; the society portrayed by the original author must remain essentially the same. The translator has to be careful not to make the characters in the translation too ’native ’, and behave exactly as the members of the target culture do. In the following example the translator has probably used too much familiarization and his characters have gone native.

(6) Armado: Warble, child; make passionate my sense of hearing. Moth. Con. Colinol. (Love’s Labour Lost, Act III, Scene I, 1-2)

ثمن یاغالم. وامأل مسامعي بسحر الغرام. :ارمادو مث. جاء الھوى یاعودي العاشق المحمود

(Translated by Lewis Iwad)

IJALEL 2 (2):96-100, 2013 99 Here Moth speaks like a native speaker, or even better; his speech is in rhyme. He is too fluent in Arabic to represent satisfactorily the foreign character. In the next example, the character’s speech is in the Quar’anic style, which is unusual even for an ordinary native speaker of Arabic.

(7) Tabot: Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail? (King Henry VI, Part I, Act 1, Scene 5, 9)

؟زبانیة الجحیمالبوت. رباه . أترضى أن تسود - (Translated by Muhammed Fathi) Substitution of money, measure, food is a common way of crossing too deep into the target culture, as in the following example from King Lear.

(8) Lear: Give me one ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination. (King Lear, Act IV. Scene 6.130)

لیر . أیھا الصیدلي الكریم . أعطن درھما من عطر الزباء اطیب بھ خیالي - (Translated by Jabra I. Jabra)

Speaking of food in English –Finnish translation, Ritva Lappihalme (1997, 118) writes: In most cases, rendering haggie by kalakuhko (an East-Finnish specialty made of rye flour and fish) will shatter the ‘illusion’.

This is what takes place in Example 2 above the severity of a punishment, and thus crosses too far into the target culture., where ‘pin’s fee’ is replaced by a unit of the target language currency, . فلسین In the next example the translator brings in (metaphorically) a native dish, ‘kebab’ to emphasize the severity of a punishment, and thus crosses too far into the target culture.

(9) Kent: Draw, you rogue! or I’ll so carbonado your shanks:--draw, you rascal! (King Lear, Act2, Scene 2, .35)

سیفك یالئیم ، واال جعلت كبابا من كاحلیك. جرد سیفك یانزل. :كنت - (Translated by Jabra I. Jabra) Probably a neutral expression would have been more appropriate to keep Kent within the limits of the source culture, without crossing over and becoming a true Arab fond of ‘Kebab’; suggested translated:

سیفك یالئیم. واال حطمت كاحلیك، جرد سیفك یانزل :كنت - In example 10, Kent is so much immersed in Arabic culture that he can quote the pre-Islamic poet, Zuhair.

(10) Kent. (to Oswald) Come, sir, arise, away! I’ll teach you differences: away, away! If you will measure you Iubber‘s length again, tarry; but away! Go to: Have you wisdom? so. (Pushes Oswald out) (King Leer, Act I. Scene 4. 88-92)

كنت. یاسید. انھض ، انصرف ! سأعلمك الفروق بین الناس، انصرف!- إن كنت تبغي قیاس الطول في شحمك ثانیة، فابق في مكانك ولكن انصرف ! اذھب . أما عندك من عقل ؟ (یخرج ازولد)

الى حیث القت (Translated by Jabra I. Jabra)

The expression الى حیث القت meaning in this context, ‘to hell’ comes from the pre-Islamic

فشد ولم یفزع بیوتا كثیرة لدى حیث القت رحلھا ام قشعم -

In the Arabic example Kent has lost his main English characteristics. It is to be noted that even replacing source text poetry by target language poetry will not be successful; it will destroy the illusion of the source text (cf. Leppihalme, 1997, p. 118). Leppihalme (1997) warns against substitution of proper names in fiction:

IJALEL 2 (2):96-100, 2013 100 There is a need for caution when assessing whether target cultural replacements can be used for names in fiction, as such names are implausible if uttered by characters that are presented as living in the source culture. Even substituting a TL name that has won some fame internationally for an unfamiliar SL name used by the author needs to be weighed with great care. ( p.111).

In the following example, the illusion created by the fool’s speech is ruined through substituting the target culture name .’for the source culture name ‘Jug"حنونة"

(11) Fool: May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse? Whoop, Jug, I love thee! (King Lear, Act I, Scene 4, 220-221)

یاحنونةبھلول. أال یعرف الحمار متى تجر العربة الحصان ؟ أحبك وهللا

(Translated by Jabra I. Jabra) 4. Conclusion Culture should be considered a vital component of translation. Lack of adequate knowledge of culture causes difficulty in comprehending a text full of cultural references as shown above. Thus the main aim of translation is to enrich the target language, both linguistically and culturally. Every language is couched in its culture and it is doubtful if a language can be replaced by another without some of the source culture being carried over during the process of translation. However, a translator acts as a mediator between the source culture and the target culture; he/she systematizes the process of cross-cultural translation. There are two main approaches to perform this task: either the author is brought to the reader (familiarization) or the reader is brought to the author (foreignization). The latter process promotes the enrichment of the target language. If the principal aim of translation is, as stated above, to enrich the target language and culture, then obviously a translator would mostly concern himself/herself with the second approach. There are, however, limits to the two approaches; a translation which carries with it too many foreign elements may never become integrated into the new culture; and integration is the surest proof of a successful translation. Rejection means that a translation has failed. The translator may substitute familiar elements from the target language for those aspects of the source language which he/she thinks might be incomprehensible or unacceptable to the new reader. However, the risk here is too much familiarization; there are red lines which should not be crossed. These include replacing proper names by names from the target culture, using target culture proverbs and maxims, quoting verses; all these may encroach too far into the target culture and destroy the illusion created by the source text. Therefore the task of the translator as a mediator is to find a happy medium between the two approaches of familiarization and foreignization. If he/she finds this golden means, he/she will have achieved his/her task successfully. References Catford, J.C. (1965). A Linguistic theory of translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. De Mooij, M. (2000). Translating advertising. The Translator 10 (2), 179-198. Eco, U. (1990). Introduction. In Lotman (Ed.). Experiences in translation 7-13 Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Geertz, C. (1979). The interpretation of culture :Selected essays. London: Fontana Press. Halliday, M., & Hassan, R. (1989). Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social semiotic perspectives. London: Edward Arnold. Jabra, I. J. (1986). William Shakespeare: The great tragedies. Beirut: Arab Studies Establishment. Jakobson, R. (1971). On linguistic aspects of translation. In Jakobson, R. (Ed). Selected Writings 2. Word and Language. The Hague:Mouton, pp.260–266. Lado, R. (1968). Linguistics across cultures: Applied linguistics for Language teachers. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Leppinhalme, R. (1997). Culture bumps: An empirical approach to the translation of allusions. Clevendon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Lotman, Y. M. (1990). Universe of the mind: A semiotic theory of culture. London: I. B. Tauris. OIk, H. (2003). Cultural knowledge in translation. ELT Journal 57(2), 167-178. Pym, A. (2000). Negotiating the frontier. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing Robinson, D. (1997). Western translation theory. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing. Shakespeare, W. (2001). The complete works of Shakespeare. New Lanark (Scotland): David Dale House. Toury, E. (1995). The nature and role of norms in translation. London: Routledge.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Negotiating Liminal Identities in Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

Susan Taha Alkarawi (Corresponding author)

Department of English Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Tel: +60 (0)18-2514473 E-mail: susanyousef2000@yahoo.com,

Ida Baizura Bahar Department of English

Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)

43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Tel +60 (03)-89468773 E-mail: ida@fbmk.upm.edu.my

Received: 21-10- 2012 Accepted: 06-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.101 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.101 Abstract This paper challenges the thought that the term ‘Muslim woman’ connotes submissive or backward and is in need of rescue by the West through a literary analysis of the work by Mohja Kahf (b.1967), a leading contemporary Arab-American Muslim woman writer. In her novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2006), Kahf focuses on the oppressive and discriminatory practices Muslim women encounter when wearing the hijab or veil where the main character and narrator experiences a type of identity split, or fragmentation, when assimilating into mainstream American culture. As a tool for analysis, the notion of liminality by Victor Turner (1920-1983), a British cultural anthropologist, is used to analyze the narrator’s choice of being ‘betwixt and between’ the state of things, or being ‘neither here nor there’. The resolution of social and personal conflicts portrayed is mapped to the stages of liminality. Keywords: Veil, Liminality, Identity, Muslim Woman, Assimilation, Discrimination, Conflicts, Tradition 1. Introduction This paper aims to examine the novel The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2006) by Mohja Kahf (b. 1967). The novel is a work of fiction which relates to the writer’s own experiences of being an Arab Muslim woman living in the United States of America (henceforth referred to as U.S.A or America). Many of the scenes of racism and violence in the novel seem to be drawn from Kahf’s own childhood experiences in America and specifically in Indiana. It is not surprising then that Kahf’s great suffering of bigotry and racism impressed upon her an enduring legacy that eventually helped her to better frame her adult self. This fact is indeed underscored by the book cover featuring a woman wearing a tangerine scarf which coincidentally happens to be the portrait of the author herself. Kahf’s novel in some way explores the struggle of the experiences of immigrants, Arabs and Muslims, in the context of an American or Western society that generally misreads such identities. Throughout the novel, Kahf focuses on varying aspects of the hijab (henceforth referred to as the veil) whose role is underlined in the Qur’an in the twenty-forth chapter, Surah An-Nur: And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands’ fathers, or their sons or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers or their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women’s nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that ye may succeed. (p. 31) In an effort to dismantle the misconstrued images Westerners have of Muslim women who wear them, it is believed that Kahf executed this with the main objective of changing the hegemonic as well as patriarchal discourse regarding the veil, especially since this particular image has become a key indicator of Islam and also the focus of Islamic treatise post-9/11. Here, we focus on the liminal experience and conflict of Kahf’s protagonist, a Syrian immigrant named Khadra Shamy, who is caught between her American identity and her Muslim and Arab identity. In the narrative, Khadra fluctuates between retaining her cultural differences and assimilating with the American culture, or simply choosing to adhere to her Muslim culture. The arguments are analysed based on Victor Turner’s concept of liminality as framed in his theory on the rites of passage where we attempt to reveal how identities and struggles are developed and are carried out through the image of the veil. In our analysis of Kahf’s novel, we address apparent rites of passage which consist of

IJALEL 2 (2):101-106, 2013 102 three general stages: a separation stage (the ritual individual is separated in some way from his or her former life), a liminal stage (the boundary or margin between two states, where one experiences an ambiguous positions “betwixt and between” the former and future place in life), and a stage of reincorporation (in which the subject rejoins society in their new state in life). It is not presupposed, however, that these aspects of the process will necessarily be clearly differentiated or will follow one another in perfect order. 2. Text and Context The author was born in 1967 in Damascus, Syria but, in 1971, just before she turned four, her family migrated to America so that her father could pursue a graduate degree and her mother could finish a B. S. in pharmacy. Kahf received her B. A. at Rutgers University; where she studied Comparative Literature and Political Science and then went on to complete her Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from Rutgers in 1988. Kahf is currently associate professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Arkansas. As she grew up in America, she became aware of anti-Muslim sentiments and ignorance in America where, after the family moved to Plainville, Indiana, Kahf experienced a great deal of bigotry and oppression. Kahf writes of cultural disparities encountered by Muslims in America, focusing on Muslim to non-Muslim conflict as well as Muslim to Muslim associations and the contentions amongst them. Her viewpoint disputes hegemonic imageries of Arab-Americans, Muslim women in particular, reviewing mainstream representations of the culture. America has such a diverse population of peoples, all who migrated to America either willingly or by force (as in African slaves), and these immigrants arrived in a land already populated by a diverse native population, which they proceeded to eradicate. For this reason, Kahf is very aware that America is embattled in bitter racial issues, and does not have a good track record in this regard. After 9/11, Kahf is very aware that an already divisive nation regarding race became more so. Skin color, ethnicity, manner of dress, and religion contributed to the ‘Arab’ becoming a focus of the country’s inherent racism. In The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, Kahf chronicles important events that occurred after the 9/11 attacks in America as these events have been proven to have affected the lives of Arab-Americans profoundly. The novel is about an Arab-American female’s journey in search of identity where, through the protagonist’s journey into herself and the Middle East, Khadra attempts coming to terms with her Arab and Islam identities as well as her American identity. Khadra however does give up wearing the veil by the novel’s end yet embraces a new persona emerging from the deep strife she underwent throughout her childhood and early adult life. In her novel, Kahf undermines the subversive depiction of Muslim women common in America where it is essentially about Muslims and women’s identity in particular. The novel’s cover photo, of a woman wearing a tangerine scarf, bolsters her theme regarding the veil; to Westerners, it is a symbol of oppression. It is widely acknowledged that Muslim women are usually denied from wearing clothes with bright colors in certain conservative societies. Yet, at the same time, the Muslim woman on Kahf’s cover also wears a black T-shirt and blue jeans which means that Kahf is transmitting many implicit messages about Muslim women regarding Islam and the West. These messages speak of multiple social identities, not a singular and stereotyped identity, for Muslim Arab-American women in the U.S.A. 3. Constructing New Identities Across New Communities Kahf’s novel reflects the struggle of persecution and victimization of veiled women in America and Muslim countries in order to highlight the type of oppression and discrimination Muslim women experience worldwide. In doing this, she creates a new genre of the practicing Muslim woman who is thought to be oppressed by the veil only to prove that the image of the veil has been created and manipulated to be used as a tool to oppress her instead. This is achieved through the negative meaning attached to it in America post-9/11 as well as in the patriarchy society of Muslim countries. In relation to the novel, Turner’s liminality as it is found in rites of passage provides a conceptual framework through an understanding of how heroines must negotiate their own fates. The quality of a rite of passage which most interested Turner was the liminality particularly associated with the middle, transitional phase. Turner (1967) argues that “liminality includes few or none of the attributes of the previous or future states, and that the features of liminality are ambiguous; that is, they are outside of all society’s standard classification (P. 94). During the liminal movement between states, the individual finds themselves “betwixt and between” positions normally assigned by law, custom, convention, and ceremony, where they experience a suspension or reversal of the normal rules of living (Turner, 1969, pp. 94-95). Often the liminal separation from former and future ways of life is reflected in a physical removal from the familiar places and people of their former life, and in a sense of being outside of the ordinary flow of time (Turner, 1979, p. 399). In this experience of temporary separation, Turner argues that the liminal characters are ambiguous. This ambiguity can be conveyed through the use of symbols; thus, it is important to study “symbols and social action, and praxis” symbols, with their multi-vocal reference which can “feed back into the central economic and political-legal domains and arenas, supplying them with goals, aspirations, incentives, structural models and raison d etre’ (Turner, 1974, p. 64). Here, we argue that such a symbol can be and is the veil. Khadra, the protagonist in the novel, is an Arab Muslim woman residing in the United States. She experiences subjugation as a result of the image of the veil as backward; therefore, it must be shed. She is exposed to the hardship and conflict Muslim women suffer; hence, this gives her the will to discover her authentic self and realise her commitments to herself, her family, and her subculture. In the novel, Kahf discusses the issue of the Muslim woman’s invisibility and liminality, especially if she takes on the Muslim veil that is viewed in the West as a fetish sign of oppression in the eyes of hegemonic discourse. In Khadra’s liminal journey in the search for a coherent identity, she is faced with many obstacles that compel her to make a decision about who she is and what stance she could take. Throughout her journey, Kahf exposes Khadra to a wide range of options, styles of lives and Muslim individuals that help her in the formation of herself and the development of

IJALEL 2 (2):101-106, 2013 103 the identity she chooses for herself. Khadra meets a variety of practising and secular Muslims, empowered and traditional Muslim men and women who all add to her experience and knowledge of what Islam is all about. 3.1 Rites of Passage: Separations In the novel, one of the childhood experiences in America that Khadra continues to recall in her adult life was when she was harassed at school and mocked because of the veil. One of the children at school takes from Khadra her Malcolm X book and then tells her if she takes off ”her “towel,” he would return it to her. She does not and, though she tries to resist, the children hold her down until they rip her scarf. Her antagonist comments, “Look, raghead’s got hair under that piece a shit” (Kahf, 2006, p. 124). Khadra shouts at them “I hate you” and one of them shouts back at her telling her “It’s just hair, you psycho” (p. 124). In addition, Khadra experiences physical separation from people in America who are seemingly more like her than the children who taunted her as a child. Bitsy, Khadra’s Muslim Iranian-American college roommate, worry when she sees Khadra wearing her veil and asks her “You’re not one of those fanatics, are you?” to which Khadra replies: “Of course I am . . . I come from a long, proud line of fanatics” (p. 363). Indeed, her roommate is an example of a Muslim, though originally from a predominately Muslim nation, in fact looks on Islam and Muslims negatively and views its followers as fanatics and terrorists. Khadra’s response comes from her awareness that the term ‘Muslim’ has now become synonymous with fanaticism or fundamentalism and so does not mind being called fanatic since practising the Islamic religion is perceived as fanatic so she is logically a fanatic in this sense. She is not offended by Bitsy’s ignorance of the religion or misconceptions of it as she realizes Bitsy is one of the people she will encounter all her life. Nonetheless, she is prevented from greater closeness with Bitsy, an Iranian American woman, because of the veil and for being a practising Muslim. 3.2 Rites of passage: Liminality and ‘betwixt and between’ As we have seen thus far, Khadra has had a conflicted identity; she has tried to find peace between her multiple social identities. She has strived to reconcile her identity as an American female with her Islamness and Arabness. In the novel, Khadra struggles throughout the narrative trying to understand what it means to be a Muslim, an American, an Arab and a woman simultaneously. Part of Khadra’s journey is to find a way to connect the varying characters she encounters and their treatment of the veil. At the beginning of her journey, Khadra is of the opinion that becoming an American citizen means betraying her Arab and Muslim identity and that it would turn her into another person she would not approve. When eventually her family obtains the American citizenship, she is forced to deal with her new identity. Here, the narrator reveals the conflicted emotions Khadra experiences as she obtains her American citizenship: To her, taking citizenship felt like giving up, giving in. After all she’d been through at school, defending her identity against the jeering kids who vaunted America’s superiority as the clincher put-down to everything she said, everything she was. Wasn’t she supposed to be “an Islamic warrior woman, a Nusayba, a Sumaya, An Um Salamah in exile, by the waters dark, of Babylon?” (p. 141). Kahf portrays Khadra as fascinated with the concept of empowered Muslim women and her fascination with these legendary “women warriors” leads her to think that, if she becomes an American citizen, she can no longer follow their good example. Also, Khadra initially equates Islam with foreignness; she is unable to comprehend the mixture that makes Muslim Americanism, challenging perceptions of their incompatibility or contradictoriness. This is clear in a sermon by her father, Wajdy, soon after she obtains her American citizenship. Khadra’s father tries to reconcile the two identities within him and within other American Muslims as illustrated in this speech at the mosque: In many ways…America is more Islamic than the countries of the Muslim world. There is no widespread corruption. You can enter a judge’s offices and not need to bribe his secretary for the simple basic services…do not…think that we will stop protesting against the immoral and unfair policies of America outside, in the Muslim world. …But let’s face it: here inside America, there are many good qualities. Law and order, cleanliness, democracy, freedom to work…freedom to practice religion. These are Islamic qualities. America…is like Islam without Muslims. And our sick and corrupt Muslim home countries-they are Muslims without Islam. (pp. 143-144) Apart from that, Khadra is exposed to diverse Muslim countries in the Middle East and in America in her search for an autonomous identity. She tries to learn more about herself and the different paths she can take as a Muslim American. During her trip to her home country, Syria, she finds herself caught between religion and culture. Khadra does not desire to lose either one; she chooses a path that allows for her to adjust her identity as well as the components that will form her ultimate ‘self’. In fact, Khadra’s journey with the veil ends in Syria where she decides to take off her veil and practise Islam through other manifestations. She tries to come to terms with herself and her views of religion: The covered and the uncovered, each mode of being had its moment. She embraced them both. Going out without hijab meant she would have to manifest the quality of modesty in her behavior, she realizes one day, with a jolt. It’s in how I act, how I move, what I choose, every minute. She had to do it on her own now, without the jump-start that a jilbab [long garb] offered. This was a rigorous challenge. Some days she just wanted her old friend hijab standing sentry by her side. (p. 312) After she travels to Saudi Arabia, Khadra and her cousin’s subsequent behaviour also ruptures the boundaries between veiled and unveiled Muslim women and destabilises a dichotomy between veiled and unveiled, assumed to be fixed. In Saudi Arabia, Afaaf, Khadra’s cousin, takes her out to meet her male friends. She introduces Khadra to them as her “American” cousin, which is read as liberated and sexually available although she does not take off her veil. One of the men points at Khadra’s veil and says to her, “Surely you don’t wear that thing in America” (p. 178). A few minutes afterwards, he pulls her veil down and “pushes his other hand up against her breast and his mouth was grazing her now

IJALEL 2 (2):101-106, 2013 104 exposed neck” and, as she tries to get him off of her, he asks her, “What is it-what is the big deal-we’re not doing anything you have to worry about . . . don’t tell me you never do stuff like this in America” (p. 178). What we can argue here is that, through her decision not to wear the veil, Khadra seems to be giving herself some relief from being judged by a piece of cloth. Shedding the veil definitely improves her chance to be more American and less Muslim, not in her own eyes, but in the eyes of others. Although the veil has been part of her identity, the meanings it takes on has not thus far described her or reflected who she really is. Hence, Khadra’s dilemma can be summed up through an articulate statement by Abdurraqib (2006) on women’s narratives that focus on religion: Islam becomes the religion of the other and the culture from which women need to be liberated. In these narratives, women are held accountable for both religious and cultural traditions of the old country. …But when Islam is conflated with cultural practices and is seen as oppressive, the female protagonists must consider compromising both religion and culture to incorporate themselves into American society. (p. 56) In addition to that dilemma, going overseas is what has enabled Khadra to also see that she is irrevocably American, in some ways she could not pin down. She visits Syria to ‘find’ herself, believing that a spiritual discovery of her cultural origins will help her further understand what to do regarding her own identity, without external pressure. There, she comes to learn about her mother’s suffering from Teta, her grandmother, who reveals some truths Khadra has been unaware of. It transpires that, after the death of her mother, Ebtehaj. Ebtehaj’s stepmother, who was secular, gave her mother a hard time because of the veil where she was mocked her for wearing it. This is because during those times, according to Teta, “The city was against it, the tide was against it” (p. 275). Teta narrates “she tried everything-she’d yank it right off her head. I heard she put it in the pot and shat on it” (p. 275) and she was embarrassed to be seen in public with her veiled stepdaughter; she even made Ebtehaj walk on the other side of the street. Ebtehaj’s stepmother did not allow her to continue with her Quran circle that she became interested in after her mother’s death and tried to force her into a marriage with a man “who drank and whored, just to make her misery lifelong” (p. 276). Through these stories about her mother’s past, Khadra bonds with her grandmother and comes to a better appreciation of her mother. She realizes that her mother was strong enough to hold on to the veil that had caused her so much agony and was determined to follow her Islamic beliefs no matter what the trend was at the time. The struggles she has learnt foster in her a sense that she is not, in fact, alone in her experiences of separation and feeling ‘betwixt and between’. Kahf’s Syria is also used to exemplify how women were persecuted because they chose to wear the veil. Khadra hears her aunt tell of events in Syria in 1982 where, during this period, the Islamic front rebelled against the Syrian government that was repressive, corrupt, and dictatorial (Cleveland, 2004, p. 362).They seized control of parts of the city of Hama and the government in response launched “a deadly campaign” against the city and its civilians. At least 10,000 people were killed by the armed forces and a warning was issued by the government to potential dissidents that the regime would use all the force at its disposal to remain in power. Apparently, the government after that had become anti-religious because its supremacy had been under threat by the Islamic front. Khadra’s aunt explains that, in 1982, the capital was blocked by the government and a thousand paratroopers got hold of any woman who was wearing the veil. Her aunt states, “You could strip off your hijab [veil]…, or get a gun to your head” (p. 281). She adds that her daughter, Reem, on her way home, got stopped by the paratroops so she took off the scarf right away where her aunt comments “Why endanger your life for it?” ( p. 281) The paratroops asked her to take off her clothes because she was fully covered with her long garb, but did not wait for Reem to take off her clothes so she ripped it off her and “holds it up in the air and sets it on fire with a blowtorch” (p. 281). Her uncle Mazen explains to her that that had happened because of dissidents like Khadra’s mother and father who, in his opinion, had politicised the veil and upset the government which then led to this behaviour. Hearing the story of her mother shocks Khadra into realising how momentous her parents’ decision to leave their home and migrate to America; she also comes to realize why her mother sticks to wearing the veil. Because of what her mother suffered in a Muslim country, Khadra comes to appreciate the freedom she enjoys in America where she is able to practise her religion without persecution. She may have to deal with the reality of stereotypes and misconceptions; nevertheless, her situation as a practising Muslim in America is better than others in the so-called Muslim countries. However, in America, Khadra and her mother are faced with other form of challenges: narratives and scenes of immigration and identity imposed by the hegemonic culture that requires them to hold on to a single allegiance and to let go of any other. Their dilemma lies in the fact that they are to make a decision with regards to their identity, and they are limited by the two options made available by the dominant culture: either to express their Muslim identity through the veil or assimilate with the American culture. Indeed, Kahf’s work deals with these challenges and chronicles the reality faced by Muslim women in their efforts to assimilate with the host culture while preserving their own culture. In the novel, Khadra also needs to determine whether she should continue to wear the veil or remove it in order to be accepted within the American society. Because Muslim women experience many pressures from their parents, their culture and their society at large, Kahf builds her story revolving around these pressures and by portraying her protagonist on a spiritual journey of challenges in facing everyday reality. This pressure to preserve the original culture and system of beliefs can be illustrated by what Khadra is told by her mother and aunt. Khadra’s mother, Ebtehaj, admits to her daughter that “Our biggest fear was always losing you…Losing our children to America. Having you not keep Islam one hundred percent.” (pp. 383-384). Later on in the narrative, her aunt reiterates the same concern: We put a lot of weight on your shoulder. …Not just you-all our children . …But especially you girls. You had a lot to measure up to. …Young in a strange land; your mother was, like me. …Afraid…of being swallowed up by this land, reduced to nothing. …And we were so idealistic. …But we put it all on you. …Wanting you to carry our vision for us, our identity, our entire, on your heads.” (pp. 404-405)

IJALEL 2 (2):101-106, 2013 105 As we can see here, by shifting locations, the author explores the protagonist’s internal conflict as Khadra meets different Muslim characters and experiences Islam in different locations. This technique enables Khadra to observe the way veiling ‘plays out’ in different social and geopolitical localities. 3.3 Rites of passage: Reintegration Once she returns to America, Khadra finally realises that she is American and cries out for the first time “Homeland America” (p. 313). Here, the narrator describes Khadra’s reconciliation with her newly attained American identity: And here she is. Eighteen years distant from that ten-year-old girl terrorized by neighborhood boys shouting ‘Foreigners go home!’ and the girl bewildered by her mother’s sobs of ‘We are not American!’ as she scrubbed her clean of American dirt, eleven years away from the girl who cried into her pillow in defeat the day the U.S. citizenship papers came, caught between homesick parents and a land that didn’t want her. Not just didn’t want her, but actively hated her, spit her out, made her defiant in her difference, yet at the same time made her unfit to live anywhere else. (p. 313) As recalled, Khadra is constantly met with various images of Muslim women that represent the heterogeneity within the Muslim community often left out from media representations and the hegemonic discourse. Initially, we are presented with the image of an educated and ambitious woman who wanted to go to medical school. Khadra’s mother explains to her daughter that she thought she would go to medical school, “But after [she] graduated, [she] chose to stay home. “For the children” (p. 21). Khadra’s mother had sacrificed her interest in furthering her education in order to care for her children, “I used to dream I would be a doctor one day, and open a free clinic for poor people” (p. 26). Another image of an empowered woman is Khadra’s grandmother, Teta, who was a telephone operator long ago and was among “the very first wave of working women” (p. 271) as it was one of the new jobs that had opened up for women in the old days. Her grandmother did not conform to a society that decided that “a telephone girl’s job was a bad thing, a thing for loozies.” Teta insists on saying “We wanted to be the New Woman” (p. 271). Khadra’s friend, Maryam, is another image of an independent Muslim woman whom Khadra respects and learns from as she reintegrates with those around her whom she had not previously appreciated. Maryam does not always go to the mosque or belong to a certain one but practises her religion on her own. The narrator gives us a glimpse of how Khadra perceives this new image of a Muslim woman in America: This friend mapped Muslim space in a way new to Khadra. Maryam’s thing was service. Service to the poor is service to God. … I don’t have to be working only with Muslims or on Muslim issues or Muslim this or Muslim that. By representing impoverished defendants, I’m manifesting Muslim values in my life. We don’t need a ghetto mentality. (p. 367) Here, Maryam represents a positive image of the practising Muslim American woman who is able to reconcile her Muslim values with her American life. She is successful in her professional and personal life as well where she concentrates on the core values of uncontaminated Islam that urges a Muslim to manifest their faith in their conduct and everyday life. She does not conform to the female role assigned by the patriarchal system nor can anyone tell her how to lead her life. In the novel, Kahf gives Khadra this example of a Muslim woman who created a new identity for herself without compromising her identity so as to be accepted by mainstream America. By using this model, Kahf spotlights the conflict between the secular and the practising Muslims and how they view each other. To Americans, Muslims are often reduced to a single image of brainwashed followers of Islam or terrorists. Eventually, Khadra is not stymied by a single image of Islam; she has many examples to choose from and emulate as she lives the life she wants. Bisty, Khadra’s Iranian roommate, for instance, is a secular Muslim who contributes to the stereotypes of Muslims. She herself does not identify herself as a Muslim Iranian where, once she moved to America and obtained her citizenship, she changed her Muslim name Fatima-Zahra to Bisty. Indeed, Khadra is puzzled by the fact that she refuses to tell her what her Iranian name was. When Khadra asks her why she changed her name, Bitsy tells her, “So we could do things like…order pizza without the guy on the phone getting all confused. …And job applications and such,…Makes things just a whole lot easier” (p. 369). Bitsy chooses not to be associated with Muslims or Iran and, since she carries no visible markers that give away her identity, she is able to lead an ordinary life without experiencing discrimination against her religion. Thus we can see here that, through the various female characters of Khadra, Ebtehaj, Teta, Maryam and Bitsy, Kahf constructs heterogeneous identities, and hence deconstructs the homogenised image of Muslim and Arab-American women. Khadra’s story concludes with a tentative understanding of her different selves where she is able to provisionally reconcile herself as an Arab, a Muslim, and an American. However, her indecision towards wearing the veil does not resolve itself completely. Khadra’s journey between countries and her experiences with the veil end with her redefining her relationship with the veil in which she decides not to wear the veil at all times. She still practises Islam and shows modesty through her behaviour instead of through wearing the veil. Undeniably, Khadra is not ashamed of the veil nor does she gives up on it in favour of Western fashion but chooses to wear it occasionally. In fact, she refuses to give up on it entirely and makes it a point to wear it whenever she wants to assert her Muslim and Middle Eastern identity. The narrator illustrates how a redefined Khadra deals with the veil after her experiences: People stare. She is still in hijab. She pulls the tangerine silk tighter around her head. The stares only ever make her want to pull it on tighter, not take it off the way Seemi keeps suggesting she do after every Middle Eastern crisis dredges up more American hate. … It’s my connector, Khadra has tried to explain to Seemi once about wearing the scarf through hard times. It makes me feel connected to the people of my family, my mosque, where I come from. My heritage… “Don’t be ridiculous”, Seemi said. Take the damn thing off; it’s not worth risking your life for.” (p. 424)

IJALEL 2 (2):101-106, 2013 106 At the end of the novel, she decides to reclaim her cultural heritage and publically display her connection to her Middle Eastern and Muslim origin whenever she needs to and at whatever occasion that deems it appropriate. 4. Conclusion Through the analysis, we can conclude that Khadra is an enlightened woman who wears the veil because she believes in what it represents. She decides to wear the veil in Muslim countries as well as America in spite of the difficulties she encounters while wearing it. She refuses to accommodate herself to society’s mores and rejects patriarchal oppression in countries that do not give Muslim women the option to practise freedom of choice. In America, she does not acquiesce to negative imageries of the veiled Muslim woman and knows that she would be respected more if she did not wear the veil because, ironically, it is a condemned sign that represents a despised difference. Through the novel, Kahf has created a new voice for the veiled woman and a new outlook for Muslim-American women. She explores all aspects of Khadra’s along with other Muslim women’s lives to counteract a one dimensional image of the Muslim Arab-American woman as ‘less than’ and powerless. Through her narrative, Kahf reflects the heterogeneity within the Muslim and Arab-American community and their negotiation of different patriarchal contexts. Kahf focuses on Khadra’s journey in search of herself and identity and, through her and her female relations, she represents the reality surrounding heterogeneity in Muslim women’s roles and attitudes. She also presents the various challenges that limit these women’s lives whether they are due to race, religion, and the veil or patriarchy and gender oppression. References Abdurraqib, S. (2006). Hijab scenes: Muslim women, Migration, and Hijab in Immigrant Muslim Literature. MELUS, 31, P.55-70. Cleveland, W. L. (2004). A History of the Modern Middle East. (3rd ed.). Boulder: Western Press. Kahf, M. (2006). The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. New York, NY: Carrol & Graf Publishers. Turner, V. W. (1967). Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu ritual. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press. Turner, V. W. (1969). The Ritual Process. Chicago: Aldine. Turner, V. W. (1974). Metaphors of Anti-structure in Religious Culture. In V. Turner(Ed.), Changing Perspective In the Scientific Study of Religion. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons. (pp. 63-84).

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Task-based Cycle in Reading Comprehension Classes

Naemeh Nahavandi (Corresponding author) Department of Language and Humanities Education

Faculty of Educational Studies Universiti Putra Malaysia

Tel: (+98) 9379173225 E-mail: naemeh.nahavandi@gmail.com

Jayakaran Mukundan Department of Language and Humanities Education

Faculty of Educational Studies Universiti Putra Malaysia

Tel: (+60) 012- 209 9717 Fax: 603-89435386 E-mails: jaya@educ.upm.edu.my; jayakaranmukundan@yahoo.com

Received: 11-11- 2012 Accepted: 11-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.107 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.107 Abstract This study has investigated the effect of task-based cycle on Iranian Elementary EFL learners' reading comprehension. In order to accomplish the research, two intact classes, including 84 engineering EFL learners (studying pre-university course) were chosen in Tabriz Azad University. An experimental method of research was employed. The experimental group was taught according to the elements of task-based cycle proposed by Willis & Willis, (2007). The control group didn’t receive such treatment. After eight sessions (3 months), a post-test was given. The analysis of the obtained data, carried out through t-test, revealed a significant difference between control and experimental group on the dependent variable, reading comprehension. However, gender didn’t affect reading comprehension significantly. The results of the present study may have pedagogical implications for instruction and curriculum development. Keywords: task-based cycle, EFL learners, reading comprehension 1. Introduction Many areas of education are undergoing changes in the way teaching and learning is perceived. Structural- syllabus approaches and teacher centered classes are giving way to more practical and flexible approaches and student-centered classes. In this paradigm shift, the field of second and foreign language teaching is not an exception. One of the areas which came under paradigm shift is the traditional PPP (Present Practice Produce) method of teaching English which has been replaced by CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) and Task-Based Language Teaching is an offshoot of CLT (Nahavandi & Mukundan, 2012). The emergence of task-based syllabuses in the mid 1980s has coincided with a significant amount of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research (Ellis 2006; Nunan 1989; Prabhu 1987; Skehan 1996; Swan 2005; Willis & Willis 2007) on the kinds of negotiation that learners undertake during tasks and on the types of tasks which appear to facilitate best negotiation for meaning. The reason for the interest in task-based approaches to language teaching and learning is a wide-spread interest in the functional views of language and communicative language teaching. Task- based learning (TBL) is supported by the process-oriented view of language learning where meaningful communicative tasks enhance l2 learning. Since the 1980s a considerable amount of course books have been produced which describe themselves as 'communicative', irrespective of whether or not they are based on communicative principles. In addition the label task-based may have been exploited in the same way. The motto of using task-based approach is approximately a common feature of most language schools and universities in Iran. But in reality most teachers are not even familiar with the basic concepts of TBL (Nahavandi 2013; Nahavandi & Mukundan 2012). Furthermore, during the past decades there has been a good number of studies concerning the importance of TBL. However, few studies on task work are classroom-based; most are carried out under pseudo-laboratory conditions which might be too far from the real conditions of a class. As Buyukkarci (2009) claims “there are not many published examples of complete language programs which claim that they are totally based on formulations of task-based language teaching. The literature contains mainly descriptions of examples of task-based activities” (p. 314). 2. Literature Review Allwright (1981) was one of the first who argued for the effectiveness of tasks as a stimulus to learning. He questioned the need for language instruction and emphasized the need for language use. One of the well-documented published researches on task-based language learning is Prabhu's procedural syllabus. In 1979, Prabhu started a five-year project

IJALEL 2 (2):107-113, 2013 108 in Bangalore with a small number of elementary and secondary English classes. One purpose of the Bangalore project was to develop a methodology in a "sustained teaching" environment. Prabhu’s view challenged the "Structural-Oral-Situational" (SOS) methods, which may be viewed as analogous to the Audio lingual method popular in high schools and colleges since 1960s. An underling principle of both SOS and Audio lingual methodologies is that language learning can be taught through direct instruction. A major difference between SOS and the theory of grammar are observed through repetition of artificially constructed language while in communicative competence both fluency and accuracy are taken care, though 'meaning' is of primary significance. Prabhu (1987) argued that, in the context of this school –based project, the most effective teaching took place through activities that pushed the cognitive boundaries of the students. Prabhu believed that there are four types of classroom activities: rule-focused; form-focused; meaningful and meaning-focused. His method favored "meaning focused activities" to the exclusion of the other three types. Prabhu's rejection of any "form-focused activities" relies on his assumption that learners can internalize some system of grammar through focusing on meaning. He believes that acquisition of a linguistic structure is not an instant, one-step procedure and agrees with Krashen that language form is acquired subconsciously trough internal system of abstract rules and principles, when the learners' attention is focused on meaning, i.e., task completion rather than on language. But some theoreticians have challenged his view: learners may impose their own syllabus on what we teach them, focusing on form when we desire them to focus on meaning. 2.1 Task, Task-based Learning & Task-based Teaching Carter and Nunan (2001) define task as "an activity in the classroom which involves language use to achieve a communicative purpose" (p. 227). For Ellis (2003) "tasks are activities that call for primarily meaning focused language use” (p.3). Nunan (1999) makes a distinction among task, exercise and activity. For Nunan, task is a communicative act which usually does not have a restrictive focus on a single grammatical structure. An exercise usually has a restrictive focus on a single language element and has a linguistic outcome. An activity has a restrictive focus on one or more language items, but also has a communicative outcome. TBL grows out of the more general notion of CLT. After Hyme's notions of communicative competence, paying attention to language and the need to make language relevant to students' needs and providing opportunities for language use in the classroom was considered very important. According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), the sharing principles of CLT and Task –Based Language Teaching (TBLT) are: - Activities which involve real communication are vital for language learning. - Activities in which language is used for promoting meaningful tasks promote learning. - Language which is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process. TBLT bases arguments for an analytic syllabus on what is known about the processes involved in second language learning, on the findings of second language classroom research and on principles of course design. For Mckinnon and Rigby (2004), if we can make language in the classroom meaningful therefore memorable, students can process language which is being learned or recycled more naturally. This is what TBL exactly offers the students an opportunity to do. In TBL, task is the primary focus of classroom activity and language is the instrument which the students use to complete it. TBL considers language use as the driving force in language learning, with the task central to both syllabus planning and methodology. According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), in TBLT language learning depends on immersing students not only in comprehensible input but also in tasks which require them to negotiate meaning and engage in naturalistic and meaningful communication. For Long and Crooks (1992), the basic rationale for TBLT derives from descriptive and experimental studies comparing tutored and naturalistic learning. Task-based approaches represent how something is done. According to Breen (1987, cited in Foley 1991), task-based approaches organize and present what is to be achieved through teaching and learning in terms of how a learner might engage his or her communicative competence in undertaking a range of tasks. For Ellis (2003), various approaches to task-based teaching reflect the issues such as "the role of meaning-based activity, the need for more learners-centered curricula, the importance of affective factors, the contribution of learner-training, and the need for some focus-on-form. Task-based pedagogy provides a way of addressing these various concerns and for this reason alone it is attracting increasing attention" (p. 33). Richards and Rodgers (2001) believe that in TBLT tasks provide both the input and output processing necessary for language acquisition and task activity and achievement are motivational. The underlying principle in TBLT is that having learners perform tasks will help them to develop knowledge and skill in the second language in accordance with the way their own language learning mechanisms work. Tasks function as "devices for creating the conditions required for language acquisition' (Ellis 2002, p. 226). Ki (2000) summarizes the potential advantage of the task-based approach as follows: a) A task-based lesson increases the learners' motivation, because it gives them an active role in participation and creation. b) More opportunities are provided for the students to externalize their thinking through their actions by using task-based lesson. c) It lets students use the knowledge they have learned and apply it productively in the task context. d) The practical experience can help learners to appreciate why certain academic questions are important and it can lead to the development of a further academic discourse. e) The task usually requires the creation of some objects as outcome. So it can lead to a shared focus where students can work together. In the ongoing process, different participants, including peer learners in the team and the tutor can project different views on the same situation and meaningful discussion on the matter can be developed. The task will usually generate objects that are open to cross-group evaluation. In other words, the students

IJALEL 2 (2):107-113, 2013 109 can present their own product and/or evaluate others. Everybody can take part in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the work that is generated within the classroom community. This will induce reflection and also critical awareness in students can be developed. 2.2 Task Cycle Willis (1994, cited in Nahavandi & Mukundan 2012; Willis & Willis 2007) states that there is a six stage cycle in task-based teaching: The first stage is introduction to both topic and task, in which the teacher helps the students in understanding the objectives of the task. For Bowen (2004) in this stage students take part in activities that either helps them to recall words or phrases which will be useful during the performance of the task. The second stage is the task itself. Students work in pairs or groups using whatever language resources they have got in expressing themselves. Teacher encourages them but there is no correction. Fluency and getting things done- the purpose is emphasized. The third stage is called planning. Students spend some time on putting together in spoken or written form a report on what they did and what conclusions they reached. If it is required, the teacher can help with language here, with the emphasis on ability to communicate the results. The fourth stage is called reporting where the teacher organizes feedback, with the groups reporting to the class, either orally or in writing their results. Again, there is no overt correction. The fifth stage is language focus and practice in which the teacher sets up a language focus task, which draws attention to one or more of the following: a) language which students could have used but they did not use, b) language they used but not as well as they might have used, c) any other language that is related to the topic and task which the teacher considers important and wishes to focus on. This stage can include drills, dialogues or typical activities from the practice stage of Present Produce Practice (PPP). In all cases, the goal is to focus students’ attention on key language points. The last stage is the parallel task where the students have a chance to try out the task again, but with different materials, which will necessitate the same kinds of language. 2.3 Research Questions 1. Does applying task-based cycle in reading classes affect Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension? 2. Is there a significant difference between male and female learners in the experimental group in their reading comprehension? 3. Methodology 3.1 Design of the study The present study employed an experimental design with pretest, treatment, and posttest design. The participants completed the pretest and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The participants in the both group completed treatment tasks according to their group designation. The post-test was administered one week after the last treatment session. 3.2 Participants The participants of the present study were 91elementary learners in Azad university of Tabriz, Iran registering in pre- university English course during October 2012. Both classes were mixed classes including male and female students with the age range of 18 to 25. All participants were assigned to one of two treatment groups based on the class they were enrolled in. In order to make sure that the participants were all at the same level of proficiency, a pretest was administered. The results of the pre test indicated that there was no significant difference between groups in the pre test. Therefore, participants in class 1 (N= 44) were assigned to a control group, and participants in class 2 (N= 47) to experimental group. This study was conducted with the consent of participation with an indication of the general purposes and procedures of the study. But it is worthy of noting that, nine students who were not present in all treatment sessions and posttest were eliminated from the population pool. Therefore the results of only 84 students class 1 (N= 43), and class 2 (N=41) are reported in the present study. 3.3 Instruments 3.3.1 Demographical Information To obtain necessary demographical information about the subjects like, age, gender, educational level, and major of study, first a demographical questionnaire was distributed among the subjects in the second session together with the pretest. 3.3.2 Reading Texts Proficiency test: In order to measure students’ reading comprehension both in pretest and posttest six reading excerpts from PET (Preliminary English Test) were chosen (three for pretest and three for posttest). Every reading had 7 reading comprehension questions; in sum both pretest and posttest had 21 questions. For treatment, eight reading comprehension passages consisting nearly 270 to 300 words from Active skills for reading (Intro) were selected. The participants in the experimental groups were taught based on the elements of task-based cycle proposed by Willis & Willis (2007). However, participants in the control group read the same texts without such treatment. 3.4 Data collection 3.4.1 Procedure The experimental part of the study took place over three months. The classes for pre- university course are applied once a week lasting for 90 minutes for 14 weeks. The study was conducted from second week as there is a week interval for

IJALEL 2 (2):107-113, 2013 110 adding and dropping the courses. Thus, second week of the new semester, participation agreement for the experiment was obtained together with the level test. It is worthy of noting that the reading texts were obtained from Active reading (Intro). The Third week first treatment was administered. Treatment was organized based on pre-task cycle, task cycle and post-task cycle. The first stage was the pre-task stage (preparation). Here there is an introduction to topic and task. The teacher explored the topic with the class, tried to highlight useful words and phrases, and helped learners understand task instructions. In other words, students took part in activities that either helped them to recall words or phrases which would be useful during the performance of the main task. The second stage was the task cycle or follow up activities. Here, students did the task, in pairs or small groups. Teacher monitored from distance, however, there was no correction. As Willis & Willis (2007) claim, this situation has a "private" feel, so students feel free to experiment and mistakes don't matter. Then, they reported to the whole class how they did the task and what conclusions they reached. This stage is called planning and report stage. As Willis & Willis (2007) claim, since the report stage is public, accuracy of students counts in this stage. Thus, the teacher stands by to give language advice. In other words, in this stage, teacher acts as a chairperson, and then comments on the content of the reports. The final stage was post-task cycle or follow up activities, which is also known as analysis stage, during which students noticed interesting features or patterns in the text. The teacher conducted practice of new words, phrases, and patterns occurring in the text. Meanwhile, the control group received no such treatment. They read their readings alone or with a partner, and then they listened to the teacher or to the more capable students or volunteers to read it for the whole class. They asked the meaning of the words that they did not know and finally answered the teacher's and book’s comprehension questions. All eight treatment sessions incorporated the exact same method as the first treatment but with a different text. Each treatment session lasted for about 90 minutes. The 10th week a post-test was administered, lasting 45 minutes. 3.5 Data Analysis In this study, the independent variable was task-based cycle and the dependent variable was the participants’ reading comprehension. The design to carry out this study was experimental, with a pretest, different treatments for experimental and control groups, as well as a post-test. To answer the research questions regarding the difference between two different instructions, independent and paired t-test was used. 4. Results of the study 4.1 Demographical information of the Learners The obtained results in the present study were analyzed by SPSS version (20). From 84 students, 54 (64.3) were male, and 30 (35.7) were females. The average mean of age was 19.38. The minimum age was 18, and maximum age was 25. 4.2 Test of Normality To test the normality of the distribution, a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was run. The results indicated that distribution of the scores at both levels of pretest, and posttest was normal (Significant level > 0/05). Table 1. One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test

N Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)

pre 84 .974 .299

post 84 .855 .457

4.3 Comparing pretests in both groups Based on the obtained results parametric statistics was used. First mean score and SD of both groups were calculated. Table 2. Results of independent t-test for pretest in both groups

group N Mean Std. Deviation

Levene's Test for Equality of

Variances t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed)

pre control group 43 8.72 3.397 .997

.321

-403

82

.688

experimental group 41 9.05 4.037

As can be seen in table 2, mean of control group is 8.72, and experimental group is 9.05. Hence mean score of experimental group is higher than control group Levene Statistic test was run to see whether the difference in mean score in these two groups is significant or not. Based on the significant level of Levene test 0/321 > 0/05, homogeneity of variances is confirmed. As can be seen in table 2, level of significance is 0/688 > 0/05; therefore, there is no significant difference between the groups in pretest. Therefore, it can be claimed that any measurable changes in the

IJALEL 2 (2):107-113, 2013 111 posttests is unlikely to be the effect of preexisting differences between the groups and, instead, can be attributed to the different treatments that the these groups experienced. 4.4 Comparing posttest in both groups Table 3. Results of independent t-test for posttest in both groups

group N Mean Std. Deviation

Levene's Test for Equality of

Variances t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed)

post control group 43 9.28 3.528

.241 .625 -2.462 82 .016 experimental group 41 11.15 3.417

To compare post tests in both groups independent t-test was used. As can be seen in table 3, mean of control group is 9.28, and experimental group is 11.15. The level of significance found to be 0/016. As the level of sig is smaller than 0.05, 0.05 > 0.016 it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between experimental and control groups in the post test. It means that experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in the post test. 4.5 Comparing gender differences in both groups Table 4. Independent t-test for comparing pretest and post test in both groups

Gender N Mean Std. Deviation

Levene's Test for Equality of

Variances t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed)

pre male 54 8.89 3.884 .165

.686

.026

82

.979 female 30 8.87 3.421

post male 54 9.96 3.772 .522 .472 -.780 82 .438 female 30 10.60 3.223

To compare gender difference in both groups independent t-test was used. As table 4 shows, mean of pretest among males is 8.89 and among females is 8.87 and level of significance found to be 0.979. Because 0.979 > 0.05 it can be concluded that there isn’t a significant difference between male and female students in the pre test. Furthermore, mean of post test among males is 9.69 and among females is 10.6, and level of significance found to be 0.438. As level of sig 0.438 > 0.05, it can be concluded that there isn’t a significant difference between male and female students in the post test. 4.6 Comparing pre and post tests Table 5. Results of paired t-test for comparing pre and post tests

N Mean Std. Deviation t df Sig. (2-tailed) pre 84 8.88 3.704 -3.993 83 .000 post 84 10.19 3.579

To compare pre and post tests, paired t-test was used. As table 5 shows, mean of pre test is 8.88 and mean of post test is 10.19, and level of sig is 0.000. Considering level of sig which is smaller than 0.05, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between post test and pre test. Post test is significantly higher than pre test. 4.7 Comparing pre and post test between both groups

Table 6. Paired t-test for comparing pre and post test

N Mean Std. Deviation t df Sig.(2-tailed) control group pre 43 8.72 3.397 -1.431 42 .160

post 43 9.28 3.528 experimental group pre 41 9.05 4.037 -4.117 40 .000

post 41 11.15 3.417

IJALEL 2 (2):107-113, 2013 112 To compare pre and post tests, paired sample t-test was used. As table 6 shows, mean of control group is 8.27 and post test is 9.28, and level of sig is 0.16. As level of sig is bigger than 0.5, it can be concluded that there isn’t a significant difference between pre and post test in the control group. However, in experimental group, mean of pre test is 9.05 and post test is 11.15, and level of sig is 0.000. As the level of sig is smaller than 0.05 it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between pre test and post test in the experimental group. 5. Discussion & Conclusion According to Rivers (1981), until recently there has been great emphasis on listening and speaking skills. As a result, forging language teacher are sometimes accused of wishing to produce "fluent chatterboxes who can speak the new language but have nothing worthwhile to say because they have never been given the opportunity to share the thinking of the great minds of another culture and so to widen the horizons of their knowledge and understanding" (Rivers, 1981, p. 259). For lots of reasons reading is the most important activity in any language class. Because it is not only a source of information and a pleasurable activity, but also a means of consolidating and extending one's knowledge of the world (Nahavandi & Mukundan 2012). Because of its great importance as a cognitive process reading needs careful attention in language classes. Because it is a communicative act between the reader and writer it requires an interactive and process-oriented methodology. Although teachers try hard to teach reading passages successfully in their classes, there is always a mismatch between their teaching and students' learning. Most of teachers are dissatisfied with the outcome. Students are bored with reading classes because they see no maneuver of their own initiation. Although TBLT is said to be used in EFL language classes in educational settings in Iran, most teachers are not even familiar with its concepts (Nahavandi & Mukundan 2012). Now that the value of interaction and the importance of TBLT in EFL classes are emphasized, applying principles of TBL in EFL classes seems necessary. So for improving students' reading comprehension such an atmosphere should be created in the classes that students enjoy their classes and learn the responsibility for their own learning. Using task-based activities in which every student takes part in understanding, evaluating, discussing, problem-solving, negotiating meaning processes can be effective in meeting the requirements of learner-centered classes (Nahavandi, 2011). The learners and their world view that is shared with each other in reading classes during performing task-based activities are of great importance in TBLT. When the responsibility of learning and teaching shifts from teacher to the learner, learners themselves take the responsibility for their own learning. They interact with each other in pairs discussing, evaluating, agreeing, disagreeing, exchanging personal information, solving problems all of which are process-oriented and which are of great importance for challenging students' brains. The results of the present study showed that applying the elements of task-based cycle affected students’ reading comprehension positively. Therefore, the results of the study may have some pedagogical implications for language teachers. Applying TBLT in reading classes and letting the students be responsible for their own learning and providing lots of opportunities for pair work and group work in the class will create an active classroom atmosphere where all the students engage in the process of their own learning task. In TBLT classes the responsibility of teacher shifts from "knowledge provider" to use Widdowson's words to," facilitator of students’ learning" or to put it in other words to function as an authoritative rather than an authoritarian (Nahavandi & Mukundan 2012; Nahavandi & Mukundan 2013a; Nahavandi & Mukundan 2013b). Furthermore, the results of the present study may benefit EFL learners. Most learners are unaware of their capabilities for learning. They believe that teachers are the sole origin of information in whom they should trust completely. Although the concept of TBLT has captured most EFL institutions and universities of Iran, learners prefer individualistic learning which allows them to sit silently on their chairs and cover the readings alone, and to answer the books' questions. So it can be claimed that using TBL in reading classes make reading classes a lively and friendly atmosphere where every student tries hard to solve the problem and share his/her ideas with group member. Finally, the results of the present study may benefit syllabus designers, teacher trainers and other interested researchers. Last but not least, it is hoped that the present research may encourage further research in the area of task- based teaching and learning in Iranian EFL context by other interested researchers. References Allwright, R. L. (1981). What do we want teaching materials for? 1. ELT Journal, 36(1), 5-18. Bowen, T., (2004). Task-based Learning. Retrieved from file: www.onestopenglish.com/ News/Magszine/Archive/taskbased.htm-15k. Buyukkarc, K. (2009). A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF TASK-BASED LEARNING. Kastamonu Education Journal, 17(1), 313-320. Ellis, R. (2002). The Evaluation of Communicative Tasks, in B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials Development in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 217-238. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (2006). The methodology of task-based teaching. Asian EFL Journal, 8(3), 1-17. Foley, J. (1991). A Psycholinguistic Framework for Task-based Approaches to Language Teaching. Applied Linguistics. 12, 62-75.

IJALEL 2 (2):107-113, 2013 113 Ki, W. W. (2000). ICT Applications in Task-Based Learning. In N. Law and et. al. Changing Classrooms & Changing Schools: A Study of Good Practices in Using ICT in Hong Kong Schools (pp: 79-91). Hong Kong, Friendship Printing Co., Ltd. Long, M. H., & Crooks, J. (1992). Three Approaches to Task-Based Syllabus Design. TESOL QUARTERLY, 26(1), 127-144. Mckinnon, M. & Rigby, N. (2004). Task-based Learning. Macmillan publishers Ltd. Nahavandi, N. (2011). The effect of task-based activities on EFL learners' reading comprehension. In Mukundan, J., Nimehchisalem, V., Menon, S., Jin, Y.J., Roslim, R., Leong, A., Mohamad, A. & Philip, A. (Eds.). (2011). ELT Matters 5 (pp.56-69). Petalingjaya, Malaysia: Galaxy. Nahavandi, N. (2013). Task-based activities in reading comprehension classes: Task-based language teaching & learning. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. Nahavandi , N. & Mukundan, J. (2012). Task-based language teaching from teachers’ perspective. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 1 (6), 115-121. doi:10.7575/ijalel.v.1n.6p.115, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/ijalel.v.1n.6p.115. Nahavandi , N. & Mukundan, J. (2013a). Foreign Language Learning Anxiety among Iranian EFL learners Along Gender & Different Proficiency Levels. Language in India. 13(1), 133-161. Nahavandi , N. & Mukundan, J. (2013b). Iranian EFL Engineering Students’ Motivational Orientations towards English Language Learning along Gender and Further Education in Language Institutes. International Journal of Linguistics, 5(1), doi:10.5296/ijl.v5i1.2684. Nunan, D. (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nunan, D. (1991). Communicative Tasks and the Language Curriculum, TESOL QUARTERLY, 15(2), 279-295. Nunan, D. (2001). Aspects of Task-Based Syllabus Design. Retrieved from file: www.telus.net/linguistic issues/syllabus design.html-20-k. Prabhu, N.S. (1987). Second Language Pedagogy, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Richards, J.C., & Rodgers, S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd ed), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rivers, W. M. (1981). Teaching Foreign Language Skills (2nd ed), Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Skehan, P. (1996). A Framework for Implementation of Task-based Instruction, Applied Linguistics, 17(1), Oxford University Press, 38-59. Swan, M. (2005). Legislation by Hypothesis: The Case of Task-Based Instruction. Applied Linguistics 26 (3), 376–401. Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2007). Doing task-based teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

The Effect of Verbal Intelligence on Knowledge of Lexicon

Masoumeh Parsa M.A. in TEFL Islamic Azad University- Tonekabon Branch, Iran

E-mail:ParsaParisa10@yahoo.com

Shahrokh Jahandar Ph. D in TEFL, Islamic Azad University- Tonekabon Branch, Iran

Morteza Khodabandehlou

Ph. D in TEFL, Islamic Azad University- Tonekabon Branch, Iran

Received: 13-12- 2012 Accepted: 16-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.114 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.114 Abstract The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of verbal intelligence on Iranian pre-intermediate students’ knowledge of lexicon. The participants comprised of 30 male and 30 female learners. A vocabulary test was administered to find out students’ vocabulary knowledge and also Wechsler intelligence test was administered for both groups of male and female to find out students’ verbal intelligence, of course the verbal part of intelligence was needed due to the topic of study. Analysis of the result revealed that the participants who had higher verbal intelligence also had higher marks in vocabulary test and the participants who had lower verbal intelligence had a lower mark in vocabulary test. Keywords: Multiple intelligences, VI (Linguistic Intelligence), Knowledge of lexicon 1. Introduction In recent years, there has been a substantial amount of interest in individual differences among learners. They bring to the language learning situation a wide spectrum of individual differences that influence the learning rate and ultimate learning results. It is worth mentioning that intelligence is often thought to be one of the most significant predictors of language learning success GU (2003). Intelligence was traditionally defined and measured as Linguistic and Logical-Mathematical abilities. In addition, 'Gardner Ability' (g) is a general intelligence factor that governs performance on all cognitive tasks; Spearman (1927) called this a kind of 'mental energy' that underlined the specific factors and controlled performance on all mental tasks. It should be pointed out that a number of critics have challenged the relevance of psychometric intelligence in the concept of everyday life. They believe that IQ tests did not measure creativity, character, personality, or other important differences among individuals (Gottfredson, 1997). Dissatisfaction with traditional IQ test has led to the development of a number of alternative theories, all of which suggest that intelligence is the result of a number of independent abilities that individually contribute to human performance. Gardner (1983) introduced Multiple Intelligences(MI) theory in his book, Frames of Mind, in which he describes different forms of knowing, which provides a much more comprehensive picture of intelligence. Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences utilizes aspects of cognitive and developmental psychology, anthropology, and sociology to explain the human intellect. Gardner (1983, 81), defines intelligence as 'the ability to solve problems, or to create products, that are valued with one or more cultural settings'. 2. Statement of the problem Gardner (1993) claims that all human beings have multiple intelligences (MI), which are common among all the people, but with different portions. The MI-based instructions might help learners to acquire words faster and improve academic achievement while these MI can be nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened. In order to give some useful suggestions to policy makers, language- planners, curriculum designers, text book developers, language instructors, teachers as well as learners and their parents, many studies have been done in this field. There are a number of ways which policy makers, language- planners, curriculum designers, text book developers, language instructors, teachers as well as learners and their parents can use to examine the effect of VI on knowledge of lexicon. 3. Research questions The purpose of the present study is to answer the following questions: Q1: Does VI affect knowledge of lexicon in male EFL learners? Q2: Does VI affect knowledge of lexicon in female EFL learners?

IJALEL 2 (2):114-121, 2013 115 4. Research hypotheses A hypothesis defines an expected relationship between variables (based on casual relationships in theoretical model), which can be empirically tested. The hypotheses in this research can be expressed as: H0 (1): VI does not affect knowledge of lexicon in male EFL learners. H0 (2): VI does not affect knowledge of lexicon in female EFL learners. 5. Rationale of the study Some expect all EFL or ESL learners are the same in ability and learning, but actually each person is unique, each learner learns with different rates and strategies. Gardner (1993) claims that all human beings have multiple intelligences (MI), which are common among all people, but with different portions. Therefore, hoping to solve this problem, this study intends to show that learners come to class with different abilities; they are different and learn in different ways. The present study aims to investigate the effect of VI on knowledge of lexicon in male and female EFL learners. It should be indicated that the focus is on showing learners' differences in abilities. If a person is good at learning English it doesn't show he/ she is good at learning other things and it doesn't mean that person is not intelligent. Specifically, the purpose of the present study is twofold: 1) To show learners who come to class with different abilities, they are not the same, we have different kinds of intelligences like: VI, Musical intelligence; … defined by Gardner and others. 2) To investigate the effect of VI on knowledge of lexicon in male/ female EFL learners. Policy makers, language- planners, curriculum designers, text book developers, language instructors, teachers as well as learners and their parents may be able to make use of the findings to improve their jobs and help their learners. Moreover families and language learners can get familiar with multiple intelligences; it can be a start to understand their strengths. 6. Definition of key terms 6.1 Intelligence Gardner (1983) introduced Multiple Intelligences(MI) theory in his book, Frames of Mind, in which he describes different forms of knowing, which provides a much more comprehensive picture of intelligence. Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences utilizes aspects of cognitive and developmental psychology, anthropology, and sociology to explain the human intellect. Gardner (1983, 81) defines intelligence as 'the ability to solve problems, or to create products, that are valued with one or more cultural settings'. Gardner (1993) developed a set of criteria to determine what set of skills make up an intelligence. Here are listed the key points: 1. Potential isolation as a brain function/ potential isolation by brain damage. 2. Existence of prodigies, savants, and other exceptional individuals. 3. An identifiable core operation or set of operations. 4. A distinctive developmental history, along with a definable set of expert ' end state' performances. 5. Support from experimental psychological tasks. 6. Support from psychometric findings. 7. Susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system. 6.2 Linguistic Intelligence Gardner (1983) suggested that all individuals have personal intelligent profiles that consist of a combination of several different intelligence types, including linguistic. Gardner (1999) has described Linguistic Intelligence as sensitivity to spoken and written language and the ability to use language to accomplish goals, as well as, the ability to learn new language. 6.3 Vocabulary 1) Richards et al. (1992) has defined this term as a set of lexemes which includes single words, compound words and idioms. 2) Hornby et al. (1984) considered vocabulary as the total number of words which make up a language; and a range of words known to, or used by a person. 6.4Word 1) The smallest of the linguistic units which can occur on its own in speech or writing as defined by Richards et al. (1992). 2) A sound or combination of sounds forming a unit of the grammar or vocabulary of a Language indicated by Hornby et al.(1984). 6.5Knowledge of Lexicon Variable for this research is vocabulary knowledge. Words are the basic building blocks of an utterance, units of meaning from which larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs, and whole texts are formed.( Rover 1991cited in

IJALEL 2 (2):114-121, 2013 116 Nunan, 2001) considered knowing adequate vocabulary as the most important factor in communication and believed that one might not be able to use the structures learned for comprehensible communication without having a good command of vocabulary. According to Seal, cited in Celce-Marcia (1991, p.296), 'words are perceived as the building blocks upon which knowledge of the second language can be built'. There is a general agreement that vocabulary knowledge should be regarded as multi-dimensional construct, rather than a single dimensional one. They stated that vocabulary knowledge at least contains two dimensions, namely vocabulary breath, and depth of vocabulary knowledge. (Richards, 1976; Wesche and Paribakht , 1996; Henriksen, 1999; Qian, 1999). 6.6 Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge Qian (1999) defines depth of vocabulary knowledge as a learner's knowledge of various aspects of a given word, including phonemic, graphic, graphemic, morphemic, or the derivation, and compounding of a word, syntactic, semantic, phraseological properties, and knowledge of collocation means the awareness of combination of special words together, and frequency which means how common the word is, and register as formal or colloquial word. The depth dimension is an aspect of word knowledge including spelling, pronunciation, meaning, frequency, register and morphological, syntactic and collocation properties. 6.7 Breadth of Vocabulary Knowledge According to Qian (1999) Breadth of vocabulary knowledge is defined as vocabulary size, or the number of words for which a learner has at least some minimum knowledge of meaning. According to Nation (2001) quoted in Nassaji (2001) breadth of vocabulary knowledge has referred to the quantity or number of words learners know at a particular level of language proficiency. 7. Method 7.1 Pilot study At first stage, a pilot study has been done in order to see whether there is such a correlation between VI and knowledge of lexicon. Therefore, 20 EFL learners were randomly selected from 4 different classes at the pre- intermediate levels from 2 institutes, 10 learners were male and 10 learners were female. The pilot study consisted of a test of 20 word order multiple choice questions to be answered by the participants. The reliability of the pilot study test was determined through calculating the Kurdar/Richardson-21 (R=0.7) and scoring through inter-rater reliability of three testing professors. The 20 participants were asked to participate in a paper and pencil test of vocabulary: each participant was asked to answer the questions in an answer sheet. The participants’ answers were then scored by the researcher out of 20 (the criterion). Then a modified multiple intelligences input, namely Wechsler was administered by a psychologist. The psychologist used verbal intelligence part which is related to this study. The reliability of Wechsler IQ test (r=0.8) was computed through Cronbach's Alpha. The researcher used the results to see the correlation between VI test and knowledge of lexicon in both male and female participants. What the researcher found was that the participants who had a higher VI score, had a higher score in vocabulary test, and the participants who had a lower score in VI, had a lower score in vocabulary test too, so the result indicated that there was a positive correlation between VI and knowledge of lexicon . 7.2 Design of the study The present study followed an experimental design. The rationale behind using such a design lied in the fact that there was no random selection of subjects throughout the institutes in the country, and the study was supposed to be conducted in two institutes, thus, the participants were from Kish language institutes. In this research, first of all a pilot study was carried out to determine and make sure of the correlation between VI and knowledge of lexicon. The second step was an attempt to homogenize the students. For this purpose, an OPT test was administrated to learners. The learners consisted of 120 male and female who were selected randomly from 2 institutes. The reliability of OPT test is evaluated through KR-21 and it is 0.7. The OPT test included 60 multiple-choice items, each participant was asked to answer the questions in an answer sheet. Also there was an attempt to homogenize participants in VI, so a modified verbal intelligence test (Wechsler) with the reliability of 0.8 calculated through Cronbach's Alpha was administered by a psychologist. The reliability of verbal intelligence test was also confirmed by 3 professors. From this number of learners 60 learners were selected based on their proficiency. Then, a test concluding 20 questions of vocabulary was given to participants to examine knowledge of lexicon in participants, questions were similar to the test in the pilot study, but extracted from learners' books and final archives in institute to measure their knowledge of lexicon, the reliability of this test was determined through calculating KR-21(r=0.7) and scoring through inter rater reliability of three testing professors. After administrating the VI test and vocabulary test the results were saved to compare the correlation. The data from vocabulary tests were entered in SPSS software, they were divided in two: participants with higher vocabulary and participants with lower vocabulary scores both in male and female, then independent t-test was run for both male and female, finally the mean of two groups were compared by two- way ANOVA. 7.3 Participants In the present study, a sample of 120 Pre-Intermediate level EFL learners, 60 male and 60 female from Kish English language institutes were selected randomly from different classes. The initial number of participants was then reduced

IJALEL 2 (2):114-121, 2013 117 to 60 after the administration of OPT test to homogenize them. The participant’s age ranged between 11 and 16. They were teenager learners studying English as a Foreign Language in the Language Institute in Rasht. The 60 participants were then divided into two groups of male and female. 7.4 Material To conduct the present study, three instruments were employed. They were as follows: 1. A proficiency test (OPT) with the reliability of 0.7 calculated through KR-21, it consisted of 60 questions. 2. A vocabulary test at the Pre-Intermediate level with the reliability of 0.7 calculated through KR-21, the vocabulary test concluded 20 questions. 3. A modified verbal intelligence test named Wechsler, for administration of this test a psychologist spent about 50 minutes to test each participant and then analyzed the results, the reliability= 0.8 of this test was calculated through Cronbach's Alpha. 7.5 Procedure The OPT of the study administered for measuring the degree of the participants’ proficiency was a paper-and-pencil test. Hence, the participants’ had to answer the questions in specified answer sheets. The time allowed was 70 minutes as had been determined in the OPT. The VI was a modified test of verbal intelligence which was administered by a psychologist. The vocabulary test was a 20 word order multiple choice questions to be answered by participants in about 20 minutes. 7.6 Scoring The OPT that was used in this study was scored on the basis of the standard criteria introduced by the test itself. The criterion for scoring the vocabulary test of the study was the maximum of 20. 7.7 Data analysis The data gathered on variables were analyzed by the following methods through SPSS software. § Descriptive statistics was used to determine the mean and standard deviation of each group on vocabulary test. § Independent t-test was used to find the difference between the higher and lower participants in each group. § Two-way ANOVA was used to compare the two mean scores of male and female groups on vocabulary test. 8. Results Table (1) and (2) shows the results of Verbal intelligence test for participants from high to low. Table (3) shows the descriptive analysis for the high and the low group of vocabulary test of males, as is indicated in table (3), the number of participants has been 15 in each experiment (NHigh = 15; NLow= 15), and there has been no missing value (Missing Value = 0.00) which means that all selected participants participated in the experiments of the study. The mean for the Low group vocabulary scores was shown to be 9.40 ( = 9.40) as compared to the mean for the High group vocabulary scores which was 13.33 ( = 13.33). As for the standard deviations obtained for the low group, there seems to be more variability among the low group scores than the scores in the high group. This may give an image of the participants’ scores in high group being more homogenous, so it shows the participants who had higher Verbal intelligence had higher vocabulary knowledge. As is indicated in table (4), the number of participants has been 15 in each experiment (NHigh= 15; NLow= 15), and there has been no missing value (Missing Value = 0.00) which means that all selected participants participated in the experiments of the study. The mean for the Low group vocabulary scores was shown to be 10.60 ( = 10.60) as compared to the mean for the High group vocabulary scores which was 15.46 ( = 15.46). As for the standard deviations obtained for the low group, there seems to be more variability among the low group scores than the scores in the high group. This may give an image of the participants’ scores in high group being more homogenous, so it shows the participants who had higher Verbal intelligence had higher vocabulary knowledge. Based on the information in table (5), the t-value of the study was calculated between the scores in the higher and the lower group of the males. The observed t value was 7.834(tobs=7.834) and the degree of freedom was 28 (df =28). The level of significance was calculated as to be .000 (p =.000) which has been used in interpreting the data for the rejection or support of the first hypothesis of the study in the next section. Based on the information in table (6), the t-value of the study was calculated between the scores in the higher and the lower group of the males. The observed t value was 8.236(tobs=8.236) and the degree of freedom was 28 (df =28). The level of significance was calculated as to be .000 (p =.000) which has been used in interpreting the data for the rejection or support of the first hypothesis of the study in the next section. Before analyzing the hypotheses of the study, for investigating main effects gender and group and the interaction effects of gender and group, two-way analysis of variance was used. The output of this test is presented below in table (8). The First column of this table indicates the sources of change which are respectively, gender, group, gender*group, error and corrected total. Gender*group source is in fact the interaction effects of gender and group. The second column indicates the sum of squares for each of the sources. Third column refers to the degrees of freedom for each of the sources. The degrees of freedom for two sources of Gender and Group are 1 and the degree of freedom for

IJALEL 2 (2):114-121, 2013 118 gender*group source is 1, too. The degrees of freedom are equal to the number of observations minus one. Thus, because the numbers of observations were 60, the degrees of freedom were 60 minus 1 or 59. The fourth column is mean square which refers to second column divided by third column. The column which is indicated by F refers to the statistical tests for each of the sources. The main column of the table is the last column which shows the statistical result of the study. According to Significance levels for gender and group that is lower than 0.05, the null hypothesis claiming no difference across gender was rejected. As indicated in table 6 (because α =.05), the critical value for all three F-tests is 4.49. Two Fs exceed this critical value, so we have evidence for a main effect of gender, a main effect of group, but the interaction of gender and group does not exist. In other words, both group and gender affect vocabulary performance. However, there is no interaction effect of group and gender on students’ test performance. Each of them acts independently from the other one. 9. General Discussion The findings of the current study indicated that considering VI can be useful in class. These findings seem to be compatible with the findings of the research study done by Pishghadam (2008) which verbal intelligence affect knowledge of lexicon in learners, and Mirzazadeh (2012) which worked on impact multiple intelligences in learning second language learning. Traditionally, it was believed that the most important point regarding innate abilities or here better to say intelligent was that IQ as it was defined generally was something fixed ( Goleman, 1995 ), believing that from birth up to the end of life that was unchangeable, and one couldn't increase his IQ, meaning that, instruction had no impact on its improvement. Therefore, if somebody possesses a low IQ and if we believe that IQ accounts for success in second language acquisition, in that case the person seems to have little chance for success in second language acquisition; it goes without saying that the idea will lead to determinism, if your IQ is low, you will never learn a second language easily and fast (Carroll, 1993). The idea of determinism of intelligence which had been strengthened by the works of Galton (1962) and Binet (1905) were found to be wrong by the works of Vygotsky (1978), Feuerstein (1979), and Erikson, Krampe, and Tesch-Romer (1993). Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development as it is defined by himself is: The distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers (1978, p.86) The idea implies that intelligence is not something fixed; it can be increased through the collaboration of novices with experts. Central to Feuerstein` s theory (1979) is the firm belief that anyone can become a fully effective learner. Another main component of his theory is the notion of “structural cognitive modifiability”, which is the belief that people’s cognitive structures are infinitely modifiable, i.e. no one ever achieves the full extent of their learning potential, but people can continue to develop their cognitive capacity throughout their live. Ericson, Krampe, and Tesch- Romer (1993) believed in the role of deliberate Practice, claiming that one can obtain what he wants through deliberate practice. Since this practice is generally done from childhood, people mistakenly think that extraordinary capabilities of individuals are innate and fixed. Therefore, the pessimistic idea that intelligence is fixed and unchangeable has been replaced with optimistic idea of flexibility and modifiability of intelligence and it might be affected by instruction and practice (Pishghadam 2009). 10. Conclusion This study investigated the effect of verbal intelligence on the knowledge of lexicon of two groups of Iranian pre- intermediate participants. Through the analysis of vocabulary test and verbal intelligence test, it was concluded that the participants who had higher verbal intelligence score also scored higher in vocabulary test and the participants who scored lower in verbal intelligence test had a lower score in vocabulary test. The possibilities of MIT improving academic results in different disciplines such as foreign language teaching have been discussed in many forums. Beyond this, however, ideally learning in any classroom will involve personal development and growth in all human dimensions. We are all so different largely because we all have different combinations of intelligences. If we recognize this, we will have at least a better chance of dealing appropriately with many problems that we face in the world. As Gardner (1999) has written: I would happily send my children to a school that takes differences among children seriously, that shares knowledge among differences with children and parents, that encourages children to assume responsibility for their own learning, and that presents materials in such a way that each child has the maximum opportunity to master those materials and to show others and themselves what they have learned and understood. (pp. 91–92). Society is demanding citizens who have developed multilingual knowing-how-to-listen and how-to- talk abilities, who are capable of setting and achieving personal goals, who know how to search for information necessary to continue learning beyond the classroom, who know how to work cooperatively — in general, citizens who are efficient and who know how to solve multiple problems in any given context, and using MIT in the language classroom can help to promote these goals. As the results demonstrated VI is of great importance in communicative classes. Working on verbal/ speaking factors is not something novel. A number of methodologies have existed which specifically address verbal/ speaking issues in

IJALEL 2 (2):114-121, 2013 119 second language learning (e.g.,: CLT). The problem with most of theories in second language learning dealing with verbal intelligence issues is that they don't pay attention to different aspects of Verbal intelligence in classes. 11. Implications of the Study § First, the findings of the current study indicated that using Multiple intelligences and here VI (verbal intelligence)

in teaching, it could be any aspects of teaching: vocabulary, grammar; … could result in a better performance of language learners.

§ Second, in the second/ foreign language classroom it is possible to motivate learners by different activities relating to the different intelligences. Providing a variety of language activities that stimulate different intelligences proposed by Gardner (1999) makes multiple memory pathways to produce sustained deep learning (Schumann 1997).

§ Third, since vocabulary is a very important part of the language, a teacher must know his/ her students' strengths and weaknesses and try to use different techniques to enhance them.

§ Fourth, the findings of this study could help those dealing with foreign language teaching, such as syllabus designers, material developers, test makers, and the like.

§ Fifth, also the findings of this study might be applicable to the learning of all language skills and sub-skills such as listening, pronunciation, grammar and so on.

12. Limitation of Study § First this study examined the effect of VI on knowledge of lexicon in male/ female EFL learners, but not the other

skills like grammar. § Second the sample was selected from two institutes, not all EFL learners. § Third Assessment was limited to multiple choice tests while different means of measurement may be important

factors affecting result. 13. Suggestions for Further Research Some ideas may be helpful for the improvement of the issue as future attempts in using multiple intelligences in teaching English. The fact is that research in general and research in language vocabulary are not limited fields. There are numerous topics to be worked on at least in terms of the variables discussed in this thesis. § The first point to consider is the issue of population of the study. It seems possible to go beyond the sample-

population limitations of the study and to elicit information from a larger population. This was not practical in this research since there was the problem of distance: it was not practical to have samples from all parts within the short period of the time allocated to writing this work; however, this is possible and the future researchers are advised to take the time and replicate the study from this point of view.

§ As the second point, this study was conducted in an EFL situation, another research with the same format and design can be done in an ESL situation to compare the results and to see whether VI has different effects in different contexts.

§ Third another study is required to examine the role of VI in language testing, specially the relationship between VI and different test forms.

§ Forth students at other levels of language proficiency, i.e. intermediate or advanced, can be subjects for another experiment.

§ As the last point in this study ethnic bias was not taken into consideration so in future researchers are advised to take this point in consideration.

References Binet, Alfred. (1905). L'Annee Psychologique, 12,191-244 Celce-Murcia, M. (1991). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Ericson, K., Krampe, R. & Tesch- Romer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychol. Rev. 100, 363-406. Feuerstein, R. (1979). The dynamic assessment of retarded performers: The learning Potential Assessment Device theory, instruments, and techniques. Baltimore: University Park Press. Galton F. Hereditary genius: An inquiry into its laws and consequences. London, McMillan/Fontana. 1869/1962. Gardner, H. (1981). Frames of mind. The theory of multiple intelligences. New York. Basic Books. Gardner, Howard. (1983) "Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences." New York Basic books. Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of the mind: The theory of multiple intelligences 10th Anniversary Edition. New York: Basic Books. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed multiple intelligences for the 21st century New York: Basic Books. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. London: Blumsbury. Gottfredson, L. S. (1997). Mainstream Science on Intelligence. An editorial with 52 signatories, history, and bibliography: Intelligence, 24, 13-23. Gu, Y. (2003) Vocabulary Learning in a School Language. TESL-EJ, 7, 1-26.

IJALEL 2 (2):114-121, 2013 120 Henrikson, B. (1999). Three Dimensions of Vocabulary Development. SSLA, 21: 303-317. Hornby, A.S., Cowie, A.P., and Gimson, A.C. (1984). Oxford advanced dictionary of current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Masoumeh Mirzazadeh (2010 )Impacts of Multiple Intelligences on Learning English in the ESL Classroom American Journal of Scientific Research ISSN 1450-223X Issue 60 (2012), pp. 64-74 © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2012 http://www.eurojournals.com/ajsr.htm Nassaji, H. (2001). L2 Vocabulary Learning from Context: Strategies, Knowledge Sources, and their Relationship with Success in Second Lexical Inferencing. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 645-670. Nation, P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nunan, D. (1991). Second language teaching and learning. New York: Heinle & Heinle. Paribakht, T.S & Wesche, M. (1997). ‘Vocabulary enhancement activities and reading for meaning in second language vocabulary acquisition.’ In J. Coady, and T. Huckin, (Eds.), Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 174-200. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Pishghsdam, R., and Ghonsooly, B (2008). On the role of emotional and verbal intelligence in second language learning success. Pazhuheshe zabanhaye khareji, 43, 47-59. Qian, D. D. (1999). Assessing the roles of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension. Canadian Modern Language Review, 56 , 2, 282-307. Richards, J. C. (1976). Series editor’s preface. In N. Schmitt, Vocabulary in language teaching (pp. xi-xii). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J. C., Platt, J., and Platt, H. (1992). Language teaching and applied linguistics (2nd ed.). Essex: Longman. Spearman, C. (1927). The Abilities of Man: Their Nature and Measurement. New York: Macmillan. Schumann, J. (1997). The neurobiology of affect in language. Boston: Blackwell. Appendix Table 1. Verbal scores for male participants

F VI Scores Total number Participants 2 88 30 Male 4 87 1 85 3 84 1 83 1 81 2 80 2 73 2 71 2 66 2 64 1 63 1 62 1 60 1 59 2 2

57 57

Table 2. Verbal scores for female participants

F VI Scores Total number Participants 1 93 30 Female 1 91 2 90 1 89 2 88 3 87 4 81 1 77 4 76 1 75 4 72 2 67 11 63 2 56

IJALEL 2 (2):114-121, 2013 121 Table 3. Descriptive analysis of the data of the High- Low male Vocabulary Test of the study

Tests N Mean Std. Deviation

Std.Error Mean Missing Value

High(1) 15 13.3333 1.34519 .34733 0.00 Low(2) 15 9.4000 1.40408 .36253 0.00 Total 30

Table 4. Descriptive analysis of the data of the High- Low female Vocabulary Test of the study

Tests N Mean Std. Deviation

Std.Error Mean Missing Value

High(1) 15 15.4667 1.64172 .42389 0.00 Low(2) 15 10.6000 1.59463 .41173 0.00 Total 30

Table 5. The T-test results of the study for males

T-Test Results Observed t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Between the Higher Group Scores 7.834 28 .000 and Lower Group Scores of Males

(Equal variances assumed)

Table 6. The T-test results of the study for females

T-Test Results Observed t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Between the Higher Group Scores 8.236 28 .000 and Lower Group Scores of Females

(Equal variances assumed)

Table 7. Between-Subjects Factors

Table 8. Tests of between-subjects effects

*R Squared= .726 ( Adjusted R Square )= .712

Value Label N Group 1.00

High 30

2.00 Low

30

Gender 1.00 Male

30

2.00 Female

30

Source Type III Sum of

Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Corrected Model 335.333a 3 111.778 49.547 .000 Intercept 8930.400 1 8930.400 3960.684 .000 Gender 41.667 1 41.667 18.479 .000 Group 290.400 1 290.400 128.794 .000 Gender * Group 3.267 1 3.267 1.449 .234 Error 126.267 56 2.255 Total 9392.000 60 Corrected Total 461.600 59

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Innovations and Reproduction in Second Language (L2) New Media: A Discursive- Semiotic Study of Selected SMS Text

Messages in Nigeria

Tunde Opeibi (Corresponding author) University of Lagos

E-mail: drtundeopeibi@gmail.com

Aina Oluwasola Crawford University, Nigeria

Received: 27-11- 2012 Accepted: 19-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.122 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.122 Abstract Since the turn of the new millennium, the new media has continued to alter the communication configuration in modern societies. The social media tools have been influencing the way we interact and communicate. These wireless networks have confirmed that our world has indeed become a global village by creating a superhighway for communication possibilities never witnessed in human history. While scholars have explored the roles of some of the new media platforms e.g. Facebook blogging, and twitter for private and public discourses(e.g., Taiwo, 2010; Presley, 2010, 2012), previous studies in the use of SMS in Nigeria have concentrated more on sociolinguistic, lexical, or morpho-syntactic features of text messages (e.g., Awonusi, 2004; Chiluwa, 2010). The present study, however, considers aspects of the new media discourse strategies as resources in a second language setting that demonstrate users’ bilingual creativity. It adopts a discursive-semiotic approach in its analytical paradigm to examine how participants, sharing the mobile protocols, deploy linguistic and non-linguistic facilities as well as contextual resources to create relationship and to enact meaning. The approaches of Discourse Analysis (DA) and Semiotics (Schiffrin, 1994; Chandler, 2001) as well as insight from Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), and Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (CMDA)(Herring 2001, 2004; O’Riley, 2005; Herring, 2007) provide the theoretical underpinning for this study. CMC and CMDA, for instance, have been used as tool kits to study and to explain how the new media technologies influence the strategies with which language users within a given virtual sphere engage a wide range of audience through the virtual protocols. The study finds that the use of text messages has opened up creative ways of deploying the resources of a non-native language (English) among bilinguals in Nigeria. The outcome of this innovative and reproduction process confirms the emergence of varieties of new media-based discursive practices in English that reflect the socio-cultural contexts of the communicative event. Keywords: New media; discursive-semiotic features; discourse strategies; Text messages (SMS); bilingual creativity 1. Introduction Since the emergence of the New Media Technologies (NMT), the modern societies are now vastly interconnected in a way that has never been witnessed in human history. Physical, geographical, and perhaps psychological boundaries that had before separated peoples and nations are being obliterated through computer-mediated communication platforms. Studies (e.g., Castells, 2004; Eid & Ward, 2009; Coleman, et al.,2008) have observed that the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution that hit our world in the 1970s has grown into a global phenomenon, turning our world into a networked society. They also argue that the emergence of the social media has resulted in the creation of virtual interacting environments, on-line communities and public spheres that create and re-align relationships. Although our world is presently linguistically and culturally-diverse, it has now become more globalised, more open and more interconnected. Given this multifaceted and multi-dimensional versatility of the new media, evolving socio-cultural and context-sensitive discursive practices are now improving relationships and communications laterally and horizontally. In Nigeria, for instance, the onset of the new millennium witnessed the introduction of the Global System of Mobile Communication (popularly known as GSM in Nigeria). This singular technological advancement has given rise to a phenomenal growth in the deployment of the wireless communication tools for personal and official communication purposes, marketing products and services, wooing voters during electioneering periods, warning or advising friends and citizens during emergencies or danger, and inviting friends and acquaintances to social events. At the institutional and governmental levels, the country has also been trying to harness the benefits of the New Media by using it to interact with citizens, stakeholders, the elite communities and to promote civic engagements.

IJALEL 2 (2):122-132, 2013 123 One defining feature of the new media is the central role that language plays in the whole process of crafting, deployment and delivery of the messages, as well as, the impact the messages have on the receivers. Language use generally forms the bedrock of interactions and the development of relationships in any communities, whether physical or virtual. Although the emergence of information technology has changed the face of communication, language remains the indispensable resource for processing these communicative possibilities via the new media. Arguably, communication technologies have changed the way Nigerians maintain connections and foster relationships. The New Media has helped Nigerian mobile telephone users to overcome geographical and physical barriers. This is indicative of the tremendous growth of the subscriber base of mobile phones users over these few years. Apart from aiding the spread of English globally, mobile phone technology is helping to transform the features and functions of English with the possibility of evolving varieties of English that include technologically-mediated varieties in environments that are non-natives. The SMS texts collected and described in this study exhibit linguistic, discourse and communicative features that reveal not only the general and conventional features but also some peculiar socio-cultural and sociolinguistic contexts of the Nigerian environment. While some previous efforts (Taiwo, Ifukor, op.cit.) have considered aspects of text messaging among Nigerians, very little has been done on using discourse analysis framework to explore some of the evolving innovative strategies. The present study adopts the approaches of discourse analysis (Schiffrin, 1994) and Semiotics (Peirce, 1933; Chandler 2001) to discuss bilingual creativity and discursive practices in text messaging among selected Nigerians. It finds that both the structural and functional components of the texts and their linguistic features are deliberately ‘manipulated’ by the senders to communicate specific meanings to the receivers. The study was motivated by the need to bridge the gap between the growing importance of new media in private and public spheres against the backdrop of the paucity of works on the systematic description of computer-mediated non-native English language discourse in Nigeria. 2. Literature Review Language use in text messages can be viewed as a means of expressing feelings, sharing information, contracting and sustaining relationships, communicating ‘unspoken’ messages as well as a tool for accomplishing some personal and social goals. Research has shown that communication occurring within a computer-mediated framework impacts on different aspect of an interaction. Texting, SMS text messages have become an important language behaviour, a sub-part of the new media tools, that modern man now rely on to communicate and socialize. Some scholars argue that text messages bear more resemblance to a code than a standard language. A text filled with code language expressions is not necessarily accessible to an outsider. The unique writing style provides opportunities for creativity (Kasesniemi & Rautiainen, 2002: p.183). It is interesting to note that discourse analysts often use the term ‘text’ in a sense that refers to any piece of language that is performing some function in some context. Halliday and Hasan (1985) assert that “any instance of a living language that is playing some part in a context of situation is referred to as a text” (p.10-11). Elsewhere, it is argued that a text is made up of words and sentences whose importance is its meaning. These meanings (i.e. communicative, cognitive, or socio-cultural) are coded in words and sentences (Opeibi, 2009). Discourse analysis is concerned with language in use in social contexts and examines how stretches of language considered in their full textual, social and psychological context become meaningful and unified for their users. Since SMS text messages may be viewed as language use in social contexts, it may, therefore, be considered the study of discourse (Brown & Yule, 1983; Stubbs, 1983; Cook, 1992; Fasold, 1990). Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) has been used as tool kits to study and explain how the new media technologies influence the strategies in which language users within a given virtual sphere engage a wide range of audience through the virtual protocols (Herring, 2001). While academic and research literature on Computer-Mediated Communication(CMC) has continued to grow, this expanding field is yet to systematically account for evolving creativity and innovations in bilingual communities where though internet access may be limited, the platform of the global system of mobile communication(GSM) has provided the compensatory medium for on-line, real-time communication. A recent news report quoting the Nigerian Communications Commission, the mobile communication regulatory agency, states that: “The country’s mobile telephone subscriber base has continued to record strong growth with the number of active mobile lines hitting 105.2 million in August….(The Punch, October 5, 2012:21).” This implies that over a hundred million Nigerians now send and receive text messages daily. The sociolinguistic implication of the huge volume of e-messages being exchanged among Nigerians will provide interesting objects of study. Interestingly, with more social media tools becoming available almost every day, more windows are being opened for people to engage fellow citizens, friends, colleagues, and even political leaders on issues of mutual interest. Both private and public spheres are witnessing a flurry of activity initiated by computer-mediated communications. If we may add, communication is also being encouraged at the horizontal level more than along the vertical level through the help of cell phones and text messages. Differences in age, class and economic status are often obliterated through the impersonal medium of text messages. What one may not be willing to say or write via face-to-face medium is easily being conveyed through short messages devices.

IJALEL 2 (2):122-132, 2013 124 One may therefore support the view that CMC, as a platform for social information exchange, has improved relationships across social and economic classes, having helped different people with different social and educational backgrounds to interact and exchange meaning without ever having face-to-face contacts. In Walther (1996), this virtual communication process is described as hyperpersonal interaction because it gives allowance for quick intimacy and interpersonal intensity. Most recent efforts in new media discourse in Nigeria (e.g., Taiwo, 2010; Ifukor, 2010) have concentrated more on the use of Facebook, Youtube, Twitters, and blogs in selected communicative events with very limited attention paid to the systematic analysis of SMS text messages as a linguistic and social event. While those studies identify some of the benefits and constraints of the social media tools, this present study, situated within the evolving Text-Messages Discourse (TMD) framework, investigates how the new media advances bilingual creativity in communication; and fosters relationships based on socio-cultural dynamics. This study confirms that discourse occurs in specific and definable contexts, and argues that the contexts in which a piece of discourse occurs assign meaning and functions to it. It demonstrates that English as second language in Nigeria’s socio-cultural and sociolinguistic contexts has assumed definable character and features that set it apart from English usages in other speech communities. This analysis of SMS text messages in Nigeria shows that new media discourse can yield features that are general and specific in response to the sociolinguistic environment. 2.1SMS Text Messages as Discourse Since text messages are taken as instances of language users’ attempt to communicate meaning for the purposes of accomplishing some purpose, they may, therefore, be said to assume the properties of discourse (Schiffrin, 1987; Brown and Yule, 1983). Discourse analysis, as an investigative paradigm, considers a piece of language that is functional in some context. Thus text messaging as a discursive practice becomes a tool through which language users, within a public or private sphere, achieve some goals. It has been observed that text-messaging was initially intended for purely commercial purposes (Bellis, 2002). However, its usage within our contemporary social situations has now demonstrated another example of how the human need for social intercourse – a kind of ‘communication imperative’ – bends and ultimately co-opts technology to suit its own ends, regardless of any commercial or military ambition for the technology (Thurlow and Brown, 2003). As Herring (2001) also notes, language will necessarily be affected by technological (or medium) variables such as synchronicity (e.g., where instant messaging is synchronous, email is asynchronous), granularity (i.e. how long or short text may be), and multimodality (e.g., whether or not graphics, audio, and video are included), as well as other non-linguistic variables such as participants’ relationships, expectations, and levels of motivation. SMS discourse may therefore be broadly defined as asynchronous, text-based, and technologically mediated discourse (Thurlow & Brown, op. cit.). Halliday (1976, 1994) has observed that language itself is a social-semiotic, a resource with a network of options for language users to create or express his world, contract relationships and communicate meaning via different communication platforms. Chiad(2008) asserts that the language of SMS is asynchronous, a single-channel, text-based, technologically-mediated discourse with relatively small granularity, that is messages are typically short. SMS falls within the mode of CMC because it relies on text-based format like instant messaging and online chat. Grinter and Eldridge,( 2001, p. 219) assert that cellular phones are “mini-terminals for text-based communication” while Spitzberg(2006) argues that cellular phone is a computer and will increasingly converge with all the various characteristics currently associated exclusively with computers. Interactions through text messages can be considered interpersonal computer-mediated interactions in which there are interdependent message response capabilities. Bernartchez (2008) said that text messages are sent to subscribers through service providers’ web page or by visiting some web sites that offer to send text messages free of charge. In recent times, corporate organizations and/or business owners have also found this channel a potent means of advertising their products, informing their customers and clients about new products, promotions, and opportunities, among others. Bulk SMS with ‘no reply’ format has now gradually become more fashionable in Nigeria. In terms of language and style, SMS is believed to combine both traditional method of the Standard English and the new conventional linguistic and communicative practices with technological constraints permitted by the service providers. Depending on the mobile phone being used or the cellular phone service provider, there are some writing features that are automatically generated, especially, date, time, addresser, addressee while the sender composes the texts. As discursive practice therefore, text messages fulfil important personal and social roles, providing tools for individuals and groups to interact and communicate across this electronic communication channel. Although fears have been expressed about possible abuse, the new media has however succeeded in overcoming some of the shortcoming of traditional modes of communication. Herring (2001, 2004) observes that SMS Text Messages serve as an important mode of communication technology. Caroline Tagg (2009, pp. 20-21) provides a summary of several studies done in SMS. Apart from the several approaches adopted, she highlights some of the communicative functions of text-messaging as reported in those studies. Based on Brinker’s (2001) text type theory, some of the communicative functions found in Doring’s (2002) study are:

IJALEL 2 (2):122-132, 2013 125 Contact function including appointments and greetings and emotional support, Information, Appeal, Obligation, Declaration. Faulkner and Culwin’s (2005) messages are classified into the following groups with questions, sign offs and dates the most frequent and rendezvous the least popular. Adverts, questions, rendezvous immediate and ongoing, rendezvous near future, events, instructions, reminders, jokes, sign on , sign off, gossip, dates, information-personal, information-commercial, information-operational In Nigeria, some studies (e.g. Awonusi, 2004; Chiluwa, 2010) have shown that the linguistic forms and practices of the English of SMS text messages have become so popular among the youth (16-25) and young adults (25-45). Awonusi (op cit) uses geographical/regional location, education, sex, age as part of the variables to examine some sociolinguistic features that characterize text messaging discourse among selected young people. Some of these are: special phonological representations, orthographic conventions which include the use of abbreviations, telegraphic forms, punctuation peculiarities, informal language contractions, and text multilingualism. The study explains that the texts have shown that an informal variety of English within a written electronic setting is thriving as part of an urban-based educated English in Nigeria(p. 58). While some of these previous studies have adopted other linguistic and sociolinguistic approaches, this present study uses a discursive-semiotic framework to discuss SMS text messages in Nigeria as part of the growing deployment of New Media platforms for several communication purposes. Basically, intimate and interpersonal functions appear to be more predominant in the studies of text messaging. Users craft and communicate messages on personal and intimate issues based on the shared knowledge. As the use of cellular phones becomes more popular, users also become more creative in the ways messages and linguistic items are manipulated to achieve communicative effects. 2.2 Theoretical Framework Computer-mediated Discourse (CMD) has been viewed as a study of the forms of communication produced when human beings interact with one another by transmitting messages via networked computers or similar electronic devices. It focuses on language and language use in computer networked environments, and by its use of methods of discourse analysis to address that focus (Herring, 2004 p.338). Androutsopoulos and Beißwenger (2008) observe that, in describing how language is used in a networked environments, computer-mediated discourse analysis identifies linguistic and paralinguistic features including pragmatics, sociolects, styles and registers specific to the given environment. It may be inferred that CMD recognizes the shared context of the interractants as part of the necessary interpretive framework for decoding the meaning of the shared messages. Herring’s view on the specific methodology for online discourse analysis provides some useful insights on key features of computer-mediated discourse (Herring, 2001, 2004, 2004a, 2004b). Although the methodology is language-focused, it allows the inclusion of aspects of communication or context which are specifically related to computer-mediated communication (Noel Fitzpatrick & Roisin Donnelly, 2010). In the broadest sense, any analysis of online behavior that is grounded in empirical or textual observations is computer-mediated discourse analysis (Herring, op cit.). A discursive-semiotic analytical framework uses insights from both discourse analysis and semiotics in describing texts. Halliday (1976) had earlier hinted on the inevitability of the connection between the two by describing language from a social-semiotic perspective. As argued elsewhere, the study of semiotics focuses mainly on signs and the analysis of their systems and meanings in different socio-cultural contexts. Sometimes sign and symbol are used interchangeably to indicate something that stands for or refers to something else in a meaningful way when the users recognize them as signs (Opeibi, 2011). Icons and indices which are other types of signs show varying degrees of motivation, and must be interpreted within the framework of the culture in which they are used. Halliday (1978) sees semiotics as the study of “meaning” in its most general sense. For him, meanings are created by the social system and are exchanged by the members in the form of text” (p.141). He sees language as semiotic, that is, it is a process of making meanings by selecting "from the total set of options that constitute what can be meant" (p. 53). He also coined the term social semiotic to refer to the definition of social system, a culture as a system, or a culture as a system of meanings” (p. 39). Semiotics, therefore, as a framework, provides the basis for interpreting meanings that are conveyed through non-linguistic items found in text messages. Umberto Eco (1976) says ‘semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign’ (p.7). Chandler (2001), however, takes this further by arguing that semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as ‘signs’ in everyday speech, but also of anything which ‘stands for’ something else. In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures, and objects. Semiotics is often employed in the analysis of texts (although it is far more than just a mode of textual analysis). For him, the term text usually refers to a message which has been recorded in some way (e.g., writing, audio- and video-recording) so that it is physically independent of sender or receiver (p. 2). His insights on the nature of text provide some illuminating perspective for this present study. He observes that ‘a text is an assemblage of signs (such as words, images, sounds, and/or gestures) constructed (and interpreted) with reference to the conventions associated with a genre and in a particular medium of communication’ (Chandler, 2001, p. 2).

IJALEL 2 (2):122-132, 2013 126 Graphological features such as the deliberate deployment of special writing style, use of upper or lower case letters, bold or italics, numerals, colours, drawings, and symbols among several other non-linguistic properties have become discourse strategies employed in text messages. 3. Data Description and Analysis The data set consists of text messages collected from the mobile phones of the researchers, selected adults, students of the University of Lagos at different times and seasons and in different locations in Lagos, Nigeria. It is noteworthy to further add that some of the text messages were collected and stored for research purposes over a couple of years. The interesting structures of the text messages present good examples of socio-cultural, linguistic, and communicative functions to which the users put them. Some text messages also exhibit a mixture of uni-directional and bi-directional models; some emanate directly from service providers and corporate organizations advertising their products, while others show dialogic/interactional communicative relationships (e.g., mother vs daughter) between the sender and the receiver. Some of the customized or branded text messages emanating from individuals and organizations do not have reply/response mechanism. The analysis of the data reveals great possibilities in the process of innovation and re-invention in language through the use of SMS text messages. Apart from conventional linguistic features that are associated with computer-mediated discourse genres, there are also instances of bilingual properties often associated with language use in English as Second Language (ESL) environments. These include codeswitching, code mixing, and loans. Pragmatic and discourse features that connect texts with contexts to communicate specific meanings are also displayed through the texts. 3.1 Discourse Features in the Texts Thurlow (2003) observes that discursive culture is reflective in the use of SMS text messages among groups of users with strong implications in producing close-knit relationships. He argues that text messages also serve the principle of sociality by observing the maxims of brevity and speed, paralinguistic restitution, and phonological approximation. As observed by Awonusi (2004, p. 51), most users, constrained by time and space, tend to craft or input the texts in the forms that reflect racy, semi-formal, or informal telegraphic styles. Depending on the configuration of the mobile handset (constrained by economic status), the consciousness to minimize cost, and maximizing communication channels, ‘texters’ tend to seek the most effective linguistic means of shortening words and syntactic elements to couch their messages. Interestingly, most Nigerians have become familiar with some of these SMS-linguistic features whose meanings are easily decoded and interpreted. 3.1.1 Lexico—grammatical Features In some of the text messages, there are instances of some lexico-grammatical properties that demonstrate innovations and reproduction phenomena. The study shows that users have become increasingly creative in composing text messages. Some of these examples include: Shortening(yr~year; wks~weeks, hrs-hours, DIS-This, schl~school,mng~morning ), Contraction(Hw’s~how is, ur~your, U~you, R~are, dat~That, tinking~thinking, z-is, tnks~thanks, cald~called), Clippings(lik~like, suces~success, av~have, wil~will, nd~and), Letter/Number Homophones(B~be, 2~to, U~you, 10Q~ thank you, 2reload~to reload, 2me~to me, ), Abbreviation( A/C~account,)Misspellings(rember~remember, realy~really) Non-conventional spellings (moni~money, dats~that is, @~at, b/c~because) Accent stylization(hapi-~happy, nu~new). 3.1.2 Discursive-Semiotic Features Some studies (e.g , Ong, 1982; Crook, 1985; Peyton, 1986) describe the structural and functional properties of SMS text-messages that suggest the intrusion of semiotic strategies in communicating meaning. It is believed that when communication is electronically mediated through computers, the computer-mediated communication system reshapes the forms and functions of language (Kwang-kyu Ko, 1996). Semiotically-shaped features of language are used to communicate meaning and messages among the users. As Herring (op.cit) observed, users have also developed some compensatory strategies to replace social cues normally conveyed by other channels in face-to-face interactions. These are often conveyed through semiotic features (symbols and signs). One significant dimension that this study finds is the growing phenomenon where there is a deliberate interplay of words and symbols to communicate intentions in the text messages. Although these discursive and semiotic features have not enjoyed serious attention in previous studies, their significance and communicative power have made some of these texts unique. The outcome of the study has shown the possibility of the emergence of new varieties of English in Nigeria resulting from the evolving discursive practices in text messaging. In the section that follows, the present study discusses some of the specially-crafted physical structures of the texts as well as signs and symbols that are used in the SMS text messages to communicate meaning. (a) Graphological devices Foregrounding appears to be one of the devices that senders use to make some words and phrases stand out for special attention in the messages. This strategy has the tendency to force the attention of the reader on that aspect of the message the sender wishes to emphasize. Such lexico-grammatical structures are written in different graphological styles. The use of lettering, upper case, lower case, typefaces bold, italics, alpha-numeric among others functions in a special way to communicate meaning in the text messages. These visual aspects of the texts including lay-out images are discursive instruments for communicating meaning in discourse (Beard, 2000).

IJALEL 2 (2):122-132, 2013 127 Text 1 ‘THIS NEW-YEAR, May GOD convert yr conflicts to comfort, ur pains to gains, ur minimums to maximums, ur scars to stars, ur LOSSES TO PROFITS! BE BLESSED.. Text 2 May ur suces b wide as MTN coverage. may u be sufficient lik VMOBILE. May u continue 2 glo like GLOBACOM & ur enemy will be confused lik MTEL till ur STARCOMS In texts 1 & 2, the sender relies on deliberate deployment of semiotic devices in communicating the messages. The foregrounding of some words and phrases (in upper case letters), that are made to stand out, conveys special meaning and achieve special impact. ‘THIS NEW-YEAR’, ‘GOD’, ‘LOSSES TO PROFITS’, ‘BE BLESSED’, are key items that are foregrounded which function as the centrepoint of the message. Apart from functioning as attention-getter, they also carry potential information and messages the senders wish to convey to the receiver. Text 3 May ur suces b wide as MTN coverage. may u be sufficient lik VMOBILE. May u continue 2 glo like GLOBACOM & ur enemy will be confused lik MTEL till ur STARCOMS Sender: Seun Adewole 2348032378801 Sent: 4-Sept-2005 23:54:45 The names of the mobile telecommunication service providers in Nigeria that are MTN, GLOBACOM, VMOBILE, MTEL,and STARCOMMS are alluded to in the text as a way of sending good wishes to the receiver. It is interesting to note how the types of services these companies provide in terms of quality, efficiency, and coverage become a tool for wishes among Nigerians. The admixture of lower case and upper case letters within the body of the texts create some special visual effect that is in itself serves as a message conveyer. The sociolinguistic and culturally-shared knowledge exchanged in the message provides the interesting dimension. The deliberate positioning of STARCOMS in the concluding section of the message demonstrates the use of pun, a play on the word, a creative discursive style of language use to communicate a special meaning in this context. The various features identified above are becoming gradually institutionalized in the sociolinguistic repertoire of many young Nigerians leading to the emergence of a linguistic sub-culture among these groups of SMS users confirm that this is part of the process of domestication of English in L2 environment identified in literature (Adegbija, 2004 ). One may then argue that SMS text messages have joined written and spoken corpuses of L2 English to add to the varieties of English in Nigeria. (b) Symbols and Signs as Discourse In the texts, some uses of symbols and signs that communicate meaning were found. Some examples are given below: Text 4 * See this Star? * * it never dims * * it’s a symbol * of His love.. * * a promise * that God ’ll never leave u. Text 5 I WISH U 12 MONTHS of happiness, 52 wks of fun, 365days of laughter, 8760 hrs of favour, 525600 mins of joy d 3,536000 secs of success in 2004 hapi nu year. Sender: Akin Adeyemi +23480236626 sent 31-Dec-2003 22:51:12 In texts 4 & 5, symbols and signs are used to communicate meaning in the text messages. Text 4 opens with the symbol of a star followed by the rhetorical question, “See this Star?” There is a perfect connection between the symbol and the expression creating a special visual and psychological effect on the receiver. The symbol is then sandwiched in between the subsequent expressions that elaborate the message in the opening. The pragmatic functions of the messages are encoded in the succeeding expressions, that stars never dim, and that it is a symbol of His love, a promise that God will never leave the receiver. It is interesting to note the extended ideologically-based meaning expresses through the number of stars in the body of the text. For instance, most Christians believe that the number ‘7’ symbolizes perfection and/or completeness. This texter, therefore deliberately, chooses 7 stars to convey that sense of completeness as well as to assure the receiver of God’s perfect protection. (c) Dialogic Discursive Features SMS text messages also provide a bidirectional information exchange that highlights some interesting socio-cultural features within the Nigerian L2 context. In the interactions between a mother and her daughter in Text 6 below, these features are deftly projected. Text 6 Sweetest Mi

IJALEL 2 (2):122-132, 2013 128 Received 17/3/2012 @4:01pm Dad Precious no. +447438012173(Mrs Oguntayo’s no. 08023032779 Me: Mummy they gave me 5,000. Pls say tnks to dem Okay Ma Hello ma.good evening ma. tnks for everytin.I was tinking I shld suggest dat if you can send moni for me to buy my books@once for dis semester nd for my project. Book fair z going in schl. Dats if you av d moni. if you don’t, don’t bother I’ll manage. Tnks ma.God bless nd enlarge ur coast mightily. In the text, the dialogic nature of text messages comes forth in the exchanges between this mother and her daughter. The brevity of the messages from the Mother, described as “Sweetest Mi”, demonstrates authority and top-down relationship, a reflection of some cultural background in Nigeria. There is, however, a counter-balancing from the tone of intimacy and affection demonstrated in the description of the Mother as “Sweetest Mi”. Nigerian Mothers are also not as creative as their teenage daughters in the use of text messages. Most of the creative features of SMS texts identified above are found in the messages from the daughter. It confirms the popularity of text-styles among young people. While older people prefer to be direct and brief, young people will demonstrate their competence and youthful creativity in the use of different methods to send texts. The colloquial nature of the messages from the daughter as well as the use of ‘Mi’[my/mine] in “Sweetest Mi” demonstrates an intrusion of linguistic elements from the Yoruba language system, the first language of the texters. The notion of child’s dependence on the parents is also conveyed vividly in the messages emanating from the daughter. The tone of deep politeness, appreciation, and consideration which hallmarks Yoruba culture in Nigeria runs through the message. The word ‘Ma’ is repeated three times in a single message. It’s also obvious that the sender is a student and is deeply religious as found in his reference to God, prayer and some paraphrased Bible verses. 3.2 Discourse Strategies in the SMS Texts As mentioned earlier, one unique feature of the text messages is the manifestation of some discourse features that bear the L2 context. Three varieties of Nigerian English continuum have been identified: Acrolectal, Mesolectal and Basilectal (Awonusi, 1985). In the texts, there are features of bilingual creativity that have the potential of creating other varieties of English. Text 7 below exhibits some sociolinguistic features that characterize English usages in Nigeria. Text 7 FW: Awamaridi says dat ur enemies will not know de source of ur joy. Oyigiyigi says that ur enemies will not be able to spoil ur life. Asoromatase, says dat he will do as he has spoken concerning you. Alagbara giga says he will empower you to succeed. Arugbo ojo says you will live till good old age. SOLA Sender: Sola – Mary +2348056572485 Sent: 6-Oct-2005 18:35:45 [Translation: Awamaridi- the One that can not be discovered; Oyigiyigi: the great One; Asoromatase-the One that speaks and it never fails; Alagbara giga- The One that has great power; Arugbo ojo- The ancient of days/ the one that is ageless]. Here, we find words in a Nigerian local language (Yoruba) that describe God being mixed with English expressions. Instances of Code mixing, and code switching are seen here. They function to accommodate the receiver in the speech repertoire of the sender, demonstrating familiarity, solidarity, etc. Again, we find an interesting appeal to the shared knowledge of the Christian concept of God between the communicators. The meaning of each local name of God is used to pray for the receiver of the message. For instance, “Awamaridi says dat ur enemies will not know de source of ur joy” simply conveys a sense in which the author says since the name of God remains a mystery or cannot be discovered, likewise the enemies will not be able to comprehend or understand (‘discover’) the source of joy of the receiver. This text also highlights the place that religion occupies in the socio-cultural life of most Nigerians. Belief systems are very important to Nigerians and they appreciate text messages that express and capture those sociolinguistic dimensions.

IJALEL 2 (2):122-132, 2013 129 (a) Contextual Cues in the Texts Discursive practices thrive on the ability of interactants to decode meaning by relying on information cues also supplied through the context of the discourse. This also gives room for pragmatic features such as presupposition and entailment to contribute to the meanings being exchanged by the SMS users in the bi-directional communication event. In Text 3 above, the use of MTN, GLO, VMOBILE, MTEL, STARCOMS are only understood by users sharing the Nigerian environment. These are GSM service providers in Nigeria. The sender clearly captures and describes the quality of their services in a creative and humorous manner. She uses the experience of Nigerians with the telecom service providers to express her seasonal wishes and prayers for the receiver. 3.3 Bulk SMS as Discourse Strategy In recent times, both private and corporate citizens in Nigeria now deploy no-reply customized SMS text messages. Bulk SMS system of communication which is cheaper and time saving consists of message sent to a lot of people at the same time with just a click. Though this does not give room for immediate response on the same page, the message is, however, structured in a way to get and sustain the attention of the receivers. The contents of the message, for example, may be an invitation to attend a social function, notice of meeting, an advertisement to patronize a product or service and sometimes an item of breaking news. Some of these are illustrated in the following texts: Text 8 INDEPENDENCE SALE ENDS DIS WEEK. 40% DISCOUNT ON ALL SHOES, SLIPPERS & SANDALS IN ALL OUR OUTLETS. MONAN SHOES4MEN 07028062361. Sat 5th Oct. 5:09 pm. Text 9 U R CORDIALLY INVITED 2 D WEDDING CEREMONY BETWN PRECIOUS & BASSEY, OCT. 25 AT KM 6, EKET/ORON ROAD, EKET.FOR DONATION ECO BANK 0054817505 ENNODIEN BASSEY: Received 01:56:54pm 16/10/2012(no name) It is noteworthy that these texters deploy graphological devices to communicate their messages. Apart from the use of conventional linguistic features of text messaging, the use of upper case letters attracts special attention to the message. While text 8 is a promotional advertisement, text 9 is an invitation with additional subtle appeal for support towards the event. Relevant information (account number, telephone numbers) is supplied to enable people respond. The tables below provide some pragmatic features of the bulk SMS messages (i.e. texts 8-9)

CONTENT FEATURE COMMUNICATED MEANING

Advertisement Graphology Impactful

Convincing

CONTENT FEATURE COMMUNICATED MEANING

Invitation Pragmatics Persuasive

3.4 Nigerianisms as Discourse strategy As argued in some sociolinguistic literature (e.g Adegbija, 2004 ), the non-native English environment in Nigeria usually invests discursive practices with bilingual features. Instances of codeswitching and code mixing are some of the outcomes of languages in contact. Text messaging as a linguistic and social event also has its fair share of the bilingual behaviour in this non-native English context. Text 10 and 11 demonstrate instances of code switching with the use of Yoruba linguistic items, ‘egbon mi’ [my older brother], and ‘ore’ [friend] respectively. Both indicate the kind of unofficial relationship that exists between interactants, at each point. The codemixed strategy demonstrates the process of accommodation and affiliation. Scholars argue that bilinguals switch/mix codes to achieve any of the following: redefine the interaction as appropriate to a different social arena; avoiding through continual codeswitching, define the interaction in terms of any specific social arena; ease communication, that is, utilize the shortest and the easiest route; communicate more effectively; establish goodwill and support; or when one wishes to create a certain communication effect (Wei, 2003; Muthasamy, 1999). Text 12 below is a clear instance of semantic expansion which highlights bilingual creativity that is common among many Nigerian users of English. ‘Daddy’ in English means an affectionate term for a biological father. In this context ,however, the meaning reveals some features of Nigerianism which takes the word ‘daddy’ beyond its simple meaning to accommodate anyone who is old enough to be a father depending on the closeness of such to the addressee. In this instance, the ‘daddy’ here refers to the landlord who is old enough to be the father of the tenant and as well has an affectionate relationship with the tenant. The message is also signed off with ‘ur son’, still another instance of semantic

IJALEL 2 (2):122-132, 2013 130 expansion common in Nigerian English. The ‘son’ here is not the biological male child of the landlord but his well-behaved tenant that himself has now taken as his own child. Texts 10-13 present instances of presupposition indicating that the interactants function based on the knowledge of the context and previous information they knew about each other. It shows a religious setting where information is being dispersed to agree on the next line of action. It is assumed that the reasons for this kind of development are understood by all concerned. Text 10 November 26 2011 @ 0 11:57:00

'2348023156894' Dear Lara,gud mng.Hw was ur night?Pls I need 2reload my web2smspro A/C(eoaina)urgently;b/c I need 2send bulk sms out dis mng;Pls How do I do it?Urs: E.O Aina.

Text 11 November 9 2011 @ 0 13:26:00

'2348022920476' Egbon mi,gud mng.Hw`s ur family,health,wrk,biz&ur faith?Am sure u`r flourishing.Pls text ur A/C details 2me.Thanks&God bless u.Do hv a blissful day.Ur Son:EOA.

Text 12 August 16 2011 @ 0 19:50:00

'2348029163186' Daddy,gud evening sir, Hw`s ur health?We blv u`r hale&hearty.We are still in Camp;But our house rent is ready,Pls which A/C do we pay it into? Ur son:E.O Aina

Text 13 November 9 2011 @ 0 13:35:00

'2348035033421' Ore,I cald ur line,but couldn`t get thru.Hw`s ur health now?Hw`s ur family2Pls take care of urself&take time 2rest during dis holiday.God wil heal u.Amen –Aina

In the texts, findings indicate that there is a pragmatic element of presupposition (text 10) where the tone presupposes that the receiver is aware of the distance and may prefer to pay some money as his gift into the celebrant’s account instead of having to travel the long distance with higher financial implications. Text 13 introduces the message with a Yoruba word, ‘Ore’ [friend] to situate the content and the context of the message as emanating from a Yoruba-English bilingual. It is also observed that shared belief system between the sender and the receiver encodes elements of presupposition in interpreting the full import of the message. A Brief Discussion of some key findings This study has demonstrated that one of the key innovations Nigerians now adopt in text messaging is the deliberate mixture of symbols and texts to provide some visual reinforcement for the message that senders wish to communicate to receivers. An extract from the data set illustrates this point very vividly: + ” ). “ + . “ + . “ + . “ + “. ( “ + “. .+ BRIGHT DAY +’ “ , + ‘ “ . ‘+ “. ‘ + “ +. * May Ur Day * Be Bright Like Stars & May GOD Grant U Favor Always, **Amen**+

• Sender: TUNDE ADEDEJI +2348023076211, 2-June-2004, 10:13:41 A closer probing of the structural composition of the text reveals a deeper meaning communicated through the semiotic properties. The sign, ‘ +’ (plus), a symbol of addition, is deliberately chosen to be twelve(12) to signify one full year, signifying the celebration of one additional year by the receiver. And the symbol of star * , signifying brightness and multiplicity of years, semiotically expresses the prayer of the sender. ‘BRIGHT DAY’ written in upper case letters and sandwiched in between the symbols, is graphologically-foregrounded to mark out that special day, because the sender is celebrating his birthday. It functions as attention-getter in the text and carries the positive message of good wishes from the sender. It is also found that discursive functions in the text messages analyzed above include, engaging in social contacts; need to maintain social relationships; exchange of information; expression of solidarity; well wishes, and season’s greetings among others. 4. Conclusion This study has argued that there exists emerging trends of these electronic-discursive practices that reflect the context and culture of their communicative spheres. Through samples of text messages collected from selected mobile phones,

IJALEL 2 (2):122-132, 2013 131 findings indicate that the ubiquitous virtual spaces being created regularly by the new media can promote virile computer-mediated personal, institutional and public engagements. The use of customized or branded SMS text messages for personal and public purposes has become a new discursive practice among many private and corporate citizens attempting to reach a wider segment of the population with their messages. Features of L2 discourse stemming from the status of English as Second Language in Nigeria have also been shown to have the potential of impacting the emergence of L2 computer-mediated discourse in Nigeria. The study has equally shown how codemixing, as part of bilingual behaviour, fulfils social and personal roles. As Herring (op.cit) rightly observes, Computer- Mediated Discourse (CMD) study enables us to see interconnections between micro- and macro-levels of interaction that might otherwise not emerge by observing spoken or written communication, and potentially to forge more comprehensive theories of discourse and social action as a result. In this study, the researchers have been able to demonstrate how different users of English in Nigeria interact via SMS text messages, expressing feelings, emotions, felicitations, and sharing information. One unique feature is the contribution of SMS text messages to the process of domestication of English in Nigeria leading to the emergence of new varieties of English. The study finds words and new expressions that demonstrate bilingual creativity in the text messages. It confirms the view that social and cultural factors -- carried over from communication in other media as well as internally generated in computer-mediated environments -- contribute importantly to the constellation of properties that characterize computer-mediated discourse (Herring, op cit). It has also been shown that some features of bilingual language behaviour demonstrated in the data can contribute to the emergence of ‘new’ varieties of computer-mediated non-native English discursive practice. The use of a mixture of local languages and English to contextualize the discourse presents an interesting dimension in the study of SMS text messages among Nigerians. The level of linguistic and discursive creativity displayed in the texts further lend credence to the great possibilities English has made available to its users worldwide. References Androutsopoulos, J. and Beißwenger, M. (2008). Introduction: Data and Methods in Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis. 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International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Review of Studies on Corporate Annual Reports During 1990-2012

Atefeh Mobasher (Corresponding author)

University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia E-mail: whiterose14002002@gmail.com

Afida Mohamad Ali

University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

Faiz Sathi Abdullah University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

Chan Mei Yuit

University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

Received: 12-12- 2012 Accepted: 22-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.133 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.133 Abstract Corporate Annual Reports (CARs) are corporate communication tools which have been around for 75 years. They report company’s progress, profits and losses. At first, reports were provided in English, because they were published in an English speaking context. After a while, non-English speaking companies started to publish CARs in English to attract international investments. So far studies on CARs considered themes in text and images of CARs, subgenres of CARs, rhetorical construction, discourse and genre structure. During the last two decade; however, not many studies have been conducted on CARs from a language perspective. We aim to evaluate those studies and provide insight for further research. Findings of previous studies revealed that CARs consist of various sections functioning as sub-genres that have features of their own. Researchers so far have been interested in management forewords section as it is considered to be the most widely read section of CAR, which are supposed to gain the trust of readers. Other sub-genres studied include: operational and financial performance, corporate history and mission statements. As modern CARs are considered to be multimodal, images that appear in CARs have also been studied. Keywords: Annual Reports, Genre analysis, Theme analysis 1. Introduction According to Plung and Montgomery (2004) modern Corporate Annual Reports (CARs) are corporate communication tools which were published approximately since 1827, in the United States. They appeared as a result of investors’ demand to receive reports of the company’s progress, profits and losses. The role and functions of CARs were not clear in their early days and issuing them has become mandatory by law since 75 years ago. At first, they were rather simple; including only financial data, and were published as columns in The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. After a while, shareholders asked for detailed disclosures that were attested by certified auditors. Their demand influenced the standardization of the accounting profession. However, interpreting the reports was difficult for investors. By the end of the twentieth century, CARs were divided into two sections: 1) the 10-K document which consisted of detailed financial information and, 2) Summary of Annual Reports (SAR) which comprised of narrative portion of the earlier version of CARs written in the layman’s term. CARs have been the subject of many extensive studies, from different perspectives. Some of the studies on Annual Reports are on the practice of voluntary disclosure in CARs and their effects on the market (Beattie, McInnes, & Fearnley, 2004; Linsley & Shrives, 2006), use and abuse of graphs in CARs (Beattie & Jones, 1994; Beattie & Jones, 1992), gender diversity and the images of the women in the CARs (Anderson & Imperia, 1992; Benschop & Meihuizen, 2002; Bernardi, Bean, & Weippert, 2002, 2005; Preston, Wright, & Young, 1996), readability of CARs (Beattie & Jones, 1994; Courtis, 1995; Courtis & Hassan, 2002), content and theme analysis (Conaway & Wardrope, 2010; Jameson, 2000; Kohut & Segars, 1992), discoursal strategies (Thomas, 1997), use of narrative discourse(Jameson, 2000), use of symbolism (David, 2001), relationship between text and context in a hermeneutic perspective (Prasad & Mir, 2002), subgenres of CARs (Conaway & Wardrope, 2010; Delahaye, Booth, Clark, Procter, & Rowlinson, 2009; Rogers, 2000; Thomas, 1997; Williams, 2008), rhetorical construction (Hyland, 1998), discourse and genre studies (Garzone, 2004; Nickerson & De Groot, 2005; Rutherford, 2005). However, only a few studies considered CARs from language perspectives. The present paper aims to review studies conducted on CARs from language perspective, identifying the limitations in previous studies and providing insight for further research.

IJALEL 2 (2):133-141, 2013 134 2. Method To select articles for the present review, the key word ‘Annual Report’ was searched in Google scholar for the time range of 1990 to 2012. The search results showed a few research studies related to the field of language, using languages theories for analysis. From the results found by Google scholar, only empirical studies from the field of language were selected. 3. Critical reviews Critical reviews of the studies conducted are presented in two sections. Studies conducted during 1990-2000 and studies conducted during 2001-2012. Each period is further divided into two sections: studies conducted on texts of CARs, and studies conducted on images of CARs. 3.1 Studies during 1990-2000 During 1990 to 2000 a few studies considered the Corporate Annual Reports. They were mainly limited to a specific section within the report: management statement. These studies consist of six research studies conducted on CAR text. During this period no language study was conducted on CAR images. 3.1.1 Text analysis studies Text analysis studies during this period consist of theme analysis studies and negative themes, linguistic choice, use of metadiscoursal resources, audience need analysis and report narrators. 3.1.1.1 Theme analysis on CEO’s letters Kohut and Segars (1992) studied presidents’ letters with regard to the themes in low performing and high performing companies. Reason for conducting a theme analysis on the CEO’s letters was indicated as the limitation of previous studies on the qualitative sections of Annual Reports. The corpus came from top 500 firms listed by Fortune magazine. To select the samples, they ranked all of the firms on the list based on the ‘return on enquiry’ and the result were fifty letters which were divided into 25 top performing and 25 low performing companies. It is not clear what was the rank of other firms on the list and why they could not be included in the analysis. Then a content analysis was conducted by the researchers on the letters to find the most frequent theme. The unit of the analysis was set on the each individual sentence. Nothing was mentioned about the reliability of the analysis or inter-coder reliability. They found six recurrent themes in both sets of data: “a) environment, b) growth, c) operating philosophy, d) markets and products, e) unfavorable financial references, and f) favorable financial references” (p. 7). Nonetheless, themes that appeared on low performing companies were different from that of high performing companies by putting more emphasis on future plans, projects and possible achievements. 3.1.1.2 Linguistic choice during loss making Thomas (1997) also considered management statements of one company during a time period which started with profit making and ended with severe losses. The purpose of study was to examine how good news and bad news affects manager’s message delivery and how the linguistic choices by the company manager could be interpreted. During loss making there were noticeable increase in the application of passive construction, process verbs, being verbs and non-human agents. Pronoun ‘we’ decreased drastically and inanimate nominal groups increased by 80%. Yet, there was a noticeable decrease in the application of doing verbs. These changes initiated the feeling that no particular person was responsible for the situation and it was caused by circumstances. The study was limited to the CEO’s massage of one company during a time range of prosperity to loss making. Moreover, nothing was mentioned about the reliability of analysis. 3.1.1.3 Use of metadiscoursal resources in CARs Hyland (1998) also studied management statement, but with regard to the use of metadiscourse items in CEO’s and director’s letters. He conducted a comparative analysis on 137 CEO’s letters and 110 directors’ letters from Hong Kong stock exchange between the years 1992-1994. He included all of the available letters. The significant of the study was stated as limitations in research studies on rhetorical elements of corporate management forewords. The text was analyzed and coded by three analysts and the reported inter rater reliability was high. The results of analysis indicated that metadiscourse items were used in CEO’s letters two and half times more often than director’s letters and included six times more interpersonal items. The reason for such noticeable difference was stated as the difference in the communicative purpose of the two types of letters rather than difference in format. 3.1.1.4 Negative theme as a communication strategy Crombie and Samujh (1999) claimed that negative messages or themes could sometimes be used as a communication strategy. They conducted a case study on the content of one annual executive letter of a small New Zealand company and considered the surface linguistic features, immediately recoverable meanings and meanings that can only be recovered through considering the context. The analysis revealed that the discussed problems were either minor ones or they have already been solved which can be an indication of the efficiency of management in the eyes of the readers. This strategy which is a high-risk one is actually applied as a cover for more major problems. The authors did not mention any gap in previous studies with regard to the issue at hand and no specific reason was provided as the criteria of sample selection. Furthermore, the criteria and reliability of analysis was not discussed.

IJALEL 2 (2):133-141, 2013 135 3.1.1.5 Audience needs analysis Rogers (2000) considered spoken texts produced by CEOs. Her samples consisted of eight presentations which met three criteria: they were all presented at NYSSA, reported corporate earnings, and were available in videotapes. Besides, none of them were presenting good news. The limitations of previous literature were indicated as a lack of audience need analysis. She extended the genre analysis beyond the analysis of the spoken text of CEOs’ presentations and included context analysis and audience response to CEOs’ presentation. The result of analysis suggested that the presentations performed by company CEOs were highly informational while secondarily relational. It also revealed that the content needs of the audience were to some extent met, yet off-balance sheet information was ignored all together. However, nothing was mentioned about the reliability of analysis. 3.1.1.6 Using multiple narrators for CARs Jameson (2000) analyzed shareholders’ report of randomly selected 100 mixed return funds companies and 100 top return funds companies. No specific gap or limitation was mentioned in previous studies and the purpose of analysis was indicated as how CAR writers deal with difficult situation while reporting ambiguous situations. The reports were analyzed based on two methodological approaches: 1. narrative theory and, 2. computer analysis. They were analyzed as written text, and data about the linguistic, stylistic and structural features of the text was gathered. All verbal components were included in the analysis and only footnotes, portfolio of investment, financial statement, list of top holdings, charts and tables were excluded. T-tests and chi-square tests were run to measure the significant difference between the texts that reported mixed returns and those which reported top return. He discovered that the reports were written using multiple narrators to moderate the bad news in mixed return reports; and influence the reader both emotionally and intellectually in their decision making through providing readers the freedom to choose their own interpretation from several perspectives. Among the findings were also three different types of themes in both sets of data: self-justification, blame and adjusted perspectives. However, companies with mixed return were significantly less direct in their report than top return companies. As the author apparently analyzed the whole text of shareholders’ report, he reported there are sub-genres within the genre of shareholders’ report. 3.1.2 Studies on the pictures During this time period some studies have been conducted on the images of Annual Reports, like studies on images of women in CARs (Anderson & Imperia, 1992) and visual design (Seidman, 1992), of the CARs. However, those studies were not supported by language theories. 3.2 Studies during 2001-2012 Studies conducted on CARs during this period could be divided into two major sections: studies on the text of CARs and studies on images that appear in CARs. However most of the studies during this period are text analysis studies. 3.2.1 Text analysis studies Annual Reports consist of different sections that according to the findings of studies on them could be considered as sub-genres. These sub genres have been the subject of text analysis studies during 2001-2012. The nine text analysis studies conducted during this period consist of studies on linguistic features of CARs, move analysis studies, sub-genres within CARs, theme analysis, interdiscursivity, and use of metadiscoursal resources. 3.2.1.1 Discoursal features of CARs Garzone (2004) in a pilot study singled out ten CEO’s letters from Italian companies and 10 from other European and American companies. CEO’s letters as management foreword are considered as the most widely read section of Annual Reports. The purpose of analysis was to consider the discoursal feature and cultural markedness in these texts. The researcher was looking for any possible meaningful variation between these two groups of reports. The analysis revealed that the most frequent words were not lexical words but the personal pronoun ‘we’ and its associated possessive adjective ‘our’ which creates a sense of inclusiveness. She also discovered that Italian companies were weak with regard to the use of computer (internet) as a medium of communication and it was obvious in their infrequent use of multimodality. Besides, interferences of Italian conventions were also obvious as the writers were trying to create an objective style through frequent use of passive voice. Italian reports were also weak with regard to creating a sense of sharing with the investors. Her findings once again affirmed the fact that common genres like management forewords could display variation in their structure and style when they come from different cultures. Nothing was mentioned about the inter-rater reliability. 3.2.1.2 Sub genres within CARs Rutherford (2005) also focused his study on a sub genre of CARs. He considered Annual Reports as a broader accounting narration genre, which contains more specific genres like the operational and financial review. The purpose of his study was to identify the generic conventions of this particular text type, and the sample of his study came from UK1000. Companies in financial service and property sectors and the ones which did not provide capitalization or prepared their report according to American standardization were deleted from the list to have matched samples. After requesting the remaining companies for their reports, those which did not provide them were also deleted. From the companies which provided their report, only 68 published OFRs as a sub section. Then these companies were divided into seven groups and five pairs: “a) loss making versus least profitable, b) least profitable versus most profitable, c) loss making versus most profitable, d) smallest versus largest and e) lowest geared versus highest geared” (Rutherford, 2005, p. 357). The results revealed stability in patterns of usage in the text of operational and financial review and

IJALEL 2 (2):133-141, 2013 136 proved it as a distinct sub-genre. The study also found evidence that poorly performing companies tend to employ positive language more often. The sub genres identified within OFRs employed differential propensity in their positive language plus difference in marketing strategy, corporate recovery, self-reference, comparative analysis and gearing. However, nothing was mentioned about the reliability of analysis and coding. Another study which focused on a sub-genre of CARs was conducted by Delahaye, Booth, Clark, Proctor, and Rowlinson (2009). They studied corporate history. The purpose of the analysis was to identify and define this specific sub-genre. To fulfill this purpose, they studied texts of 85 historical narratives of British and US companies including both printed and webpage texts. The sample consisted of 37 British companies ranked according to yearly revenues and 49 US companies matched with British ones based on industry. It is not clear why the sample were chosen from fortune 500 for British companies or why they have been chosen based on their revenues. No justification was provided for the choice of method as there are different methods of content and thematic analysis, and nothing was mentioned about the inter rater reliability. The gap in previous studies was indicated as negligence about the genre of corporate history in organization theory. The study revealed recurrent formal features and elements of thematic contents. These qualities identify ‘corporate history’ as a genre. Mission statement could also be a sub-genre within the genre of Annual Reports. Williams (2008) studied the text of mission statements from Fortune 1000 companies. She initially selected 50 companies: 25 from high performing and 25 for low performing companies. Her final samples consisted of 27 mission statement, 13 of which belonged to high performing companies and 14 to low performing companies. Her explanation about the samples is rather confusing; because further in the text she states that she analyzed all 48 samples. However, the table provided reveals the results of analysis for 27 companies. Before analyzing the text, she defined mission statement as a text that provides us with two pieces of information about the company. It informs us about the nature of the company and its conduct. A content analysis was applied on two sections: mission statement and value statement. Some companies included value statements in their mission statement section; and some did not. For the samples which did not included value statements in their mission statement, the researcher looked for the company’s value statement and added it to mission statement. The consistency of analysis was established through inter rater reliability. The higher performing companies included the proposed nine components (proposed in earlier studies) more frequently than the low performing ones and the difference was significant for three of those components. Besides, the difference between the two sets of samples with regard to the application of first person and plural self-references was significant, as higher performing companies used it more often. The two sets of samples were similar in strategies employed to build corporate identities and images, but were different in their emphasis on values and the goodwill recipients. 3.2.1.3 Move and strategy identification A study which embarked on the genre analysis of Corporate Annual Reports was conducted by Nickerson and Groot (2005). Their analysis was limited to the comparison of British chairman statements and CEO’s statements with Dutch CEO’s statements; and they came up with five move patterns (1. business letter layout, 2. financial performance + (past) operations, 3. financial performance (future), 4. strategy, and 5. credentials) and 12 strategies (1.salutations, 2. close, 3. establishing credentials, 4. setting the economic scene, 5. providing corporate financial context, 6. providing special financial performance details, 7. summarizing operational performance in the past, 8. providing details on the board, 9. speculating on future performance, 10. providing future objectives, 11. emphasizing a strong workforce, 12. communicating business strategies). In conclusion, they stated that the communicative purpose of all three sub genres (British chairman statements, CEO’s statements and Dutch CEO’s statements) was to gain the confidence and trust of the readers. However, they also identified variation in these sub genres: the British CEO’s statements were informational, but the Dutch CEO’s statements were both informational and relational. On the other hand, the British Chairman’s statements were relational and promotional. It seems that cross cultural variations also appear in sub genres. However, the study had some shortcomings: first, nothing was mentioned about the process of move identification. Second, the identified moves did not have any specific constituents (steps/strategies). In order words, the strategies identified were not exclusive to any move. De Groot (2008) also conducted move analysis on three sections of CARs. The samples of her study came from Netherland and England stock exchange, and consisted of 22 CARs for each country. Her sampling was a mixture of purposive and cluster sampling. Her criteria of choice included being exclusively national, having large to mid-size capital base, and English being the main language of CAR publication. Then, samples were matched based on industries that included 15 industries. The analysis was on the non-financial sections of Annual Reports which she divided into three sections or sub-genres: management statement, corporate profile and operational review. The functional description for demarcation of rhetorical move and strategies were either new or were indirectly derived from previous studies on rhetorical structures in professional genre. She came up with 17 moves and 34 strategies for the three sections analyzed. The sub-genre of management forewords consisted of 20 Dutch-English CEO’s letters, 18 British CEO’s letters and 16 British chairman’s letter. The results of analysis revealed 10 moves and 20 strategies. There were statistically significant variations between the Dutch and British management texts for three elements: 1. anticipating reader orientation, 2. salutation to reader strategy and, 3. addressing the reader.

IJALEL 2 (2):133-141, 2013 137 The sub-genre of corporate profiles from these two cultures consisted of 21 Dutch-English and 20 British profiles. The analysis revealed 5 moves and 11 strategies. The significant difference between two cultures appeared in the application of the move ‘communicating corporate strategy’. This move was used by Dutch companies more often. Operational review consisted of 22 Dutch-English text and 20 British ones. The analysis revealed 9 moves and 13 strategies. The two nations also displayed significant difference in the sub-genre of operational review. The strategy ‘general profile of the company’ plus the combination of the moves ‘detailing the product’, ‘targeting the market’, ‘reporting on operational performance’ were used by Dutch companies more often, while the move ‘speculating on future performance’ was significantly applied by British companies. The consistency of analysis was considered through inter rater reliability. De Groot stated the variations in these sub-genres as subtle differences that were due to cultural difference. Some of the shortcomings of her study are: not defining corporate profile and operational review, and not providing any justifications for comparing British chairman letter with Dutch CEO’s letter. She also identified 17 moves and 34 strategies. However, these strategies were not exclusive to any move which is unusual. Of 17 moves listed, move 17 does not appear in any of the analyzed sections. Moreover, she failed to provide any move model for any of the three sections analyzed. 3.2.1.4 Theme analysis on CARs De Groot (2008) also considered the intercultural variations of the themes in CARs. However, she published a more detailed result of her analysis on management forewords in 2006 as a research article. She compared CEO’s statements from Dutch companies with CEO’s and chairman’s statements from British companies (20 Dutch-English CEO letters, 18 British CEO letters and 16 British chairman letters). Her sampling procedure has already been explained in the previous section (3.2.1.3). In her analysis she followed the framework proposed by Ryan and Bernard (2003) and identified 97 themes in these texts. Fifteen of the identified themes occurred about 50% more often in all three texts types. The results of her analysis revealed four significant differences: 1) theme of ‘corporate strategy’ appeared significantly with more details in British CEO’s statements; however the theme ‘board details’ occurred significantly more often in British chairman’s statements. 2) CEO’s statements for Dutch companies contained significantly more items of “HRM/people” and “corporate governance” themes than CEO’s statement for British companies. 3) The theme “CSR” was significantly more frequent in the text of British chairman’s statements than Dutch-English CEO’s statements. 4) Statements of British CEOs included significantly more details on the theme “dividend” than the other two. De Groot (2008) also analyzed two other sections of CARs with respect to themes presented following the same framework mentioned above. Overall, in all three sections she identified 192 different themes; however she based her comparison on the themes that occurred at least in 50% of each section. The results of comparison for management forewords were already covered according to her 2006 article. Her analysis on corporate profile consisted of 21 Dutch-English profile and 20 British ones, which revealed 6 frequent themes. The texts from both cultures provided the same types of information in this section and there wasn’t any significant difference between them. The samples of operational review consisted of 22 Dutch-English text and 20 British ones, and 16 themes were identified whereby their frequency of occurrence was equal or higher than 50%. The results of analysis and comparison revealed that the theme ‘cost management’ appeared significantly more often in British texts and the theme ‘identity of market’ appeared significantly more often in Dutch texts. The consistencies of analysis for her 2006 and 2008 studies were considered through inter rater reliability. In sum, findings of De Groot, Korzilius, Ickerson and Gerritsen (2006) and De Groot (2008) confirm that both cross cultural and cross textual variation might exist in themes that appear in CARs. Cross textual variations are usually due to the difference between the communicative purposes of these two sections. Another comparative thematic analysis of CEO’s letters was conducted by Conaway and Wardrope (2010). The corpus of the study consisted of 30 CEO’s letters extracted from U.S. companies and 24 CEO’ letter from Latin American companies coming from multiple countries. The choice of Latin American companies was on the assumption that all Latin American countries have similar corporate communication culture and strategies. When the samples do not come from two matched groups, the differences identified could be due to many factors. Nothing was mentioned about the criteria of CAR selection and method of sampling. Another shortcoming of the study is that the consistency of analysis was not considered. The texts were analyzed in terms of thematic structure, style (readability) and cultural differences. Grounded theory was adopted as the support for theme analysis and a corpus tool for content analysis called NVivo8 was used to run the analysis. The results revealed that Latin American letters contained twice more topics in their letters than U.S. letters and these extra topics were not related to the financial reporting. Stylistic analysis revealed that American letters were longer than Latin American letters, yet Latin American letters contained more topics. Latin American letters also contained more passive constructions than U.S. letters. In short, Latin American letters revealed characteristics of high-context cultures. On the contrary, American letters were more systematic and sequential. The differences between two sets of samples were indicated as the result of stylistic differences rather than cultural variations. However, the consistency of analysis was not discussed.

IJALEL 2 (2):133-141, 2013 138 3.2.1.5 Interdiscursivity in the study of CARs According to Bhatia (2010), to understand a professional text properly, all resources related to it needs to be considered. In his article on corporate communication, he argued that to analyze any professional communication comprehensively, one needs to consider textual and intertextual resources, generic conventions, professional practices, and professional cultures. Any framework which does not consider all of them cannot offer a comprehensive understanding of a specific genre. He tried to explore the nature of interdiscursivity in genre theory and provided three examples of interdiscursivity analyses, one of which was Corporate Annual Reports. The corpus came from 15 Hong Kong stock exchange listed companies between the years 1988 to 2005. The analyst divided the text into four sections: accounting discourse, discourse of finance, public relations discourse and legal discourse. A brief explanation for the function of these four sections was provided and it was claimed that although they were placed in the same document, accounting information is considered as the most important section of CARs which only consists of facts and numbers approved by independent auditors. Next was the economics section which gives an account of company’s performance, presumably based on the first discourse, but it is not certified by those independent auditors. The reason for positioning both texts in the same ‘interdiscursive space’ might be to implicitly create the impression that the second is a true representation of the other. Here, the interdiscursivity came from appropriation of socio-pragmatic space. The analysis indicated that the different discourses within the same space differed in their accessibility to their readership and there were considerable variations in their technicality and complexity of the information. 3.2.1.6 Use of Metadiscourse Items in CARs De Groot (2008) also considered use of metadiscourse items in CAR texts. The theory and framework of analysis came from Hyland (1998) and Hyland and Tse (1998). The gap in previous studies was stated as limited studies on the use of metadiscourse items in CAR texts. The result of analysis and comparison revealed significant cultural variations in all three analyzed sections of CARs. It was concluded that cross-cultural variations affect the choice of metadiscourse items. The primary focus of both ‘Dutch English’ and British management texts were on defocalizing and mitigating the message, enforcing the message, evaluating the message, and establishing the ‘reader sender’ interaction. The significant variation appeared in three areas: 1) Dutch texts over-represented frame markers in the form of text staging signals. 2) British texts ‘under represented’ interactional engagement markers. 3) British texts also contained larger numbers of ‘self-reference’ in the form of management related nouns. In corporate profile section, both British and ‘Dutch English’ texts focused on transitions in the form of conjunctions and exploratory code glosses. The second common area of focus was interactional resources which contained hedges, emphatic and evaluative references, and self-mentions. With regard to the variations, Fisher’s Exact test revealed two significant differences. 1) Larger number of ‘Dutch English’ CARs contained textual boosters, 2) larger numbers of British profiles contained collective nouns as a means of establishing self-reference. In operational review section, the common area of focus for both British and Dutch operational reviews was transitions in the form of conjunctions and phrase relating ideas, and code glosses which clarified textual information. Chi-Square test revealed only one statistically significant distinction between two groups of texts: larger numbers of ‘Dutch English’ reviews contained frame markers indicating stages in the text. 3.2.2 Studies on the images of CARs Images of CARs have also been studied from different perspectives. Here, only the studies that used language theories for analysis are reported, which consist of semiotic studies of the images, move and theme analysis on images, and communicative purposes of the images that appear in CARs. 3.2.2.1 Myth making through images David (2001) took a semiotic approach to the study of images in CARs, trying to reveal how designers of reports choose images and themes that could create “positive cultural myths”. The corpus of the study came from two well-known companies in America (General Electric and Microsoft). The analysis was conducted qualitatively, and no systematic design or method was presented for the analysis except for the fact that the analysis was conducted based on the theory proposed by Barthes. The reliability of analysis was also not stated. However, the gap in previous studies has been indicated as no clear criteria of judgment for narrative section of CARs. The author only described the pictures used by these two companies; and claimed that CARs have dual purposes: disclosing companies’ progress along with imparting companies’ values. He further elaborates that image could influence the reader to interpret the data presented in the text of CARs emotionally and positively. At the end, it was suggested that two processes were required to judge the narrative section of the Annual Reports. First, the company’s yearly claims should be examined and compared with its operation. Second, the visual and textual design of CARs needs to be analyzed to find how it might be trying to create myths. 3.2.2.2 Move and strategy analysis on pictures of CARs De Groot (2008) also considered moves and strategies in images of CARs from England and Netherlands. She analyzed the images and their adjacent text fragments for their rhetorical functions in three sections of management forewords, corporate profile and operational reviews. The photo related comments in management forewords consisted of 12 ‘Dutch English’ CEO letter, 13 British CEO letters and 9 British chairman’s letter. Rhetorical functions of the images and their adjunct text fragments of

IJALEL 2 (2):133-141, 2013 139 management forewords did not reveal any significant variation across the two cultures. Both cultures were focused on the personalized identification of the company. For both countries, the adjacent text fragments with headings highlighted the relevance of the information in the succeeding sentences and of the content of the photos. Three moves and five strategies were identified for the images; and 10 moves and 16 strategies were identified in photo related comments of images in this section. The corporate profiles that contained images consisted of 8 Dutch profiles and 10 British ones. But comment related photos for this section only appeared in 3 Dutch profile and 8 British ones. Analysis of the visual moves and strategies in photos and photo related comments in the corporate profiles did not also reveal any significant variation between two cultures. However, 6 moves and 11 strategies were identified for images in this section; and 7 moves and 11 strategies were identified in photo related comments of these images. The rhetorical focus of both the photos and text related photos were on the general identification of the company. The operational reviews that contained images consisted of 15 ‘Dutch English’ texts and 17 British ones. The photo related comments appeared in 13 ‘Dutch English’ texts and 15 British ones. In this section also there were no statistically significant difference between photographs and the photo related comments of the two cultures. Seven moves and 12 strategies were identified for images, and 15 moves and 26 strategies were identified in photo related text fragments. The most frequent moves and strategies for both cultures were ‘identifying the company’, ‘describing the corporate products or services’, and ‘reporting on operational results’. In sum, the analysis did not reveal any significant differences in rhetorical function of images and the image related comments between British and Dutch CARs. The shortcoming of this study is that she has no theoretical support to identify moves in pictures. Besides, moves, as the largest unites of a genre, have been defined for text rather than picture. To be realized, a move need steps/strategies as it constituents and those steps/strategies need to appear within the boundaries of that particular move. It is not clear how she decided about move boundaries of the pictures and how she decided a particular picture is a move and another picture is a strategy of that move. Moreover, pictures that appear in a particular genre are part of that genre; however without the text they are just random pictures with no function. Consequently, they cannot function as moves, but they can stand as strategies to support the textual moves to realize. 3.2.2.3 Themes presented in images of CARs Besides the rhetorical function of images of CARs, the thematic content of its images were also investigated by De Groot(2008). She presented the results of her study on management forewords of Dutch and British companies in her 2006 article. The texts which accompanied images consisted of 17 ‘Dutch English’ CEO letters, 16 British CEO letters and 14 British chairman letters. Her framework of analysis actually came from Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006; 2001). She identified 23 themes in this section, but the most frequent themes were “management members”, “work place” and “employees”. With regard to the significant variations between two corporate cultures, CEO’s statement of Dutch companies contained significantly more items of ‘all executive directors’; on the other hand British CEO’s statements had higher scores for ‘female employees’. Male employees were not included in the pictures of any Dutch CEO’s statement; however, they appeared significantly in British CEO’s statements. Finally, pictures of ‘non-executive’ chairman appeared only in British chairman’s statement. The other two sections of CARs were also studied by De Groot (2008) following the same framework and on the same CARs. In corporate profile section, images appeared in 8 ‘Dutch English’ profiles and 10 British profiles. Four main themes were identified. However, the results of Fisher’s exact test revealed that the theme “male employees” and “work place” appeared significantly more often in the British texts. In operational reviews, 22 ‘Dutch-English’ reviews and 20 British reviews contained images. Five main image themes were identified, but Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact test revealed no significant difference between the image themes of Dutch and British CARs. The consistency of analysis was considered through ‘inter rater’ reliability. In sum, two out of three CAR sections studied revealed significant differences in two cultures with regard to image content. 3.2.2.4 Communicative purposes of CAR images The communicative purpose of documentary photographs in CARs originating from Netherlands and Britain was also investigated by De Groot (2008). Phone interviews and emails were used to interview informant on the criteria of choosing images and their communicative purpose. Her study used convenient sampling and included only the London based and Amsterdam based companies (12 Dutch companies and 5 British ones) to avoid redundancy and save time. The interview results revealed seven criteria for choosing photographs from which four were common between British and Dutch informants ‘1) consistency in corporate information; 2) logical relation to corporate philosophy; 3) clear and purposeful meaning; 4) supportive of (central) theme in the report” (p. 79). The criteria which were not common between British and Dutch informants were “1) appeal to the readers’ perception; 2) reflection of (historical) development; 3) explanation of textual information. The informant also provided the general communicative purpose of the images, which means they did not provide the communicative purpose of each individual picture. Eight different communicative purposes were listed and seven of them were common between British and Dutch informants: “1) to visually illustrated the corporate identity; 2) to provide company with a personal face; 3) to emphasis the added value of the product/services; 4) To emphasize high

IJALEL 2 (2):133-141, 2013 140 capacity/professionalism; 5) to support the company’s marketing; 6) to establish a central theme in the report; 7) to appeal to the reader’s attitude’. The British informant added one more purpose ‘to add to the readability of the text’ (p. 80). Overall, the British and Dutch informants were almost in unison on the criteria of choosing the images and their communicative purpose, which might indicate that they are generally common in Corporate Annual Reports. 4. Conclusion Findings of the presented studies confirmed that there are sub-genres within the CARs that can stand as independent genres like management forewords, mission statements, corporate history, etc (Delahaye, et al., 2009; Garzone, 2004; Nickerson & De Groot, 2005; Rutherford, 2005; Williams, 2008). However, management statements are the most widely read sections within Annual General Reports. Besides, CARs vary both inter-culturally and cross-textually with regard to the discoursal features, use of metadiscourse items, move patterns and content (De Groot, 2008). It was also revealed that CAR texts of loss-making companies and profit-making companies vary with regard to their language style and content. Companies tend to apply different strategies to reveal bad news or losses: they focus on future achievements, apply passive construction, process verbs and non-human agents or inanimate nominal group, they use multiple narrators and tend to be less informative (Kohut & Segars, 1992; Thomas, 1997; Jamson, 2000; Roger, 2000). Another important finding was that bad news could be used strategically to convey the message that the managers are experts and can handle difficult situations (Crombie & Samujh, 1999). The studies that analyzed the text for metadiscourse items discovered that the communicative purpose of the text influences the choice of metadiscourse items and there exist cross cultural variations with regard to their use (Hyland, 1998; De Groot, 2008). However, studies conducted on CARs are limited. Future studies could fill the gap in those areas mentioned in the following section. 5. Further studies So far, very few studies have been conducted on CARs from language perspective and the corpuses analyzed are mainly in English and come from western countries. However, CARs from eastern countries have been neglected. Future research on CARs need to focus on CARs from countries where English is not the first language. Genre analysis studies on CARs is also limited to one study conducted by De Groot (2008).There is a need to consider the genre content and structure of different sections within CARs using corpus analysis tool. The modern Corporate Annual Reports are multimodal in nature, consisting of both text and images. Consequently, they also need to be considered from multimodal perspective. Images of CARs need to be studied with regard to their function and communicative purpose (both reader and writer perspectives), their relations to the text and their influence on CAR readers. Studies on the use of metadiscourse items in Annual Reports is also surprisingly limited and there seems to be a dire need to consider them in CARs including all sections of Annual Reports; considering how they are used to influence reader and create a positive corporate image. Reference Anderson, C. J., & Imperia, G. (1992). The corporate annual report: A photo analysis of male and female portrayals. Journal of Business Communication, 29(2), 113-128. Beattie, V., & Jones, M. (1994). An empirical study of graphical format choices in charity annual reports. Financial Accountability & Management, 10(3), 215-236. 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Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 16(8), 1019-1033. Bhatia, V. K. (2010). Interdiscursivity in professional communication. Discourse & Communication, 4(1), 32-50. Conaway, R. N., & Wardrope, W. J. (2010). Do their words really matter? Thematic analysis of US and Latin American CEO letters. Journal of Business Communication, 47(2), 141-168. Courtis, J. K. (1995). Readability of annual reports: Western versus Asian evidence. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 8(2), 4-17.

IJALEL 2 (2):133-141, 2013 141 Courtis, J. K., & Hassan, S. (2002). Reading ease of bilingual annual reports. Journal of Business Communication, 39(4), 394-413. Crombie, W., & Samujh, H. (1999). Negative messages as strategic communication: A case study of a New Zealand company's annual executive letter. Journal of Business Communication, 36(3), 229-246. David, C. (2001). Mythmaking in annual reports. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 15(2), 195-222. De Groot, E. (2008). English annual reports in Europe. Unpublished doctoral dissertation Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of LOT: Netherland. De Groot, E., Korzilius, H., Ickerson, C., & Gerritsen, M. (2006). A corpus analysis of text themes and photographic themes in managerial forewords of Dutch-English and British annual general reports. Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on, 49(3), 217-235. Delahaye, A., Booth, C., Clark, P., Procter, S., & Rowlinson, M. (2009). The genre of corporate history. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 22(1), 27-48. Garzone, G. (2004). Annual Company Reports and CEOs' Letters: Discoursal Features and Cultural Markedness. In M. Gotti (Ed.), Intercultural aspects of specialized communication (pp. 311-341). Bern: Peter Lang. Hyland, K. (1998). Exploring corporate rhetoric: metadiscourse in the CEO's letter. Journal of Business Communication, 35(2), 224-244. Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics, 25(2), 156-177. Jameson, D. A. (2000). Telling the investment story: A narrative analysis of shareholder reports. Journal of Business Communication, 37(1), 7-38. Kohut, G. F., & Segars, A. H. (1992). The president's letter to stockholders: An examination of corporate communication strategy. Journal of Business Communication, 29(1), 7-21. Kress, G. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design (second ed.). London: Routledge. Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. V. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold. Linsley, P. M., & Shrives, P. J. (2006). Risk reporting: A study of risk disclosures in the annual reports of UK companies. The British Accounting Review, 38(4), 387-404. Nickerson, C., & De Groot, E. (2005). Dear shareholder, dear stockholder, dear stakeholder: The business letter genre in the annual general report. In P. G. M. Gotti (Ed.), Genre variation in business letters (pp. 325-346). Bern: peter Lang. Plung, D. L., & Montgomery, T. T. (2004). Professional communication: the corporate insider's approach: Thomson/South-Western. Prasad, A., & Mir, R. (2002). Digging deep for meaning: a critical hermeneutic analysis of CEO letters to shareholders in the oil industry. Journal of Business Communication, 39(1), 92-116. Preston, A. M., Wright, C., & Young, J. J. (1996). Imag [in] ing annual reports. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 21(1), 113-137. Rogers, P. S. (2000). CEO Presentations in Conjunction with Earnings Announcements Extending the Construct of Organizational Genre Through Competing Values Profiling and User-Needs Analysis. Management Communication Quarterly, 13(3), 426-485. Rutherford, B. A. (2005). Genre Analysis of Corporate Annual Report Narratives A Corpus Linguistics–Based Approach. Journal of Business Communication, 42(4), 349-378. Ryan, G. W., & Bernard, H. R. (2003). Techniques to identify themes. Field methods, 15(1), 85-109. Seidman, S. A. (1992). A Study of the Visual Design of Corporate Annual Reports. Journal of Visual Literacy, 12(2). Thomas, J. (1997). Discourse in the marketplace: the making of meaning in annual reports. Journal of Business Communication, 34(1), 47-66. Williams, L. S. (2008). The Mission Statement A Corporate Reporting Tool With a Past, Present, and Future. Journal of Business Communication, 45(2), 94-119.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

The Iranian EFL Students’ and Teachers’ Perception of Using Persian in General English Classes

Seyed Mostafa Hashemi, MA (Corresponding author)

English Department, the University of Guilan Rasht, Guilan, Iran

Tel: 00989113218473 E-mail: mostafahashemi63@gmail.com

Masoud Khalili Sabet, Ph.D. Faculty member at the University of Guilan

Rasht, Guilan, Iran Tel: 00989113313992 E-mail: sabetma2002@yahoo.com

Received: 02-12- 2012 Accepted: 22-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.142 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.142 Abstract This paper examined the perception of Iranian EFL learners and teachers towards employing Persian in EFL classes. The present study was a case study which investigated teachers’ and students’ perception toward effective use of L1 and L2 in General English classes at university level. The participants were 345students and 25 teachers at the University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran. Two research tools were used for gathering data: questionnaires and interviews. Analysis of the qualitative study and comparing the mean scores of two groups via Mann-whitny revealed that the perceptions of the teachers and the students differ from each other. Iranian EFL learners were willing to use their mother tongue. While, Iranian EFL teachers had a positive tendency to use more English than Persian in the General English classes. Teachers have to consider that the major medium of instruction must be English. They should use L1 judiciously in FL classrooms whenever possible and beneficial to relieve anxious, nervous, frightened, and reluctant students as well as learners with low self-esteem. Keywords: Perception, L1 (Persian), L2 (English), EFL, use of L1, Translation 1. Introduction By looking at the theoretical background of using L1 in L2 classroom, periodic and regular changes could be observed in views toward L1 and L2 (Auerbach, 1993). Several hundred years ago, it was a norm to use learners’ mother tongue in studying L2 by translation technique; however, at that time, bilingual learning and teaching was universal and almost accepted, because written word was emphasized over the spoken word at that era. Meanwhile, in the 19th century, by emphasis on the spoken rather the written word, a new trend (monolingual approach) began to spread its domination on language teaching. Furthermore, the influence of vast migration and colonialism in the 20th century further increased the Monolingual Approach (Miles, 2004). Phillipson (1992) believes that the monolingual tenet was evolved by the teachers who went abroad during the colonial teaching period. Like the British colonies where English became the predominant culture, even those who were not part of it, were forced to emulate it in order to have a better life or to be a part of this ruling elite (Hawks, 2001). At the same time, those who migrated to the United States, hoping to make a life in the new country, were also compelled to assimilate. As a result, this led them to perceive English as the superior language above all other languages and as a language that should only be spoken and used in English-language classrooms. This rapid and widespread dominance of English at home and overseas has been called Linguistic Imperialism (Phillipson, 1992). Together, these pieces of evidence suggest that some practical and political reasons in the history of ELT caused different trends toward using L1 and L2 effectively in English-language classrooms. 1.1 Statement of the problem A student's perception toward a language is one of the leading predictors of success in learning that language. As a result, teachers and educators should take perception and attitude factors into consideration when designing English language training and instruction. Perception is accepted as an important concept to understand human behavior and it is defined as a mental state that includes beliefs and feelings. However, negative perception can impede learning a language (Ellis, 1984). But a student’s negative attitudes and perception can be changed and turned into positive ones and facilitate getting a positive result. As Ellis (1984) points out, “language learners are not only communicators and problem-solvers, but whole persons with hearts, bodies, and minds, with memories, fantasies, loyalties, identities” (p.39). Therefore, it highlights perception as a crucial factor that all researchers and language teachers should take into account. Reviewing the literature shows that

IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 143 complete deletion of L1 in L2 situations is not appropriate (Larsen-Freeman, 2000; Schweers, 1999; Tang, 2002). Some scholars have investigated the classroom practice by searching the amount and the reasons of using L1 in L2 classes (Horst, white, and Bell, 2010; Macaro, 2001; Nation, 2003; Tang, 2002). Other researchers have also looked at teacher and learners’ perceptions toward using L1 and L2 (Dash, 2002; Nazary, 2008; Prodromou, 2002; Schweers, 1999) in which various results have been concluded. Similarly, when it comes to the context of Iran, the use of L1 and FL among Iranian EFL students is subject to controversy. For example, Siah-Chashm (1995) concludes that failure of the learners in learning the target language is due to the use of mother tongue, while Moradabadi (2003) recommends the use of L1(Persian) and translation as a technique in EFL classes. It seems that both teachers and students in Iran are completely confused about the use of their mother tongue, Persian, in English classes. As a result, this study is going to probe on this problem. Jahangard (2007) argues that students' aural and oral skills are not emphasized in Iranian prescribed EFL textbooks. Teachers do not emphasize on oral drills, pronunciation, listening and speaking abilities. On the other hand, much emphasis is placed on reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary. The main aim of the textbooks and teachers is to prepare students to pass the tests and exams. Productive abilities of students are not measured, that is why most teachers avoid the oral drills in the prescribed books. As Rahimi (1996) stated, grammar translation method was used all over the country in 1950s and audiolingual method was implemented in English language classes in 1960s. But as he argued ALM was not successful in Iranian English contexts because there was a shortage of qualified teachers, teaching aids and time. Due to these facts, the medium of instruction at high schools is Persian, while at the private language institutions it is mostly English and when it comes to the university for General English (a course which is so widely spread for all sorts of universities and educational majors in Iran) they actually do not know what to do with Persian and English in EFL classes. Some students believe that when they are not allowed to express their opinions in Persian, they might experience fear, insecurity, and low self-esteem. As a result, these students may not be able to participate well in the learning process. Yet, there are students who complain about L1 use in FL classrooms, arguing that L1 use limits their opportunities to practice the FL and reduces their FL exposure (Rahimi, 1996). Due to these confusions, the present researcher was prompted to embark on a study on Iranian university students' and teachers' perceptions to see if using L1 would be facilitative or debilitative in L2 classes. 1.2 Significance and purpose of the study According to the literature, very few studies have been carried out so far, dealing with L1 use, especially at the university level in Iran. Moreover, some researches in the realm of the learners’ perceptions resulted in contradictory conclusions and very few of them have been run for both teachers’ and learners’ perceptions in the university context, e.g. General English classes. Thus, this research can be beneficial a lot. Furthermore, coordination and congruence between teachers' and their students' perception in effective use of L1 and L2 is the issue which has not been dealt in previous researches but this research looked at it closely. From the foregoing discussion, it is expected that the findings of this investigation will be helpful firstly for the language teachers, becoming aware of the effect and role that mother tongue has on the learning and teaching of the target language (Bateman, 2008). Secondly, for teacher educators at the teacher training and development centers, being assisted to review foreign language teaching. Thirdly, for the syllabus designers and material writers, especially, at the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, to reexamine their view toward learners’ mother tongue while designing the syllabus and teaching materials. And finally, for the language teaching Methodology researchers, to carry further investigation in the area, opening new gate to the improvement of ELT method and techniques by incorporating L1 use in L2 classroom. More generally, the findings could be crucial in noticing the point the teachers and students are recently at the use of the mother tongue (Persian) in General English classes at the university level, especially in Iranian context. 1.3 The review of literature In the following sections the role of L1 in L2 teaching and learning, use of L1 in L2 classes, L1 use and L2 Teaching Methods would be discussed. Moreover, some research on the teachers and students' perception toward use of L1 in L2 classrooms would be reviewed. 1.3.1 The role of L1 (mother tongue) in L2 (second/ Foreign Language) Teaching and Learning Researches show that a person who acquires his/her first language in childhood differs from an adult who learns a second/foreign language (Cook, 1992; Krashen, 1982) because in the former case, usually young children pick up their language naturally and normally in a cultural and linguistic environment, while they learn the second language later than the first language after the critical period, usually in separation from the appropriate and proper linguistic and cultural environment. Language learners construct language knowledge based on prior conceptual information and improve it in predictable stages. As a result, L2 learners are more powerful linguistically and cognitively, because their prior knowledge enables them to make use of their analytical mind in learning a new language (Al-Harbi, 2010). Gass and Selinker (1983, p.7) reported: "There is overwhelming evidence that language transfer is indeed a real and central phenomenon that must be considered in any full account of the second language acquisition process" (Cited in Al-Harbi, 2010, p.2). Moreover, research evidence shows that learners with strong mother tongue would be more successful in learning and functioning

IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 144 in another language (Krashen, 1982; Lightbown and Spada, 1999). Further, it was also proved by these researchers that skills such as: speaking, listening, reading and writing acquired in the first language are transferable to the target language. On the other hand, Lightbown and Spada (1999) argued that the patterns transferred from the first language are undoubtedly the crucial sources of errors in the target language learning. Krashen (1982) claims that interference is a kind of habitual and automatic transfer of the surface structure of the first language to the surface of the target language. Ellis (2008) believes that learners tend to build their interim rules by using their L1 knowledge in the process of target language learning. Nevertheless, in the process of target language learning, L1 knowledge would be composed with the L2 knowledge; as a result; they will fuse into a mutual set of knowledge (Beebe, 1988; cited in Al-Harbi, 2010). According to Cook (1992), all target language learners generally access their L1, while processing the L2. He further argues that L1 would not be switched off in the process of learning L2; rather, it is constantly available. Indeed, Cook (1992) emphasizes that teachers should not ignore and isolate the learners’ L1 in L2 teaching because it is permanently present in the L2 learners’ minds, whether the instructor wants it to be or not. It could be concluded that learning a new language without making some or at least minimal use of one’s own L1 is impossible. Furthermore, it could be explained why in situations where L1 was prohibited, students usually seem unable to think properly and appear to be completely confused, insecure and alienated, particularly at lower levels (Boukella, 2011). 1.3.2 Arguments for and against the use of L1 in L2 classrooms (the Monolingual and Bilingual Approach) To Macaro (2005), there is a sort of continuum of views on target language and first language use. The exclusive use of the target language or ‘virtual position’, as Macaro said, is one of these extreme poles of views. Those who are the proponents of the virtual position consider no pedagogical or communicative value in using L1 in L2 learning. To Cook (2001), who is not the proponent of monolingual approach, there are three principles for those who are the advocates of the monolingual approach (cited in Miles, 2004):

1. The learning of a second/foreign language should model the learning of the first language by maximum exposure to the L2.

2. Separation and distinction of L1 and L2 would lead to successful learning. 3. The importance of L2 has to be made clear for the learners by its continuous use.

On the other extreme of the debates, there is the ‘Maximal position’, proponents of which agree that target language can sometimes be helped and processed by the use of the mother tongue in due time, but this fact has to be taken into account that the overuse of the first language will reduce the learners’ exposure to the target language input (Swain & Lapkin, 2000; Turnbull, 2001; Turnbull & Arnett, 2002). By considering the pedagogical value of using L1, Prodromou (2001) in the case of using mother tongue, uses the term ‘reservoir’ where L1 creates a crutch for students. Considering the psychological role of L1 in L2 classes, Auerbach (1993) contends that using L1 would help L2 learners to take risks and experiment English; she also concludes that a sense of security will be aroused in learners in which their lived experiences would be validated; thus, they could be able to express themselves, because in such a way the psychological barriers have been removed and learners are allowed to have a more rapid progress. In designing the activity in L2 classroom, Choffey (2001) believes that L1 culture and physical environment are very helpful for three main reasons:

1. To relate the learning activities to the students’ experiences, accumulated during L1 acquisition. 2. In the case of specific lexical items between the mother tongue and target language culture, learners will learn

how to deal with. 3. To establish a kind of strong relationship between L1 and L2.

1.3.3 L1 use and L2 Teaching Methods The extensive use of L1 to explain the new items and compare L1 and L2 was permitted in Grammar Translation Method (Stern, 1983; Richards & Rodgers, 2001). To Cook (2001), translation between L1 and L2 is a common procedure and L2 structure will be best learnt if contrasted and compared with the L1 structure in GTM. This method has been widely used in English classes, especially in Iranian EFL context, although it has been criticized and disfavored in language teaching. The Community Language Learning (CLL) tries to deal with fears and negative feelings of students by making the teacher as a language counselor. Students’ security is initially enhanced by using their native language and translation is normally used. Native language equivalents of words and also directions in mother tongue are given to students in the classroom (Richards & Rogers, 2001). The purpose of L1 is to provide a bridge from the familiar to unfamiliar. Hence, sessions during which students express their feelings toward L2 learning and situations, are conducted in their L1 (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). On the other hand some language teaching methods ignore or minimize the use of mother tongue. For example, Direct Method (DM), appeared in late 19th century as a reaction to the GTM and laid a great stress on the use of the target language from the outset since GTM could not lead learners to a good communicative ability in L2 (Richards & Rogers, 2001).

IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 145 When the DM fell out of favor, the Audio-lingual Method (ALM) was developed in the United States during the World War II (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). Larsen-Freeman (1986) reports that the habits of the students’ native language were thought to interfere with the students’ attempts to master the target language; therefore, by emphasizing the spoken language skills over the written skills, the target language was used in the classroom, not the students' mother tongue. The Natural Approach (NA), developed by Krashen and Terrel (1983) accentuates the significance of meaning in language learning and was based on the tenets of the comprehensible input hypothesis and lots of exposure to the target language. The NA argues that except the restricted use of the L1 for responding the comprehension activities at the initial stages of L2 learning, the target language should always be used in the classroom without any translation and use of L1 (Howatt, 1982). In Silent Way (SW) as an innovative approach, it was believed that a natural approach based on the principles of first language learning is not suitable for adults (Chastain, 1988). The native language is used during the feedback sessions but translation is avoided; however, the students’ native language could be used for giving instructions and to help improve their pronunciation. In Suggestopedia, native language translation is used to make the meaning of dialogue clear (Chastain, 1988). The teacher also uses the native language in class when necessary but he/she uses it less and less as the course proceeds (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). In Total Physical Response, language is presented by orders, commands and instructions while requiring a physical response from the learner (Richards, et al., 1992). This method is introduced generally in students’ native language but L1would rarely be used after the lesson introduction; however, meaning is made clear through body movement (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). In the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), it was believed that learners should be involved in meaning-focused communicative task (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Although, the use of L1 is not prohibited completely in CLT, judicious use of mother tongue by students and teachers was permitted. 1.3.4 Some research on the teachers and students' perception toward use of L1 in L2 classrooms By reviewing the related literature, it would become clear that the number of studies related to the attitudes and perception of both teachers and students towards use of L1 in ESL or EFL classes have increased vastly (Mee-ling, 1996; Schweers, 1999; Macaro, 2001; Dash, 2002). The sociolinguistic characteristics of peer–talk of EFL learners at a preschool were investigated by Wang and Hyun (2009) In Taiwan. They found that learners were engaged in FL learning by using a kind of private speech for self-regulatory speech. They additionally observed that the learners used private speech in both FL and L1 in order to create sentences and structures, to practice pronunciations, to serve as a self- mediation tool and to do learning tasks. In another study through classroom observations, interviews, and a questionnaire, Tang (2002) empirically investigated English major students and their teachers from China. He observed that the L1 was used by the teachers to explain the meaning of the words, complex ideas, and difficult grammatical points where L1 had a facilitative and supportive role in places L2 explanations did not work. The data from the questionnaires revealed that a high percentage of the students (70%) and the teachers (72%) think that the L1 should be used in the classroom. In addition, lots of the students were satisfied when their teachers used some first language in different situations. Participant students used the L1 mainly to explain difficult concepts or ideas, understanding difficult concepts better, understand jargon and new vocabulary, feel less lost, and improve their translation ability. In a study conducted by Macaro (2001), six teachers were observed to know about the extent of their use of L1 in the classroom. The amount of L1 use by these teachers was very little. Different observational studies by Dash (2002) revealed that both students and teachers were inclined toward a bilingual approach. In the case of Prodromou’s (2001) study, however, university students were skeptical about the role of L1 (Greek) at the university level. On the contrary, both teachers and students at beginner and intermediate levels have overwhelmingly accepted the use of L1 (Greek) in their English classes. Bateman (2008) ran a study in which different types of data collection procedures including questionnaires, and interviews were used to gauge students and teachers' attitudes toward L1 use. Results of the study indicated that participants believed in target language use in order to provide students with as much comprehensible input as possible. Activities in which they thought target language should be exclusively used involved vocabulary task, activities dealing with reading and listening materials, giving feedback on students' homework, and warm up activities. They, however, stated that L1 could be used for providing clarification when students did not understand, providing individual help to struggling students and addressing discipline problems. Another similar study was carried out on students and teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards using Arabic (L1) in Saudi Arabia by Al-Nofaie (2010). The study showed that the students and teachers’ attitudes towards using L1 in L2 classroom were positive and the students preferred L1 to be used in certain situations. Teachers emphasized the importance of L1 in their classes. However, they claimed that the untimely and excessive use of L1 should be avoided because it may hinder learning English. In his paper on using L1 in EFL classrooms, Aqel (2006) explored the instructors and students' reactions to using Arabic language in teaching EFL in the Department of English and Modern European languages at the University of Qatar. It was found that all of the instructors felt that it was acceptable to use Arabic in EFL teaching. As for the students' reactions, it was found that 42.85% of freshmen, 54.23% of sophomores, 57.64% of juniors and 61.53% of senior students favored the use of Arabic. The paper recommends a judicious use of Arabic in EFL teaching and when it is the shortest possible way to make learners understand the required points. As far as the use of L1 in teaching L2 in Iranian context is concerned, Nazary (2008) elicited the attitudes of 85 students at Tehran University towards use of L1 in L2 classes. Students were majoring in different fields of study and were

IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 146 attending extracurricular English language classes to improve their general English. They were divided into three proficiency levels of elementary, intermediate, and advanced. Based on the resulted elicited by questionnaire, the author concluded that Iranian university students in an unmistakable divergence from the previous studies were reluctant to use their L1 in L2 classes. They felt that L1 use would certainly decrease the amount of exposure to English, hence hindering language acquisition. In a similar study, Mahmoudi and Yazdi (2011) carried out a study to investigate the teachers’ and learners’ perceptions toward the use of L1 in L2 classes. The findings showed that an excessive use of Persian could have a de-motivating effect on students. Hence, the interviewed students voiced their dissatisfaction with the untimely use and domination of L1 in L2 classes. Evidence shows that, for over two decades, there has been an advocacy toward the inclusion of the L1 in the L2 classroom, which goes hand in hand with warning of the negative consequences of its overuse. 1.4 Research Questions The following questions will derive the present study.

1. What are Iranian university students’ perceptions towards the effectiveness of using L1 and L2 in General English classes?

2. What are Iranian EFL instructors’ perceptions towards the effectiveness of using L1 and L2 in General English classes?

3. Is there any congruence between EFL instructors’ and learners’ perceptions towards effectiveness of using L1 and L2 in General English classes?

Based on the third research question, the following null hypothesis is postulated: H0: There is no difference between EFL instructors’ and learners’ perceptions towards effectiveness of using L1 and L2 in General English classes. 2. Method of study 2.1 Participants The survey groups in this study selected to fill out the questionnaires were students and teachers groups. For this purpose, 345 university students (150 males and 195 females) were involved. They were between 18 and 35 years old attending General English classes at the University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran. Students were native speakers of Farsi, the official language of Iran and the type of sampling for selection of students and their classes was clustering sampling since they were studying at different faculties of Humanities, Agricultural, Architectural, Physical Education, Technical and Engineering and the faculty of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Guilan. The students were not majoring in English. The reason for selecting these participants is that it seems that it might be required to use Persian at different stages of their General English classes. All of the participants take part in total 14 General English classes in different faculties at the University of Guilan. The classes were held two sessions per week in the second semester of the year for about 4 months similarly. In the other part of this study, 25 English language instructors (12 males and 13 females) that were between 35 and 55 years old participated in the research. The teacher participants were all M.A. holders and they were graduated in TEFL. All had more than 10 years of English teaching experience while teaching General English at the University of Guilan. Among all of them, 10 teachers were selected to be interviewed. 2.2 Instruments For the purpose of this study, triangulation has been used for the process of data collection. Therefore, two techniques have been utilized to collect data: questionnaires and interviews. The teacher's perceptions was investigated through both of these data-collection tools, because interviews can allow researchers to investigate phenomena that are not directly observable, such as learners' self-reported perceptions or attitudes (Mackey, A. & Gass, S., 2005). The students' perceptions were only investigated by questionnaires. The questionnaires were validated by a panel of experts. They were faculty members in English department at the University of Guilan. This helped the researcher(s) localize the instrument. The experts provided the researcher with some useful and constructive comments and feedbacks regarding the content, wording and format of some of the items, the near final questionnaires were prepared for the pilot study. After piloting, their Cronbache’s alpha coefficients were calculated, 0.78 and 0.74 for the students and teachers respectively, revealing satisfactory internal consistency and accuracy of the scale. Originally written in English, the students' questionnaire was translated then into Persian for all students. Then it validity was tested. Both groups answered to the same questionnaire consisting of 26 items with 4-point Likert-type scale, except that the wording of those questionnaires was changed appropriately for the students and teachers’ groups. 2.3 Data Analysis This study was of a mixed-method by using both qualitative and quantitative approach. Data analysis consisted of the descriptive statistics to report the results of the survey using frequency distribution, percentage analysis for the first and second questions of the study. There were some reverse items in the questionnaires (items 7, 13and 16) were considered

IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 147 in data analysis. In order to answer the third question, Mann-Whitney as a non-parametric test was run as statistical tools to determine any statistically significant difference between the perceptions of the two groups. The alpha for achieving statistical significance was set at .05. In addition, for the qualitative analysis, the researcher utilized the information gathered by the interviews to answer the second question. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Moreover, they were analyzed (classified according to topics). Relevant perceptions were then grouped together and finally used as supplementary sources to support the interpretation, comparison and triangulation of data. The SPSS 16 software was used to analyze the data. 3. Results In this section, the data collected by the questionnaires, investigating students' and teachers' perceptions toward the use of Persian in General English language classes will be illustrated by the following table. The table presents the percentage and means. Results of the survey provided valuable information that helped to explain the conclusions of the study.

Table 1. Students and teachers’ responses to the multiple-choice questions of the survey

Mean

strongly agree

agree disagree strongly disagree

Items

n.

T

S

S T S T S T S T

2.64

2.99 29.6 0 47 64 16.2 36 7.2 0

I like it when teachers use Persian in General English classrooms to explain grammar rules.

1

2.64

2.74 18.6 0 44.9 64 28.1 36 8.4 0

I like when teachers use Persian for classroom management (e.g. giving instructions and groupings students).

2

2.04

2.72

24.3 0 34.5 20 30.1 64 11 16

I like when teachers use Persian in General English classrooms to explain the meaning of a new vocabulary.

3

3.04

3.04 30.4 20 47 64 18.6 16 4.1 0

When teachers use Persian in English classrooms, students will tend to speak more Persian than English in the classroom.

4

3.00

2.75

24.1 24 38.3 52 26.1 24 11.6 0

The more the English teacher makes use of Persian, the less effort students make to understand the teacher's use of English.

5

2.80

3.05

31 4 48.7 72 14.5 24 5.8 0

I like when teachers use English for explaining simple grammatical terms and concepts and Persian for more difficult terms and concepts.

6

3.00

2.43 15.9 24 25.8 52 44.1 24 14.2 0

Teachers should not use Persian in English classrooms because it reduces the amount of students’ exposure to English.

7

3.00 2.84 23.5 24 43.8 52 25.8 24 7 0

The use of Persian should be minimized in General English classrooms.

8

2.84 2.53 20.0 40 29.6 4 34.2 56 16.2 0 Learners should be discouraged from 9

IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 148 translating the English language into Persian when they read a text.

1.60 2.39 15.1 0 25.2 0 43.5 60 16.2 40

The only way to learn an English word completely is to know its meaning in Persian.

10

2.88 2.54 14.2 16 39.4 60 32.2 20 14.2 4

I like it when teachers ask me to translate a word or sentence into Persian as a comprehension check.

11

2.64 2.54 11.9 0 39.1 64 40.6 36 8.4 0

I like it when my teacher uses English to give homework in general English class.

12

2.88 2.60 15.7 20 38.6 48 36.2 32 9.6 0

I do not like the use of Persian because it prevents me from thinking in English

13

2.56 3.08 24.3 8 63.2 44 9.0 44 3.5 4

I sometimes speak Persian to my classmates to clarify teacher’s directions

14

2.24 2.10 4.9 8 19.4 8 55.9 84 19.7 0

When students speak Persian in the English class, it makes me disappointed.

15

1.92 2.39 13.9 0 28.4 0 40.3 92 17.4 8

I never feel quite sure of myself when students and teachers speak English in the General English class.

16

2.56 2.83 20.0 0 48.4 72 26.1 12 5.5 16

The use of Persian in General English classrooms reduces students’ anxiety.

17

3.12 2.55 15.7 16 33.9 80 40.0 4 10.4 0

It frightens me when I do not understand what the teacher is saying in English in the English class.

18

2.92 2.67 15.4 12 42.3 68 36.5 20 5.8 0

The medium of instruction should be English in the classroom.

19

2.88 2.73 15.7 0 47.5 88 31.3 12 5.5 0 I feel more comfortable when I talk to my teacher in Persian.

20

2.48 2.75 15.4 0 50.7 48 27.5 52 6.4 0 I can understand the lesson much better if the teachers use Persian.

21

2.68 2.98 21.4 0 58.6 68 16.8 32 3.2 0

Persian can help me to express my feelings and ideas that I cannot explain in English.

22

1.84 2.69 16.2 0 44.9 8 30.1 68 8.7 24 I prefer to ask my teacher questions in Persian.

23

IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 149

T= teacher S=student In response to the major items of the questionnaires, 36.5% of the students disagreed, while 68% agreed with the medium of instruction being English. For item 8, the EFL learners agreed (43.8%) and 52% of teachers also agreed that the use of Persian being minimized. Meanwhile, many of the students agreed (44.9%) to ask their teacher questions in Persian in item 23. Most students report that they use Persian for a great amount of the class time (61-100%). According to the item 26, more than eighty percent of the teachers reported that they use L1 only 21-40% of the class time and it shows the high tendency of EFL instructor to English use. For the classroom management, 44.9% of students and 64% of teachers agreed with item 2. but similar results were not concluded for the item 7,contrary to the 60% of the EFL teachers that agreed, most of the students (44.1% disagree and 14.2% strongly disagree) did not believe that teachers' use of Persian reduces the amount of students' exposure to English. for the explaining the similarities and differences between two languages in Persian, 51.9% and 44% of students and teachers respectively agreed with this statement, while, only 4.6% of students strongly disagreed (item 24). The vast majority of the students chose agree and strongly agree (48.7% and 31% respectively) for the item 6 (mean=3.05). Likewise, 72% of teachers believed that English should be used for explaining the simple grammatical terms and concepts and Persian for the more difficult ones. In the case of learning the meaning of a new vocabulary, most of the students (34.5%) agree and some other (30.1%) disagree with explaining the meaning in Persian. But the results show that teachers are not willing to use Persian more than English for this case (64% disagree, 16% strongly disagree).While, both groups disagreed (43.5% of students and more than 60% of teachers) that the only way to learn an English word is to know its meaning in Persian (item 10). Item 25 reads "I prefer to use bilingual dictionaries"; hence, lots of students and teachers agreed on this statement (52.5%).The item number 9 was given to check what the students' and teachers' perceptions is regard to ban the students translating from English to Persian. The results show that 32.2% and 56% of students and teachers indicated disagree respectively. In another similar item (item number 11) they were asked to state their opinion toward translating a word or sentence to Persian as a comprehension check. 32.2 percent of students agreed on this statement while 60% of teachers agreed. In the items 15 to 18, the students were asked to state their feelings and self-confidence whenever use English in the classroom. Most of them agreed that the use of Persian reduces their anxiety (48.4%) while 72% of teachers agreed on it. The items 20-22 show that how much Persian is effective for the student in the General English classroom, to the extent that 47.5% of students and 88% of teachers agreed (item 20) that it makes EFL learners to feel more comfortable when they talk in Persian with their teachers. Moreover, for the item 22, majority of the students (58.6%) and teachers (68%) agreed that the use of Persian can help students to express the ideas and feelings that they cannot explain in English. 3.1 Teacher follow-up interview results Responding to the first question, when the surveyed teachers were asked if they should use Persian in General English class, nine expressed they do not have positive view toward such use. For example, most the interviewees said: I do not have a strong belief toward L1 use. I think teacher should try not to use it in the classroom because the classroom environment is the only place for the students to be exposed to the target language; rather, the teachers should point out the target language importance and motivate the students to use it in the classroom. Answering the second question, the teacher participants mentioned that the first language rarely has to be used in General English classes. For example, one interviewee stated, "of course, the amount of L1 use depends on the students' proficiency level and their motivation, but I try to use it very little and sometimes it is inevitable." Another teacher mentioned" I guess, teachers have to know where to use the first language judiciously and effectively." The third question was designed to draw information on the view that in what situation teachers prefer to use Persian in the General English classroom. One teacher stated "considering the low proficiency level of the students, I generally use Persian to explain the difficult grammatical points and some terminology and concepts which are very hard for the students. Because I guess it is sometimes useful to contrast the similarity and differences between the two languages in Persian. ". Another teacher added "I think, it is better to teach new words in English but when it comes to some abstract

2.64 3.02 23.0 16 51.9 44 20.3 28 4.6 12

It is necessary to explain the differences and similarities between Persian and English in Persian.

24

2.44 2.87 19.7 0 52.5 44 22.9 56 4.9 0 I prefer to use bilingual dictionaries. 25

Mean 81-100% 61-80% 41-60% 21-40% 1-20% Estimate the amount of the class time you spend on speaking Persian in General English class

26 T S S T S T S T S T S T

2.12 3.2 25.2 0 25.5 0 21.2 16 15.1 80 13 4

IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 150 words the meanings of which are not tangible anymore and for the limited time of the class, it would be fruitful to give students the Persian equivalent as a last resort". In reacting to the fourth question "In what situations, you prefer to use English?" One teacher added "for the warm-up of the class and also greeting I use English a lot. In teaching new vocabulary, I generally apply different techniques such as: demonstration, acting, drawing, etc…with English language". Other teachers responded "for classroom management, instructions and also doing some activities and tasks, the priority should be given to the English language because teachers should try to involve students, as much as possible". The fifth question asked teachers Why should teachers use Persian/ English in these situations? According to one teacher "since students spent some period for learning English at the high school level, where teachers were somehow inclined to use Persian, consequently, they should encounter a kind of difference at the university level which is the maximum use of English at the General English classes because teacher is a kind of model and it could stimulate them to use English". Finally many teachers added that EFL teachers should increase their students' motivation by exposing them to the target language. Almost all of the teachers added, they were not willing to use Persian but regarding the low level of the students, L1 could be a supporting tool in general English class. For example, "as far as the first language role is significant in second language learning, using Persian is inevitable because they sometimes use their first language to produce some utterances in the second language". 3.2 Results of the comparison between students' and teachers' perceptions In order to tab into the third question of the study, investigating the differences or congruence between university students and teachers with regard to their perception toward the use of Persian, mann-whitney was applied as the statistical tool. Tables 2 and 3 Show the results of the analysis.

Table 2. Ranks of the student and teacher groups

group N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks

Mean Sum student 345 190.59 65752.50

teacher 25 115.30 2882.50

Total 370

The mean Ranks of the student and teacher groups are given in the table above. As we can see, this table shows that there are 345 and 25 participants in each group respectively. The mean rank of the student group is190.59 and that of the teacher group is 115.30. To determine the significance of this difference, the result was analyzed more in the next table (see table 3.).

Table 3. Test Statistics for comparison of student and teacher groups

Mean Sum

Mann-Whitney U 2557.500 Wilcoxon W 2882.500

Z -3.403 Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .001

According to this table, the observed P-value= .001 is lower than α=.05. As a result, the null hypothesis (there is no difference between EFL instructors’ and learners’ perceptions of effectiveness of using L1 and L2 in General English classes.) was rejected in this study. 4. Discussion From the descriptive statistics we can conclude that Iranian EFL learners do believe in the effectiveness and importance of L1 use and they are willing to use their mother tongue. In contrast, Iranian EFL teachers have a positive tendency to use more English than Persian in the General English classes. This study reveals that the majority of the students were interested in using Persian and their perceptions were in line with some other students in the context of other countries (e.g., Al-Nofaie, 2010; Brook-Lewis, 2009). The EFL learners did not ignore the feeling of comfort that Persian can create in General English classes. As Auerbach (1993) stated, “its use reduces anxiety, enhances the affective environment for learning, takes into account sociocultural factors, facilitates incorporation of learners’ life experiences, and allows for learner centered curriculum development” (p.29). Furthermore, the findings are in accordance with some other researches that resorting to L1 is a natural phenomenon (Atkinson, 1987; Harbord, 1992; Nation, 2003). Students in this study asserted that using L1 by their teachers for translating, giving instructions, contrasting the two languages, and explaining grammar are highly favored by them. Duff (1989) indicated the advantages of translation as a language learning activity. He stated that three characteristics which are essential for language learning (flexibility, accuracy, and clarity) can be developed by translation. On the other hand, the positive tendency of university students towards excessive domination of L1 on L2 in general English

IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 151 classes is against Nazary’s (2008) study on a group of students at Tehran University. According to his study Iranian university students are reluctant to use L1 in L2 classes, believing that any amount of using L1 will reduce their exposure to L2. Contrary to this research, the participants of Nazary's study notified that Persian should be used as little as possiblein the context of English learning in Iran. Contrary to the students’ view, teachers notified disadvantages of the excessive use of Persian, as their use of L1 depended on their students’ specific needs most of the time. However, this study revealed some situations for which the teachers preferred to use Persian. Explaining grammatical terms, introducing abstract words and using L1 sometimes as a comprehension check were the main areas for employing Persian by teachers. Cole (1998) states if students have little or no knowledge of the L2, mother tongue can be applied for explaining the major differences between L1 and L2 and the main grammatical characteristics of L2 that the students should be aware of. The syllabus design and content of the textbook, non-homogeneity of classes in terms of learners’ English proficiency, and lack of sufficient time are among the factors pushing the teachers towards a little use of L1. Despite this, they appeared that do not like to use Persian more than English. However, such a stance is in line with Ellis (1984) who argued that L1use should be decreased as much as possible. But such a view should not be considered a perspective for teaching English in Iran. As Ellis (2008) asserted use of L1 in L2 classes is a factor depending on the “instructional context” (p.801). Furthermore, he pointed out in foreign language contexts, learners’ only source exposure to the L2 may be classroom. The relationship between the students' and teachers’ perception is another point to consider. Results show that there was no congruence between their perceptions toward the effective use of L1 and L2 in General English classes. Insights which emerge from this study of students’ and teachers' perceptions in effective incorporation of L1and L2 are that it is significant to take the learner’s viewpoint into account. As Tollefson (2000) asserted “the aims are to empower learners by putting their experiences and knowledge at the center of the pedagogical process” (p.146). By considering such a mismatch between EFL learners' and students' perceptions in Iranian context especially at university level, it is worth mentioning for teachers, syllabus designers and language policy makers to consider this issue carefully. They should emphasize constructive role of L1 in designing a classroom syllabus, English language teaching methods, classroom management, instructing language learning skills and sub-skills, performing all types of activities and language assessment. Moreover they have to provide all of the facilities for teachers regarding the time and economy. Acknowledgements Hereby, I would like to express my heartfelt and gratitude to my wife, Bahar Ahmadi, cooperating in this study especially in data analysis, for her insightful recommendations and encouragement. And I also like to thank Dr.Tahriri and Dr. Khalili at the University of Guilan, without their unfailing supports the fulfillment of this study from the beginning to the end would have been impossible and meaningless. References Al-Harbi, A. (2010). Mother tongue maintenance and second language sustenance: A two-way language teaching method. TESOL Journal, 5(2), 144-158. Al-Nofaie, H. (2010). The attitudes of teachers and students towards using Arabic in EFL classrooms in Saudi public schools. Novitas-ROYAL, 4 (1), 64-95 Aqel, F. (2006). Using the mother tongue (Arabic language) in EFL classes. Journal of Educational Sciences, (University of Qatar), 9(3), 63-81. Atkinson, D. (1987). The mother tongue in the classroom: a neglected resource. ELT Journal, 41(4), 241-247. Auerbach, E. R. (1993). ‘Reexamining English only in the ESL classroom,’ TESOL Quarterly, 27(1), 9–32. Bateman, B.E. (2008). Student teachers' attitudes and beliefs about using the target language in the classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 41(1), 11-28. Beebe, L.M. (1988). Issues in Second Language Acquisition: Multiple Perspectives. Newbury, London. Boukella, O. (2011). L1 as a Springboard for EFL/ESL Learning: Bringing Translation out of the Closet. UGRU Journal 2011, 34(3), 225-232. Brook-Lewis, K. A. (2009). 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IJALEL 2 (2):142-152, 2013 152 Ellis, R. (1984). Classroom second language development. Oxford: Pergamon. Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gass, S.M. & Selinker, L. (1983). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New Jersey/London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Harbord, J. (1992). The use of the mother tongue in the classroom. ELT Journal, 46(4), 350-355. Hawks, P. (2001). Making distinctions: A discussion of the use of mother tongue in the foreign language classroom.HwaKang Journal of TEFL.Retrieved October 25, 2009 from http://www.Geocities.Com/HawksTongue,html. Howatt, A. P. R. (1982). Language teaching must start afresh. ELT Journal, 36(4), 279-282. Jahangard, A. (2007). Evaluation of EFL materials taught at Iranian public high school. The Asian EFL journal, 9(2),130-150. Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon. Krashen, S.D. & Terrell, T.D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. London: Prentice Hall Europe. Larsen-freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and principles in language teaching. New York: Oxford University Press. Lightbown, P & Spada, N. (1999). How Languages are learned. Oxford University Press: Oxford. Macaro, E. (2001). Analysing student teachers' code switching in foreign language classrooms: Theories and decision making. Modern Language Journal, 7(3), 343-364. Macaro, E. (2005) Code switching in the L2 classroom: A communication and learning strategy. In E. Llurda (ed.) Non-Native Language Teachers: Perceptions, Challenges and Contributions to the Profession (pp. 63–84). New York: Springer. Mackey, A. & Gass, S. (2005). Second language research. New Jersey/London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahmoudi, L., & Yazdi Amirkhiz, S.Y. (2011). The use of Persian in the EFL classroom–The case of English teaching and learning at pre-university level in Iran. Applied Linguistics, 4(1), 96-108. Mee-ling, L. (1996). Using the L1 sensibly in English Language Classrooms. Journal of Primary Education, 6(2), 91-99. Miles, R. (2004). Evaluating the use of L1 in the English language classroom (Master thesis, University of Birmingham, 2004). Retrieved July 26,2010 from http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/essays/Milesdiss.pdf. Nation, P., (2003). The role of the first language in foreign language learning. Asian EFL Journal, 5 (2). Retrieved September 10, 2007 from: http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/june_2003_PN.php. Nazary, M. (2008). The role of L1 in L2 acquisition: Attitudes of Iranian university students, Novitas-Royal, 2 (2), 138-153. Retrieved March 14, 2010 from: http://novitasroyal.org/nazary.pdf Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Prodromou, L. (2002). From mother tongue to other tongue, Retrieved October 25, 2009 from http://www. Tesolgreece.com/mother.html Rahimi, M. (1996). The study of English language instruction at the secondary schools of the Isfahan province, in Razmjoo, S.A. and Riazi, A.M. (2006). Richards, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (2nd edition). Harlow: Longman. Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T.S. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schweers, C.W. (1999). Using L1 in the L2 Classroom. English Teaching Forum, 37(2), 6-13 Swain, M. & Lapkin, S. (2000). Task-based second language learning: The uses of the first language. Language Teaching Research ,4, 253–276. Stern, H. H. (1987). Fundamental concepts of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tang, J.(2002). Using L1 in the English classroom. English Teaching Forum, 40(1), 36- 43. Tollefson, J. W. (2000). ‘Policy and ideology in the spread of English’ in J. K. Hall and W. G. Eggington (eds): The Sociopolitics of English Language Teaching. Buffalo: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Turnbull, M. (2001). There is a role for the L1 in second and foreign language teaching, but. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 57, 532-540. Turnbull, M. & Arnett, K. (2002). Teachers’ use of the target and first languages in second and foreign language classrooms. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 22, 204–208. Wang, L. & Hyun, E. (2009). A study of sociolinguistic characteristics of Taiwan children‟s peer-talk in Mandarin-English-speaking preschool. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 7(1), 3-26.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Inchoative, a Third Voice (A Synchronic Study)

Mohammad Jafar Jabbari Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran

E-mail: mjjabbari@yu.ac.ir

Received: 14-12- 2012 Accepted: 22-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.153 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.153 Abstract The linguistic term "inchoative" is far from clear. Some scholars use the term synonymously with "inceptive" and "ingressive" referring to an aspectual form which expresses the commence of a state or activity. However, inchoative has also been used in another sense by grammarians, synonymously with "ergative" or "middle" as a verb expressing a change of state. In the second sense, inchoative is more a voice in contrast with active and passive than an aspect. While the contrast between passive and inchoative plays an important role in language teaching and language learning, it has been neglected in almost all grammar textbooks. Furthermore, in the Persian language, certain sentences are ambiguous between inchoative and passive. This has resulted in the formation of some erroneous English sentences, by Iranian EFL learners. This study, scrutinizing the inchoative voice in English and Persian, aims to show the relationship between, active, passive and inchoative to help EFL learners differentiate the three voices. Keywords: active, passive, inchoative, voice, Case Grammar 1. Introduction The term "inchoative" is used in two different senses. Some scholars use inchoative (also referred to as inceptive and ingressive) in the sense of an aspectual form which expresses the start of a state of affairs or an action. On the other hand, inchoative has also been used as another grammatical concept to refer to a verb expressing a change of state. In the second sense, inchoative (also referred to as ergative or middle) is regarded as a voice. This third voice is in contrast with both passive and active. While this contrast has a significant part in language teaching and language learning, it is not elaborated in almost all grammar textbooks. Moreover, in Persian, some sentences with certain constructions are ambiguous between inchoative and passive. This has lead to the formation of such ill-formed English sentences as * He was graduated recently, or My father was retired at the age of 50, etc., by Iranian EFL learners. This study, elaborating the inchoative voice in English and Persian, aims to show the relationship between, active, passive and inchoative, in order to help EFL learners not to mix up the three voices. 2. Background The linguistic term "inchoative" is not clear at all. Some scholars use inchoative (also referred to as inceptive and ingressive) only to refer to "a distinctive aspectual form expressing the beginning of a state or activity. In Japanese, for example, the verbal suffix -dasu, makes furidasu (start to rain) from furu (rain), and in Latin the infix -sc- makes tremescre (start to tremble) from tremere (tremble)" (Trask, 1993:137). However, inchoative has also been used in another sense by grammarians as "a verb which expresses a change of state. For instance, yellowed in The leaves yellowed" (Richards, Platt and Platt, 2006:176). For Marcotte (2005), the inchoative is in contrast with the causative construction. Exemplifying the following sentence: a. The door opened.

b. Thora opened the door. He argues that "this outward similarity hides a fundamental differences. The two sentences exemplify different constructions: "the intransitive inchoative in (a) and the transitive causative in (b)"(p. 1). Piňón (2001, p. 273), speaks of "pairs of verbs that participate in this alternation. Such pairs consist of a transitive and an intransitive member that are semantically related in roughly the following way: the intransitive member (a.k.a. an inchoative verb) denotes a change of state and the transitive member (a.k.a. a causative-inchoative verb) denotes a bringing about of this change of state. This informal characterization can be tested against the following pairs of sentences containing alternating verbs:

(a) Rebecca broke the pencil. (b) The pencil broke. (a) Maria opened the door. (b) The door opened.

IJALEL 2 (2):153-157, 2013 154 Some scholars refer to inchoative as 'ergative' or 'middle'. For (Matthews, 2007, p.187), "Inchoative is the construction, in some accounts, of an intransitive such as 'open' in the door opened, as opposed to one that is transitive or 'causative', as in They opened the door. Constructions like that of The door opened seem to attract the abuse of terms traditional in other senses: (1) ergative (2) middle".

"Ergative is a verb which can be used both transitively and intransitively with the same meaning. For example, boiled in:

He boiled a kettle of water. The kettle boiled." (Richards & Schmidt 2002, p.184). (Trask 2008, p. 37) asserts that "in ergative languages, the subject of an intransitive verb is treated the same as the direct object of a transitive verb…. In English for example, the grammar in the two sentences Helen opened the door and The door opened is quite different, though the agency of the event might be thought of as being the same". For Radford (2006), ergative "has come to be used to denote verbs like break which occur both in structures like 'Someone broke the window' and in structures like 'The window broke', where the window seems to play the same semantic/thematic role in both types of sentences, in spite of being the complement of broke in one sentence and the subject of broke in the other"(p. 450). Giving the following examples:

They will roll the ball down the hill The ball will roll down the hill.

They broke the vase into pieces The vase broke into pieces

The closed the store down The store closed down

Radford argues that "many three-place transitive predicates like roll can be used as two-place intransitive predicates. Verbs which allow this dual use as three-place or two-place predicator are sometimes referred to as ergative predicates" (P.377-388). In the forthcoming sections, the concept "inchoative" as a verb expressing a change of state, and its contrast with passive and active will be scrutinized. 3. Data of the Study The data of the study are simple sentences, collected from elementary language text-books. Simple sentences are deliberately chosen for the convenience of the discussions and argumentations. 4. Discussions From what argued before, one may come to the conclusion that an inchoative sentence has a structure held between passive and active. That is why it is also referred to by some scholars as 'middle'. Tables (1) and (2) show the middle structure of the inchoative in English and Persian, respectively: Table 1. The middle structure of the inchoative in English and Persian

Table (1) illustrates that, on the one hand, the active and inchoative sentences, unlike the passive sentence, benefit from active verbs. On the other hand, the subject of the inchoative and passive sentences, unlike the active sentence, overlaps the patient. The subject-agent overlap in the active sentence (1) requires that its verb be transitive, while the subject-patient overlaps in (2) and (3) requires that their verbs be intransitive.

Voice Subject Verb Post-verbal Element

(1) Active Agent The kid broke (tr.)

the vase

(2) Inchoative Patient The vase broke. (in.)

(3) Passive Patient The vase was broken (in.)

by the kid.

IJALEL 2 (2):153-157, 2013 155 Table 2. The middle structure of the inchoative in English and Persian

Sentence (4 to 6 ) in Table (2) are the translation of sentences (1 to 3) into Persian. Except for the fact that Persian, unlike English, is a verb-last language, there is a thorough similarity between the two languages with regard to the fact that inchoative is in contrast both with active and passive. 4.1 Passive in Persian Passive in Persian is totally different from that of English and some other European languages. This difference is to the extent that has misled some scholars to claim that "There is no passive structure in Persian, all cases referred to as passive are, in fact, inchoative structures. There is no active-passive contrast in Persian … however, some inchoative structures with the verb /ʃodæn /(become) can be found"(Moyene, 1974, p. 265). Contrary to what Moyene (1974) claims, Persian, like English and many other languages, does have passive. What makes the Persian passive different is the fact that long (agentive) passive sentences are not formed in Persian. Many scholars (Bahar et al 1963, Lazard 1957, Lambton 1966, Najafi 1987, Shari’at 1988, Natel Khanlari 1991, Vahidian Kamyar 1992, Jabbari, 2003 & 2012) argue that in Persian, agentive or long passive sentences are not made. Persian passive sentences, referred to as /mæʤhul/(literary meaning unknown) are formed only when the agent or doer of the action is unknown or not intended to be known for any reason. The Persian passive is " made today with the help of the past participle of the main verb of the active sentence and the auxiliary verb (/ʃodæn/=become)" (Farshidvard, 2003, p.431). The following examples manifest the formation of passive in Persian: (7) /bæʧe goldan -ra ʃekæst / The kid broke the vase.

kid vase-ACCmarker broke (8) / goldan ʃekæste ʃod / The vase was broken. vase broken became

(7) is a Persian active sentence. (8) is its corresponding short (agent-less) passive sentence. Long (agentive) passive sentences as (9) are not naturally made in Persian: (9) / goldan be-væsile-je bæʧe ʃekæste ʃod/ The vase was broken by the kid. vase by- means-of kid broken became Sentences like (9), if any, is the result of word-for-word translation from English or other European languages. The reasons why long (agentive) passive sentences are not made in Persian and how long passive sentences are translated into Persian, are beyond the scope of this article. However, there is a close relationship between Persian inchoative and lack of agentive passives in Persian which will be elaborated in due course. As was mentioned earlier, in Persian, passive is, most of the time (not always), in contrast with inchoative. (10) is the an inchoative sentence corresponding to the passive sentence (8):

(10) /goldan ʃekæst/ The vase broke. vase broke

Examples (8) and (10) show how inchoative and passive have different structures. However, it is not always the case. What makes the Persian inchoative unique is the fact that under certain circumstances, passive and inchoative sentences become structurally identical and therefore ambiguousi. The ambiguity between passive and inchoative in Persian happens under two circumstances: a-There is an exception (though rule-governed) to the passivization rule in Persian to the effect that "whenever the verb of an active sentence is a compound verb made of a noun or an adjective plus the verbal element (/kærdæn/= to do),

Voice Subject Pre-verbal Element

Verb

(4) Active Agent /bæʧe goldan-ra kid vase-DO marker

ʃekæst/ broke (tr.)

(5) Inchoative Patient /goldan vase

ʃekæst/ broke. (in.)

(6) Passive Patient /goldan ʃekæste ʃod/ vase broken became (in.)

IJALEL 2 (2):153-157, 2013 156 then to make the sentence passive, the verb is not changed to a past participle. By virtue of the 'least effort principle', the verbal part (/kærdæn/=to do) directly changes to (/ʃodæn/=become)" (Farshidvard, 2003, p.433). In this case, the consequent passive sentence is identical with the corresponding inchoative sentence. Consider the active sentence (11): (11) / bæʧe dær-ra baz kærd/ The kid opened the door. kid door-ACCmarker open did Overgeneralizing the above-mentioned "exception" to the rule results in the formation of the ungrammatical sentence (12): (12) * / dær baz kærde ʃod/ door open done became The corresponding (grammatical) passive of (11) is rather (13): (13) /dær baz ʃod/ door open became However,(13) is ambiguous between passive and inchoative, :i.e. .it has the following two interpretations:

(14) The door was opened. (Passive) (15) The door opened. (Inchoative)

It is worth mentioning that the above-mentioned ambiguity is subject to some limitations. Compare the following pair of sentences: (16) /name zærd ʃod/ The letter was yellowed/The letter yellowed. letter torn became (Passive) (Inchoative) (17) /name post/taIp ʃod/ The letter was posted/typed. letter post/type became (Passive) (16) is ambiguous between passive and inchoative, while (17) is not. Sentence (17) is only passive and cannot be inchoative. The difference is that /post kærdæn/(to post) and /taIp kærdæn/ (to type) necessarily need a human agent. No letter can be posted or typed by itself. This is not the case with (16). A letter can be yellowed by someone or by itself (e.g. decay). b- If a past participle is also used as an adjective, then, again, the resulted sentence has two reads. i.e. passive and inchoative.:

(18) / bæʧe dær-ra bæst/ The kid closed the door. kid door-ACCmarker close-past (19) / dær bæst-e ʃod/ The door was closed/ The door closed. door closed-pp became (Passive) (Inchoative) Unlike the active verb in sentence (11), the verb in the active sentence (18) is the simple verb / bæstæn/(= to close). Yet, (19) is ambiguous. Here the ambiguity is owing to the fact that /bæst-e/(=closed), the past participle of the verb, also serves as an adjective. 5. Applications Differentiating passive from inchoative is an important issue in language learning and language teaching. Moreover, there is a considerable difference between Persian and English inchoative. While in English passive and inchoative are in contrast, in Persian, under the aforesaid circumstances, passive and inchoative have the same surface structure. These facts are ignored, by language textbooks and/or teachers, especially in Iran. They limit 'voice' simply to active and passive and neglect inchoative as the third voice. This has resulted in the formation of some intended passive sentences, where inchoative has been appropriate. Some examples are as follows: I will be graduated next semester. for I will graduate next semester.

My father has been retired. for My father has retired.

Poems are not translated well for Poems do not translate well.

Researchii has shown that some Iranian EFL learners who were provided with a short-term instruction on passive-inchoative contrast in Persian and English, did significantly better in the post-tests. 6. Concluding remarks Inchoative, also referred to as 'ergative' and 'middle' is a third voice standing in contrast with both active and passive universallyiii. In Persian, however, sometimes, inchoative and passive surfaced the same. This, hand in hand with lack of a minute instruction on the said concepts, has resulted in the unnecessary use of passive construction where inchoative is appropriate, by Iranian EFL learners.

IJALEL 2 (2):153-157, 2013 157 7. Suggestion for further studies The findings of this research show that although inchoative is a universal linguistic concept, it may be formally different in different languages, as is the case in Persian and English. It is suggested that similar research be conducted on other languages such as French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Arabic. etc. References Bahar, M.T., Rashid Yasemi, Gh.R., Gharib, A. , Homa'I, J. & Foruzanfar, B. (1963). Persian Grammar. Iranian Text-book Publications. Jabbari, M.J. (2003) Passive Voice in Persian and English. Iranian Journal of Linguistics, Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 1, Iran University Press. Jabbari, M.J. (2012) A Non-passive Markedness Process in Persian. A Functional Sentence Perspective Approach. Global Research Journal of Education. Vol. 2(2) pp.023 – 029 December 2012. Farshidvard, Kh. (2003). Today's Comprehensive Grammar. Sokhan Publication, Tehran, Iran. Lambton, A.K.S. (1983). Persian Grammar. Cambridge University Press. Lazard, G. (1957). Grammaire Du Persan Contemporain. Paris. Libraire C. Kincksieck. Marchotte, J.P. (2005). Causative Alteration Errors in Child Language Acquistion. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Stanford University. Matthews, P. (2007). Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. Moyne, J. (1974). The So-called passive in Persian. Foundations of Language, 12:249-267. Najafi, A. (1987). The vase was broken by the kid. Nashr-e Danesh. Iran University Press. Natel Khanlari, P. (1991). Persian Grammar. Tus Publication, Tehran. Piňón, Ch. (2000).Modelling the Causative-inchoative Alteration.Linguistische Arbeitsberichte 76, 2001. 273-293. Richards, J.C. & Schmidt, R. (2002). Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Longman, UK. Radford, A. (2006). Minimalist Syntax. Exploring the structure of English. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics Shari’at, J. (1988). Persian Grammar. Asatir Publication, Tehran, Iran. Trask, R.L. (1993) A dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics. Routledge.

Trask, R.L. (2008). Language and Linguistics, The Key Concepts, Routledge. Vahidian Kamyar, T. (1992). The Past Participle and its Significance in Persian. Iranian Journal of Linguistics, Vol.9, No. 2. 60-72. Iranian University Press. Windfuhr, G.L. (1979). Persian Grammar History and State of its Study. Mouton Publishers. Notes i-There is another passive construction in Persian which is never ambiguous. Giving the example: /dær-ra baz kærdænd (one or more) opened the door/the door was opened, Windfuhr (1979) shows that " an agent is implied and surfaced in the form of 3rd plural ending, but is unspecified"(p.111). ii- An English placement test is given, by the English Department of Yasouj University (Iran), where this researcher works, to newly admitted undergraduate students, in the beginning of each academic year. The writer, having coordinated with the department, has conducted the following experimental study, a number of times (6 times, so-far). Each time, as many as 30 students having obtained the lowest scores on the grammar part of the placement test are divided into two 15-student sections of Elementary English course. One section (the control group) was provided only with a placebo, i.e. the conventional method of teaching active passive contrast. The other section (the experimental group) received treatment, i.e. teaching the passive-inchoative contrast in Persian and English, upon introducing the concept active. The period of the instruction for both groups has been equal, amounting to 6 hours within 3 weeks. In the end, the two groups were given an identical mid-term exam. As was predicted, the scores obtained by the experimental group proved significantly higher than those of the control group, in all instances of the experiment. iii- Examples are indicative of a thorough similarity of inchoative-passive contrast in French and German and English: French German (Active) L'enfent ouvrait la porte. Das Kind öffnete die Tür. The kid opened the door. (Inchoative) La porte s'ouvrait . Die Tür öffnete sich. The door opened. Die Tür wurde offen. The door became open. (Passive) La porte a été ouvirt . Die Tür wurde geöffnet. The door was opened.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

James Joyce’s “An Encounter”: From the Perversion of an Escape to the Perversion of the Fatherhood

Omid Ghahreman

English Literature PhD Candidate, Shiraz University Eram Campus, Faculty of Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

E-mail: ghahreman.omid@yahoo.com

Farideh Pourgiv (Corresponding author) Professor of English Literature, Shiraz University

Eram Campus, Faculty of Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran E-mail: fpourgiv@rose.shirazu.ac.ir

Received: 13-12- 2012 Accepted: 22-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.158 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.158 Abstract Ambiguity is an indispensable part of modern fiction that has always implied what is always merited as the ‘literariness’ and ‘sophistication’ of that fiction. In modern fiction, particularly in James Joyce’s Dubliners, ambiguity and indeterminacy transcend the textual difficulty and achieve a ‘mysterious’ level. That is to say, Joyce renders the frequent unfinished and elliptical sentences, as well as the absent words, phrases, paragraphs, and even characters more significant than all those present. In Dubliners, this unique concept of ambiguity and indeterminacy, that tends to be Joyce’s narrative signature, is called “gnomonic” – a term derived from Euclid’s gnomon. A gnomon is formed by removing a similar parallelogram from a corner of a larger parallelogram. Gnomons in Dubliners indicate not only the incompletion and failure, but also the dialectical cycle of presence and absence. Words prove mostly insufficient to convey meaning, and actions are subject to failure even before they start. But Joyce’s approach to gnomon is not a passively confirming one. Joyce skillfully benefits the mysterious condition that his gnomonics make for sustaining his creativity in order to overwhelm intellectually the distorting powers in his society. Therefore, if Joyce’s stories seem unsolvable and vague, it is not because of their merely textual difficulties. They present, instead, some gnomonic mysteries of varying degrees and depths. As a way to get readers to read Joyce thoughtfully, this study is going to shed light on this unique gnomonic nature of Joycean mysteries in “An Encounter”, one of the childhood stories in Dubliners. Keywords: Joyce, Dubliners, An Encounter, ambiguity, gnomon, paralysis 1. Introduction Once writing about Dubliners (1914 ), David Daiches (1960) underlined that the narrative unity and the thematic coherence in this collection of stories owe so much to Joyce’s special kind of pattern:

Joyce’s realism in Dubliners is not therefore the casual observation of the stray photographer, nor is it the piling-up of unrelated details. All the stories are deliberately and carefully patterned, all have a density, a fullness of implication, which the even tone of the narrative by disguising [italics added] only renders more effective (31).

Joyce blends realistic details and symbols to form his pattern, and this pattern endorses many deliberately-designed blanks in both form and content of the stories in Dubliners. All this patterning with its complexity, vigor, and ambiguity represents Joyce’s disguising art. And this art finally makes Joyce’s stories mysteriously ambiguous. Joyce even does not hesitate to call himself openly an international figure of mystery. In a letter to Carlo Linati, Joyce calls Dubliners a mystery, while this mystery could not be accomplished without his mysterious craftsmanship:

The story of my books is very strange. I had to fight 10 years in order to publish Dubliners. The whole edition of 1000 copies was burnt by arson in Dublin: some said it was the work of the priests, some of my enemies, some of the Viceroy or of his wife the Countess of Aberdeen. It is in short a mystery. (qtd. in Bulson, 2006: 34)

This mystery, or as it is called ambiguity, is the focal point that surrounds the origin and development of Joyce’s other works as well. As a matter of fact, what we confront as ‘ambiguous’ or ‘enigmatic’ in stories of other modern writers, we should call ‘gnomonic’ in Joyce. Gnomonic, the true nature of Joyce’s ambiguity, can be what Philip F. Herring (1987) justifiably discusses as Joyce’s “uncertainty principle”. In Joyce’s stories, this uncertainty principle crystallizes the nature of Joyce’s narrative and characterization where he tends to conceal rather than to reveal (Borg, 2010: 137). Herring believes,

IJALEL 2 (2):158-164, 2013 159 In Joyce’s case we normally find that an essential piece of evidence is missing that would allow us a measure of security in interpretation; readers are invited to fill the gap by speculating about what is missing, such as what happened in an important scene omitted from a plot sequence. Uncertainty is to a great extent true of all literary texts, but it is untrue that authors before Joyce generally had uncertainty principles (P. xii).

Marian Eide (2004), however, sees the nature of this uncertainty very much similar to aporia: “the breakdown of immediate or accessible meaning”. Whereas aporia signifies uncertainty and hopelessness in Beckett, for Joyce “the undermining of determinate meaning, the path that gives way, all of these are intellectual opportunities for creativity, for path breaking, for the entertaining of possibility from within the impossible. (P. 30). Considerably, the absent words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and even characters are rendered more significant than all those present. Lee Spinks (2009) would rather see this principle as “the ‘meanness’ of Joyce’s narrative” (50). Kain (1957) believes that “Joyce is a writer who must be heeded. This awareness deepens with each reading…[His writings] are that of a many-faceted prism, catching half-lights and projecting magnified distortions” (3). But that is not the climax yet; Joyce is a writer, continues Kain, whose incomparable joke was that he could be “the invisible man who was even able to make his invisibility invisible” (6). Joyce, the master of disguise, made an enormous effort to live and create an ‘enigma’ leaving behind puzzling blanks of various sizes and shapes for both readers and critics to recognize and fill. But what can really ‘gnomonic’ be, after all? 2. Discussion As mentioned in Euclid’s Book II of Elements, a gnomon is the part of a parallelogram which remains after a similar parallelogram has been taken away from one of its corners. The smaller parallelogram is considered to be the absently present form and its relation to the bigger-but-incomplete one endorses a symbolic, rather micro-macrocosmic, absence/presence pattern which has served Joyce to build a notional/functional foundation in his fiction (Simon 49). The following pictures clearly illustrate how a gnomon is formed: Inasmuch as the gnomon is an incomplete parallelogram, this incompleteness leads meaningfully to the ‘gnomonic existence’ of Dubliners. To Joyce, the master of the words, the similarity between the words “parallelogram” and “paralysis” must have been remarkably noticeable. Dubliners, each a gnomon taken from the main parallelogram of Dublin, are all caught in the incomplete areas of human relationships. John Gordon (1995) sees even Joyce’s country as a gnomon when he writes:

To make a gnomon, what you do is to take a rectangular piece of paper, crease it in half along width and length, then cut out one of the four smaller rectangles marked by the creases. (The map of modern-day Ireland, properly rendered, approximates such a figure.) A gnomon illustrates engineered absence, a sign of something subtracted. (online)

To put it into nutshell, a gnomon, according to Herring (1987), can be a “key synecdoche of absence, part of a political rhetoric of silence within a larger framework of language” (4). Being also the sign of absence, gnomons indicate imperfection, deficiency, and loss. The failings and fallings of ‘no-men’, their dislocations, their failure to communicate and belong make them potential gnomons in Dubliners. Gnomonic Dubliners mostly reveal the tragic-comic epiphanies

a. Picture (1)

b. Picture (2)

IJALEL 2 (2):158-164, 2013 160 of life-traps in which they are stuck; they are also doomed to be followed and surrounded by the shadows of the absent ones heading on in the universal marathon of the frustration – from the living to the dead. Nonetheless, the etymology of the word “gnomon” reveals that what Joyce introduces as Euclid’s gnomon is in fact the tip of an iceberg. “Gnomon” comes from the Greek meaning an “interpreter”. An interpreter is someone who reveals and elaborates; someone who, like Joyce, casts lights at the end of each of his stories. Gnomon also means the “pointer on a sundial” which casts shadows though various in size but not in shape – like various gnomons different in size but similar in shape. Joyce’s remarkable administration of the gnomonic play of light-dark must be taken into account here since the light-dark pattern has a major role in Dubliners. Gnomon can also be defined as a “carpenter's T-square” which indicates “creation” and “precision”. Using his T-square gnomons, Joyce (1916) engraves his portrait as a larger-than-life creator who precisely “like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails” (A Portrait 358). The following study therefore, intends to give an analysis of Joyce’s main principle of ambiguity in “An Encounter” demonstrating its distinctively gnomonic aspect of narrative and characterization. “An Encounter” is the story of a young seeking boy whose romantic dreams and initial attempts for adventure lead him to nowhere but embitterment and disappointment. Priesthood (absent or present) still casts an inevitably unpleasant shadow over the lives of the youth inflicting them with frustration, disillusionment, and menace. We can find more clues to connect this story to “The Sisters”. Thematically, we may consider them both archetypal. The former employs the image of the father though missed and lost; the latter employs the archetype of journey or quest. Interestingly, the image of the missing father resurfaces in “An Encounter” as Mahony asks “what would Father Butler be doing out at the Pigeon House” (Dubliners 14), while the idea of a bitter journey is already implied in “The Sisters” when the young protagonist accompanies his aunt to the dead priest’s house filled with void and death. The unnamed young protagonist in “An Encounter”, like his counterpart in “The Sisters”, is a small gnomon too: a loosened end of a Dubliner family. Whether he has a family or who his parents are is going to remain a dark point to the readers. We miss this information about his family as he himself seems to be missing his family physically and symbolically as well. That makes this young protagonist stay remarkably at a distance from his surroundings like a child gnomon detached from the parent parallelogram. Such a detachment, of course, sharpens his power of observation and fantasies: “when the restraining influence of the school was at a distance I began to hunger again for wild sensations, for the escape which those chronicles of disorder alone seemed to offer me” (Dubliners 14). He is also a gnomon/know-man seeking real adventures beyond the limiting borders of Dublin; he reads stories of the Wild West where he can imaginatively sneak through the “opened doors of escape” (Dubliners 13). After all, like almost all protagonists in Dubliners–except in “The Dead”–who move eastward to experience new life, adventure, or the future, the boy’s destination is the Pigeon House, at Dublin’s most easterly point. Naturally, for those readers who have only read Dubliners or those who have no idea what a significant role “interrelatedness” and “continuity” play in Joyce’s works, Joyce’s insistence on presenting the young boy parentless and his emphasis on the boy’s lack of sense of belonging may be puzzling and inconceivable, perhaps. In “An Encounter”, one can say, Joyce introduces the gnomonic prototype of his artist, Stephen Dedalus, whose presence and thoughts will dominate his later major works. This young story-teller provokes, too, a sense of mystery and skepticism by keeping us in the dark about his real age (and real feelings, perhaps). Apparently older than the young boy in “The Sisters”, he attends school, reads American stories of the Wild West, takes part in some Indian battles arranged by his classmates, and, despite his young nature, tries to keep away from those childish conducts. It is clear that he does not fit in there feeling sick and tired of their foolish games. He sounds to be a seeker, a know-man/gnomon, who desires to walk away from his corner in the paralyzing life of Dublin. Studying the nameless young more, we can discover a gnomonic portrait of Joyce’s young artist, Stephen Dedalus, in him. He is interested in the adventures of the Wild West, but he likes “better some American detective stories which were traversed from time to time by unkempt fierce and beautiful girls” (Dubliners 13). The romantic mystery mirrored in the boy’s thought evokes the similar one that will paint Stephen’s childhood. Stephen’s mind is occupied with romantic notions of escape and flight, while he dreams of the imaginative life of an adventurer and exile. We can take this, for instance, worthy of note when we find Stephen, too, concerned with revenge and love, some cliché motifs of detective stories: “His evenings were his own; and he pored over a ragged translation of The Count of Monte Cristo. The figure of that dark avenger stood forth in his mind for whatever he had heard or divined in childhood of the strange and terrible” (A Portrait 229). As it will be discussed later, Joyce does not hesitate to present some puzzling bits and pieces of premature Stephen’s (or his) gnomonic portraits long before he is created to highlight the geometric design of his emerging immense universe. More to the point, the young Stephen was only bodily on the playground of the school but hardly there at all distancing himself gradually from the familiar settings and people–be it his family and home or his friends and homeland. Even when he becomes ill at the school, he desires to get “better slowly”, so that he could get himself a book and fly away on the wings of imagination to faraway lands: “There was a book in the library about Holland. There were lovely foreign names in it and pictures of strange looking cities and ships. It made you feel so happy” (A Portrait 198). Evidently, Stephen is warming up for his eventual vocation as an artist in exile, and, considering this fact, it is not difficult for the readers to recall the young boy in “An Encounter” as he feels almost the same desiring to be aboard sailing away abroad:

IJALEL 2 (2):158-164, 2013 161 The mimic warfare of the evening became at last as wearisome to me as the routine of the school in the morning because I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad. (Dubliners 14)

How can someone, who believes the real adventures must be sought abroad, be just an inexperienced, simple-minded young boy? This gnomonic uncertainty about him is certainly rich to reconsider later on. Although less enigmatic and elliptical than the opening story (“The Sisters”), “An Encounter” has its own mysterious twists and gnomonic moments for readers to challenge. The gnomonic number “three” covers the whole story as it refers to the three parts that include the main events as well as the number of the characters mainly involved. The first part is the young boy’s introductory paragraphs about his playmates, some childish games, school, and teachers. The second part opens as he plans to escape the school with some classmates for a day in order to pay an entertaining visit to the Pigeon House. And the last, and the epiphanic, section is when the boys encounter the queer old man. But this adventurous journey is doomed to fail since the boys “must have at least three” (Dubliners 15), while, due to the absence of Leo Dillon, they are two beings more incomplete than a gnomon. All the joy, sunlight, and hope they have are going to fade away by Leo’s failure to show: Leo’s absence is the first omen that all will not go according to plan. “Two companions appear, one remains hidden; this void will be filled by another who will define the geometric shape of their adventure” (Herring, 1987: 21). Interestingly, the strange new-comer (the replaced third corner) intensifies the sense of loss, absence, and gap himself since the young boy notices the “great gaps in his mouth between his yellow teeth” (Dubliners 17). Like all other quests and adventures in Dublin, the quest for the Pigeon House is gnomonic being incomplete and hopeless; it is destined to end in frustration. The disillusionment is on its way from the very beginning. The fact that “summer holidays [italics mine] were near at hand” (Dubliners 14) when the boy decides to break out of the school foreshadows the arrival of some “hollow”, vacant days. There is no wonder why “The Sisters” begins, too, with the “vacation” time implying spiritual “vacancy” and “emptiness”. Then, mysteriously, the night before their plan begins, the boy and his two fellow classmates are “all vaguely excited” (Dubliners 14). Why vaguely? Is it only because they feel a little anxious over their exciting short trip as young outlaws? Or is it ironic? Leo Dillon’s failure to show next day can be read as another warning that something is missing in the illusion they pursuit, but they start their journey anyway. Watching the barges and the sailing vessels on the river, the boy “saw, or imagined, the geography which had been scantily close to [him] at school gradually taking substance under [his] eyes. School and home seemed to recede from [them] and their influences upon [them] seemed to wane (Dubliners 16). But, ironically, what is meant to wane and vanish gradually is indeed the “scantily close geography” which the boy fancies about. The adverb “scantily” (which means poorly and insufficiently) with its gnomonic quality insists that the adventurous freedom – the potentially missing corner of the boy’s gnomonic life – will drift away for sure. Having landed on the other side of the Liffey and noticed a Norwegian sailing ship, the boy examines “the foreign sailors to see had any of them green eyes for [he] had some confused notion…” (Dubliners 16). Gifford considers green eyes as “the eyes of a vigorous, youthful man, the ultimate adventurer” (39) or it may be the color of Odyssey’s eyes – the grand adventurer. But all the boy finds is blue, gray, and black (the fourth color is missing) except for a tall sailor “whose eyes could have been called green”, and he only shouts “All right! All right!” (Dubliners 16) which sounds so commonplace and disappointing like the conversation the young boy overhears in the dark and deserted bazaar at the end of “Araby” (Dubliners 25), or Hynes’ recitation of the poem he wrote for Parnell in “Ivy Day in Committee Room” (Dubliners 105-107). The Norwegian sailor becomes a dull sight for the boys soon, and the secret disappointment they feel accompanies them on through the sultry day along the squalid streets. As the boys wander “through the squalid streets where the families of the fishermen live”, they notice that the “day had grown sultry” (Dubliners 16). Joyce’s choice of the alliterative “sultry” and “squalid” is so smart and serves the gnomonic purpose he follows here. “Sultry” can be defined as hot and humid, but it also means “airless” implying suffocation and lifelessness. “Squalid” means dirty and foul, but its resemblance to “square” and the connotative notion of the geometrically geographical entrapment of Dublin streets reveals the gnomonic existence of our young Dubliner. His mission is to be nipped in the bud, and eventually the young narrator surrenders to the impossibility of his short flight: “It was too late and we were too tired to carry out our project of visiting the Pigeon House” (Dubliners 16). The sun-dial (shadow-making) function of gnomon is also at work here since the “sun [goes] in behind some clouds” (Dubliners 17) and symbolic light is going to be missing, gradually, in the life of our young exploring hero. Sidney Feshbach (1965) emphasizes the traditional association of sunset in the story with death saying “[t]he passage of the sun reflects the predicament of the narrator in the universal order – the bright sun has agreed with his free life and the clouded sun serves to herald his imminent death” (83). The young boy is getting deprived of joy and blossoms of his youth, walking headlong into a life empty of aspiration, imaginative freedom, and natural education. Similarly, Herring (1987) states that the “price [the young boy] pays for such rude instruction will be a sense of humiliation that will not soon fade. [He has] sought light, positive images, and [has] been taught by negatives, shadows, the incomplete geometric shape instead of the whole one” (17). So, the young know-man is converted finally, due to the desperate circumstances, to such a helpless, joyless no-man. As the day wanes, the journey toward the Pigeon House is diverted to the bank of the Dodder; but the darker omens prevail: Mahony is unhappy, clouds obscure the sun, and the boys’ thoughts have turned jaded and their provisions to crumbs. But they have still got another thing coming. Like bits and pieces of clues in detective stories (that the young boy likes), such a collection of gnomonic diversions prepares the suspicious minds of the readers and the agitated

IJALEL 2 (2):158-164, 2013 162 emotions of the boys for the final dark revelation of their frustrating journey. But before the boys encounter the weird pervert, their physical entrapment seems to have become complete as they are seen surrounded by the unseen borders of the geometric field: “There was nobody but ourselves in the field” (Dubliners 17). After some silent minutes pass by, the boy sees “a man approaching from the far end of the field” (Dubliners 17). The significance of the rectangular field and a moving far corner of that is explicit. Moreover, carrying a stick, the man can be imagined as if he walks on three legs. Anyway, he soon diverts his own way, started from a far corner, and approaches the boys. On the realistic level of the story, and as he appears to the boy, this poorly dressed old man would be an old pervert who is pleased with his sadistic concern with sensuality and violence. His behavior is strange enough and his questions are so unusually frank that the boy thinks, “[h]is attitude…struck me as strangely liberal in a man of his age” (Dubliners 18). The boy feels appalled by the way he talks, especially when he “shivered once or twice as if he feared something or felt a sudden chill” (Dubliners 18). But as far as gnomon is concerned, perversion cannot be a sufficient element to illustrate this old wandering man’s character. To approach the old queer man, one has to approach an elaborate mystery. Although his mysterious presence is subject to many uncertain interpretations, the larger-than-life absence it evokes will certainly be worthy of note. Undoubtedly, the old man appears to be “Death” personified. He does not fail to reveal the spiritual death and moral paralysis of a society determined to kill the sense of freedom and life which the youth have right to proclaim and enjoy. The man looks decaying: “He was shabbily dressed in a suit of greenish-black…He seemed to be fairly old for his mustache was ashen-grey” (Dubliners 17). He is the terminating force that puts an end to the probable progress of the boy’s pilgrim to the Pigeon House. He begins talking about youth, excitement, and sex, but his conclusion is centered on only sadistic punishment and pain. Having been surprised by the old man’s forgotten liberalism, the boy narrates that “[a] slap on the hand or a box on the ear was no good: what he wanted was to get a nice warm whipping” (Dubliners 19), and this horrifying monologue is continued. The man’s mind seems to be trapped in an endless vicious cycle: “his mind was circling round and round in the same orbit. At times he spoke as if he were alluding to some fact that everybody knew” (Dubliners 18). And what is more distressing and factual than our final step, the end of our journey? Death. Sidney Feshbach (1965) gives his own account of the mysterious old man underlining the death symbolism he inspires

If we listen closely to what the man says we find that he speaks with increasing excitement about lost childhood (mutability), books and study (sobriety), and the play of sex and the punishment due the players (anti-carpe diem). The man, his words, and his manners, like the death’s-head, bring Death’s message, “Remember the end.” (84)

And the end for the boy is nothing but the symbolic, unconscious death caused by the institutional and institutionalized paralysis and decay presented by a dying world. The most mysterious and gnomonic moment, however, in the narration is when the old man leaves the boys for a couple of minutes walking away to the end of the field. What he really does in that far end of the field is uncertain and elliptical, but Mahony’s reaction and the young boy’s suspicious silence strengthen the idea of the perverted nature of the old man’s unnamed conduct.

We remained silent when he had gone. After a silence of a few minutes I heard Mahony exclaim: ‘I say! Look what he’s doing!’ As I neither answered nor raised my eyes Mahony exclaimed again: ‘I say…He’s a queer old josser!’ (Dubliners 18)

Whether the queer old man is urinating or masturbating, it is a moot point–we are not told that, and the young boy never informs us. Either way, the old man seems to be what we have known him to be, after all. But, quite ironically, we find “josser” to be a word that has come from a religious background. Both Gifford (1982: 40) and Tindall (1963: 18) are certain that “josser” is a Pidgin English for a worshipper of a “joss” or “god”. Interestingly, the word resurfaces once again in Finnegans Wake:

all too many much illusions through photoprismic velamina of hueful panepiphanal world spectacurum of Lord Joss, the of which zoantholitic furniture, from mineral to through vegetal to animal, not appear to full up together fallen man than under but one photoreflection of the several iridals gradations of solar light…(611)

This passage describes Muta, an Irish druid, and Bishop Berkeley who are the defenders of the world of dream and the power of imagination, but fall victim to utility and fact–so much reminiscent of the main theme of “An Encounter”. Obviously, the old pervert does not represent God, but what one may find instead of God or one who is supposed to be a link between people and God: a priest. As mentioned before, Joyce does not always apply Euclid’s gnomons to his story-telling style in Dubliners. He has even been influenced by Bruno’s interpretation of gnomon. For Bruno, the gnomon becomes one more proof of the paradoxical doctrine of the fundamental identity of opposites or the coincidence of the contraries. That is to say, a figure that becomes enlarged to form an approximately maximum-sized version of its own will be identical in shape to the same figure that becomes diminished to the minimum-sized version of its own. So the maximum and the minimum come together in one existence resembling the shadows made by a sun-dial–all various in size by similar in shape. Now we realize the gnomonic analogy between the queer old man and the priest-teacher who are the very essence of the society that the young boy wished to escape.

IJALEL 2 (2):158-164, 2013 163 Ironically, the priest and the pervert, both, are associated with mystery and seriousness when the time comes for their business. Like a priest that is a vessel of the Christian mysteries and whispers enchantingly in a confession-box, the old man “lowered his voice and spoke mysteriously as if he were telling [the boys] something secret which he didn’t wish others to overhear” (Dubliners 18). They both hold some secrets unknown to common people. Father Butler reprimands the boys for their reading stories of the Wild West and awakens the sense of guilt in them. He believes that someone who writes such stories is “some wretched fellow who writes these things for a drink”, so he advises the boys strongly to “get at [their] work or…” (Dubliners 14). His incomplete gnomonic advice (threat, better to say) suggests punishment, obviously. Similarly, the old man alarms the boy by describing what awaits him if he gets involved in affection and love (romance). He says that “if a boy had a girl for a sweetheart and told lies about it then he would give him such a whipping as no boy ever got in this world…there was nothing in this world he would like so well as that” (Dubliners 19). Consequently, as the priest awakens the sense of guilt, and the old man arouses that of atonement in the boy, they are, certainly, two sides of the religion in Ireland. The paralyzing counterparts, the priest and the pervert, interrupt the boy’s quest, dry up his sea of romance, and submit his imagination to the diminishing clutches of paralyzing church. There is no wonder why almost all priestly figures in Dublin do not have the power to offer hope and salvation and are, as a matter of fact, far from being devout and faithful themselves. Their inherently spiritual vacancy must have been too vast for their so-called vocations. It is better to recall the opening paragraph of “An Encounter”. The first sentence immediately introduces Joe Dillon who (despite his frequently church-going parents) is said to be the main source of the Wild West – utterly despised by Father Butler – and the conductor of the Indian battles for the kids. Physically threatening, Joe Dillon also “played too fiercely for [the young boy and other kids] who were younger and more timid” and every game was to end with his “war dance of victory” (Dubliners 13). Therefore, it is incredible for everyone to learn that Joe finally “had a vocation for the priesthood” (Dubliners 13), but it is nothing but the truth. The young savage is now a priest and Joyce’s rich irony could not be more effective. These priests, therefore, can only teach frustration and despair to our young narrator so that he would become a fallen man, a no-man (gnomon), in a gnomonic land where the tides of darkness are creeping forever. But Father Butler is not the only recognizable counterpart for the old pervert. The old man’s age, physical appearance, and his mysterious behavior restore the image of Father Flynn in “The Sisters”. They both wanted to teach the young boys. The old man was “shabbily dressed in a suit of greenish-black” (Dubliners 17); correspondingly, the “constant showers of snuff” had given Father Flynn’s black garments “a green faded look” (Dubliners 8). Their analogous signs of spiritual paralysis and physical decay are also noticeable. The young boy wondered why Father Flynn’s “lips were so moist with spittle” (Dubliners 7), and became dismayed when Father Flynn smiled and uncovered “his big discoloured teeth and let his tongue lie upon his lower lip” (Dubliners 8). The young boy in the second story, too, wonders why the old man “shivered once or twice as if he feared something or felt a sudden chill” (Dubliners 18). When the old man smiles, the boy notices that he has “great gaps in his mouth between his yellow teeth” (Dubliners 17). And finally, the decaying-priest figures (whose presence echoes hopelessly loss and absence) reassure the readers of the sad-but-true reality of Dublin life: Ambition, energy, free will, revolutionary zeal–these forces play no role and in a city and country where centuries of political and religious oppression had caused a general paralysis of mind and will. Transcendence came only through death and emigration. 3. Conclusion What seems to be the most significant point here, beyond all these mystery-based analogies, is the larger-than-life gnomonic absence that the old pervert evokes. The fact that he is a counterpart for the inefficient, paralyzed and missing priests opens up a new dimension in my study of this story. In “The Sisters”, Father Flynn is dead and missing and the church and his house echo his physical and spiritual absence. Father Butler, in “An Encounter”, is exactly absent where he has to be present. As Leo Dillon is afraid they might encounter Father Butler on their way to the Pigeon House, Mahony asks, “very sensibly, what would Father Butler be doing out at the Pigeon House” (Dubliners 14). ). And if the Pigeon House is going to be empty of the priest, what other blessing presence can be there? Pigeon House, being the Dublin electricity and power station, represents symbolically the light and power – the metonymy for God. Not surprisingly, therefore, the pigeon, or dove, symbolizes the Holy Ghost also. The gnomonic integrity of Trinity is to be shattered with the present Son (the boy) and Holy Ghost and the absent third member: God (Father). What spiritual absence can be louder than this? The missing, absent father/priest and his suffocating hopeless absence that prevails afterwards are such familiar images in Dubliners. In “The Sisters”, Father Flynn’s absence echoes in his dark church and empty house; in “Araby”, there is another dead priest whose once-occupied house is now invaded by the musty air; Eveline never finds out “the name of the priest whose yellowing photograph hung on the wall” (Dubliners 27); and Gabriel Conroy’s priest brother, Constantine, is a symbolically absent guest in the Christmas party in “The Dead”. Expressively, therefore, the pervert seems to be an ironically suitable replacement for the fathers of Ireland’s paralyzing Christianity. Frustration is the end of all such youth quests in the spiritual wasteland of Dublin. The price that all such young boys pay for their self-willed instructions will be a sense of humiliation that remains with them for years. The protagonists in all these stories of childhood and maturity meant to seek light and positive images, but were eventually haunted by the distorting shadows and gnomons of the paralysis-ridden Dublin; incompletion and loss mark their destiny; incompletion and loss mark their destiny.

IJALEL 2 (2):158-164, 2013 164 References Borg, R. (2010). Mirrored Disjunctions: On a Deleuzo-Joycean Theory of the Image. Journal of Modern Literature, 33(2), 131-148. Bulson, E. (2006). The Cambridge Introduction to James Joyce. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Daiches, D. (1968). Dubliners. In Peter K. Garrett (Ed.), Twentieth Century Interpretations of Dubliners (27-37) Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Eide, M. (2004). Ethical Joyce. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Feshbach, S. (1965). Death in “An Encounter”. James Joyce Quarterly, 2 (2), 82-89. Gifford, D. (1982). Joyce Annotated. California: University of California Press. Gordon, J. (1995). Dubliners and the Art of Losing. Studies in Modern Fiction. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2455/is_n3_v32/ai_19517926. Herring, P. F. (1987). Joyce’s Uncertainty Principle. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Joyce, J. (1992). A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York: Gramercy Books. Joyce, J. (1914). Dubliners. New York: Gramercy Books. Joyce, J. (1964). Finnegans Wake. London: Faber and Faber. Magalaner, M. & Kain, R. M. (1957). Joyce: The Man, the Work, The Reputation. London: John Calder. Simon, R. (1821). The Elements of Euclid. Philadelphia: Robert and Thomas Desilver. Spinks, L. (2009). James Joyce: A Critical Guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Tindall, W. Y. (1963). A Reader’s Guide to James Joyce. London: Thames and Hudson. Weir, D. (1991). Gnomon is an island: Euclid and Bruno in Joyce’s Narrative Practice. James Joyce Quarterly, 28 (2), 343-360.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

The Assessment of Defamiliarization in Forough Farrokhzad’s Poetry

Zahra Esmaeili

Department of English Language and Literature, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, PO box 91779-48974, Park Square Mashhad, Iran

Tel: 00989151228246 E-mail: esmaeili_zahra@yahoo.com

Shima Ebrahimi Linguistics Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, PO box 91779-48974, Park Square

Mashhad, Iran Tel: 00989155039738 E-mail: shima.ebrahimi@yahoo.com

Received: 31-12- 2012 Accepted: 24-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.165 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.165 Abstract Defamiliarization is a literary device which has been coined by Shkolvsky and its aim is to move readers to see familiar things in an unfamiliar way. Shkolvsky argues that defamiliarization creates a ‘vision’ of the object instead of serving as a means for knowing it, and it is exactly what Forough Farrokhzad (1935-1967), the Iranian modern poet, applies in her poems and what the authors of this study intend to demonstrate. Farrokhzad defamiliarizes her poetry by making familiar things seem new, by unearthing oppressive elements of familiar situations and relationships, and by subverting traditional approaches with familiar and domestic things. The current study proposes and investigates three categories of defamiliarization which are stylistic, syntactic and semantic. Some examples are also given to shed light on these classifications. The current study aims to demonstrate the ways that Forough Farrokhzad has applied to take advantage of three aforementioned methods of defamiliarization. Keywords: stylistic defamiliarization, syntactic defamiliarization, semantic defamiliarization, Forough Farrokhzad 1. Introduction Poets from different nations, cultures, origins, languages and literary contexts have always shown their interest to manipulate form and content through various techniques to make their readers pay more attention to their works and to change their mode of perception of the objects around. One of these techniques which can be so helpful is defamiliarization. Defamiliarization is a literary device whose purpose is to force readers to see the familiar things in a strange and unfamiliar way. This term coined by Victor Shklovsky (1917, cited in Pourjafari, 2012) refers to the potential quality which can cover all the various challenging and unconventional ways of expressing fresh ideas in literature. He believes that our lives are getting habitual and automated since things get old to us very quickly, as if we are not experiencing anything at all when we are involved in familiar everyday experiences; therefore, they do not evoke any new reaction in us and it is an automatic action. So, people need some freshness in their looks towards world and life. Ginzberg (1996, p.8, cited in Pourjafari) believes that defamiliarization is “a tool to revitalize our dull perceptual habits”. Forough Farrokhzad (1935-1967) is a poet who has mostly applied defamiliarization technique in her poetry to attract her readers’ attention and improve them from a habitual perception towards an aware understanding. The present study intends to assess defamiliarized elements in her poetry. On the basis of unique style of Forough’s poetry and her abundant use of defamiliarization, authors of this study suggest three classifications of defamiliarization existing in her poetry and investigate one of her books named “Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season” within the concept of defamiliarization. Three proposed classifications are stylistic, syntactic and semantic defamiliartization which will be discussed in detail through different examples. 2. Review of Literature Defamilialization is a term which was offered by the Russian Formalists in the twentieth century. Victor Shklovsky, who coined the phrase, was thinking of literature in mechanical terms; he wanted to know how a text works in the same way as a mechanic who wants to know how a car works (Wall, 2009); Although according to Holcombe (2007) at first Russian Formalists’ approach was mechanical and they treated literature simply as an assembly of literary devices, later, they recast literature as a system where every component had a constructive function just as the social fabric was a ‘system of systems’. The present paper does not aim to investigate Forough’s poetry as objectively as Shklovsky, but rather it intends to assess and classify defamiliarized phrases in Forough’s poems.

IJALEL 2 (2):165-171, 2013 166 According to Wall (2009), the purpose of defamiliarization is to set the mind in a state of radical unpreparedness; to cultivate the willing suspension of disbelief. We see and hear things as if for the first time and the conventionality of our perceptions is put into question. Through ‘making strange’ – ostranenie- , we force the mind to rethink its situation in the world. Shklovsky (1992, cited in Eggins, 2005) states that art aims to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important. Therefore, a poet can achieve his/her goal through defamiliarizing readers’ expectations. Defamiliarization can be also regarded as an indication of the complexity of a text since the recognition of foregrounded patterns is not so easy. According to Viktor Shklovsky (1965 [1917], cited in Zyngier et al., 2008), the more foregrounded the text is, the more it will produce deautomatization. In his words, “The technique of art is to make objects ‘unfamiliar,’ to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception, because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged” (ibid.: 12). However, as argued by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson (1986: vii), “Human cognitive processes are geared to achieving the greater possible cognitive effect for the smallest possible processing effort.” In their view, readers will tend to invest the least effort possible when processing texts. When a foregrounded pattern is met, defamiliarization occurs, and more energy is spent on processing the information and organizing chaos. This results in the reader’s perception of the text as a complex one. Its processing will accordingly be slower, a notion for which the Russian Formalists employed the term “retardation.” According to Nofal (2011), poetry cannot be grasped without a thorough knowledge of grammar, so foregrounding can be considered as an essential dynamic process which aims at defamiliarizing for making the text strange. He believes that foregrounding may be accomplished by the use of deviant or ungrammatical constructions. Patterns formed by the repetition of similar items will be more common and more noticeable in poetry than in other kinds of language. This is usually made to focus on certain features of the language, (the poetic language in particular) to make them more prominent, or highlighted in order to convey certain messages. The idea of Urbanová (2003) is a little bit different from Nofal. He states that the defamiliarization process is closely associated with the search for interestingness, originality, uniqueness or irony. Its principal aim is to make meanings extraordinary and “strange”, i.e. non-familiar (defamiliarized) but still formulated within the realm of standard, conventional language, not deviant or ungrammatical constructions. Also, there are some people like Tung (2009) who attack the idea of Russian Formalists as the sole distinctive feature or literary and poetic language in contrast to practical language, and foregrounding the utterance as the sufficient aim and quality of literariness. He believes that literariness is more than just verbal artfulness, and it is a piece of literature consisting of an artful piece of discourse ‘uttered’ by the author to express a certain idea or feeling to the reader. According to Jakobson (cited in Tung, 2009), this discourse includes six elements such as addresser, addressee, contact, message, code and context. And writer of a piece of literature is actually performing a speech act besides narrating a literary work. Miall (2006, cited in Iwata, 2008) states that literary reading is an interactive process between text and reader and comprises a “defamiliarization-recontextualizatioin cycle”. It happens when the reader reads a literary text and encounters a part which sounds striking due to defamiliarizatoin. Through this distinctive feeling, the reader experiences subsequent shift in understanding and a new understanding emerges when the reader searches for meaning guided by the feeling that defamiliarization has evoked. Miall believes that approximately two minutes later, that experience which has been the result of defamiliarization becomes recontextualized. It shows that it takes an evolutionary process and as Miall proposes, literary response can be understood as “a theory of dehabituation”. 3. Data Analysis Forough Farrokhzad employed defamiliarization through simple and domestic words. She did not use awkward and difficult vocabularies to express an idea and this style seemed a little nonconformistic at that time, since most of the writers did not dare to break the rules and utilize novel approaches. The mentioned nonconformity was not just related to the style of composing poetry, but it could also be attributed to the subject of her poems. She chose some plain and intelligible issues and composed her poems based on them; therefore, she made her poetry comprehensible to most of the people and created an innovative and specific style for herself. She collocated simple words and so subtly applied them to make non-traditional adjectives and descriptions. The present study has investigated one of Forough Farrokhzad’s books of poetry which is named “Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season” and three different categories of defamiliarization are proposed which are as follows:

- Stylistic defamiliarization - Syntactic defamiliarization - Semantic defamiliarization

3.1 Stylistic Defamiliarization This type of defamiliarization specifically belongs to Forough Farrokhzad. Unlike traditional poets, she employed simple words and colloquial subjects in her poetry. Inferring this kind of defamiliarization does not require any specific literary knowledge, since it is totally vivid in her poetry. She proved in her poetry that there is no need to use complicated and formidable vocabularies to make a poem moving and admirable. In addition, she confirmed this fact that a poet can strongly impress his/her readers through simple and understandable words. Indeed, no literary devices can be seen in this type of defamiliarization and events have been often conveyed through the most domestic ways.

IJALEL 2 (2):165-171, 2013 167 Due to the fact that readers of Forough Farrokhzad’s poetry were not accustomed to simple topics used in poems, this deviation is considered as an approach of defamiliarization. Forough’s readers expected to see some traditional topics which were mostly assigned to all poems, and traditional poets tried not to deviate them. Forough tries to apply some domestic subjects and make readers’ minds prepared to accept her next delicate expressions which are not semantically straightforward. The following examples indicate stylistic defamiliarization in Forough’s poetry: Time flew (line7, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) Time flew and the clock struck four, Struck four Today is the thirty-first day of December As it can be noticed, the poet used vocabularies related to time in the way that they are utilized in colloquial speech. No complicated word can be found in these lines. Wind is blowing in the alley (Line 17, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) . . . And a man passing by the wet trees (Line 22) Passing a man by the street and wet trees is an understandable and common event in which there is no complicated literary device. Shall I ever comb my tresses (Line 135, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) In the wind? Shall I ever plant violets in the flowerbeds? Forough has derived these sentences from colloquial speech. It is one of her specific strategies in composing poetry. Someone is coming through the sky (Line 83, Someone Who Isn’t Like Anyone, translated by Ismail Salami) Of Artillery Square in a night of fireworks And he spreads the tablecloth Distributes the bread And distributes the Pepsi And distributes the national garden And distributes medicine for whooping-cough And distributes the registration slips And distributes the hospital tickets And distributes the rubber boots And distributes the Fardin films And distributes the trees of Seyyed Javad’s daughter And distributes whatever she has hoarded And gives us our share I have dreamed ... Forough has employed very commonplace activities which were part of people’s custom at Forough’s time. This part of her poetry has no difference with colloquial language of Iranian people. Father says to Mother: (Line 28, I Feel Pity for the Garden, translated by Ismail Salami) Curse be upon every fish and fowl When I die What does it matter to me whether The garden remains Or it does not? Cursing other people mostly occurs in casual and informal speech which is seen in this part of Forough’s poetry. She has repudiated the dominant rules of composing poetry and merged the boundaries of written and spoken languages.

IJALEL 2 (2):165-171, 2013 168 I said to my mother, “It’s over.” (Line 142, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) I said, “Before you know it happens You should send in advance an obituary notice.” Sending obituary notice for newspaper is an event which rarely happens in a poem. She also wrote a common dialogue between a mother and a daughter without any changes which is an indicative of her stylistic defamiliarization. Someone is coming (Line 10, Someone Who Isn’t Like Anyone, translated by Ismail Salami) Someone else Someone better Someone who isn’t like anyone, isn’t like Father, isn’t like Ensi, isn’t like Yahya, isn’t like Mother Forough has utilized some proper names like Ensi and Yahya in her poetry which demonstrates her hatred from stylistic complexities. Even she has used the nickname of “Ensi” instead of “Ensiyeh”. I have dreamed of a red little star (Line 2, Someone Who Isn’t Like Anyone, translated by Ismail Salami) And my eyelids keep fluttering And my shoes keep pairing And may I be struck blind If I am lying. Employing people’s attitudes and beliefs in the poetry is one of the ways a poet can defamiliarize his/her poem. For instance, “fluttering eyelids” or “pairing shoes” are among cultural and traditional beliefs which are specifically related to Iranians and prove Forough’s claim of dreaming in these lines. In the last two lines, she strikingly swears not to be lying which is obviously a sign of colloquial speech. And he can (Line 26, Someone Who Isn’t Like Anyone, translated by Ismail Salami) Read all the difficult words in the third grade book With his eyes closed And he can deduct one thousand from Twenty million without missing a point And can get buy anything on credit From Seyyed Javad’s shop. All combinations such as buying something on credit, third grade book and Seyyed Javad’s shop used in Forough’s poetry have been derived from ordinary life. How good is light! (Line 37, Someone Who Isn’t Like Anyone) How good is light! And how much do I desire Yahya To have a little cart. And a little lantern And how much do I desire To sit among the watermelons and the melons on Yahya’s cart And take a turn round Mohamadiyyeh Square Ah... How good it is to take a turn round the square! How good it is to sleep on the roof! How good it is to go to national garden! How good is to sip Pepsi! How good it is to see a Fardin movie And how much do I love good things! And how much do I desire To pull the hair of Seyyed Javad’s daughter. In the aforementioned lines, Forough has depicted all her desires in real life. In her poetry, there is no distance between the poet and the readers. Readers can easily visualize themselves at the time of Forough and identify with her. Without

IJALEL 2 (2):165-171, 2013 169 any complicated literary device, she has beautified her work through employing simple memories and common events of her life. 3.2 Syntactic Defamiliarization In this type of defamiliarization, the poet alters the place of sentences’ components and in this way, she makes some parts more prominent and enhances her poetry’s beauty. So, readers can more easily remember her poems due to the unusual place of the words. For example, she changes the place of verb and subject. Although it may not be clearly noticeable in their translation, some examples have been provided which are as follows: Why did I not look? (Line 111, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translted by Ismail Salami) It seemed as if my mother had wept that night According to the structures of Persian language, adverbs of time come before the verb. But in this line, “that night” which is an adverb of time has come after the verb. This way of using adverbs is mostly popular in colloquial language. Forough has defamiliarized this sentence though changing the place of verb and adverb. What is silence, silence? O sole friend! (Line 196, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) Silence is but unspoken words What can a swamp be? (Line 20, Only the Voice Remains, translated by Karimi Hakkak) What can it be except the spawning ground for petrifying vermin? In both above examples, Forough has a question, and she answered her question in the same line. Repetition can be also considered a strategy of syntactic defamiliarization which can be seen in both examples. 3.3 Semantic Defamiliarization According to Shklovsky (cited in Vegge, 2000), walking is an activity which as we go about in everyday life, we have ceased to be aware of; but when we dance the automatically performed gestures of walking are perceived anew. A dance is a walk which is felt and even more accurately, it is a walk which is constructed to be felt. Conclusion can be drawn that each poet defamiliarizes her speech through deepening readers understanding of his/her poetry and making them feel what s/he says. Forough Farrokhzad has largely applied semantic defamiliarization in a special way. She has juxtaposed some words which cannot be ordinarily and semantically grouped together. For instance, attributing human characteristics to inanimate objects or vice versa is one of the unique features of Forough’s poetry. In this type of defamiliarization, numerous similes and metaphors are noticed. The following examples demonstrate lexical syntagmatic and semantic defamiliarization outright: And this is I (Line 1, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Michael Hillman) A woman alone At the threshold of a cold season At the beginning of understanding The polluted existence of the earth And the simple and sad pessimism of the sky And the incapacity of these concrete hands. As it can be noticed, some human characteristics such as “understanding” and “sad pessimism” have been attributed to the inanimate such as “sky” and “earth”. And I am thinking of the coupling of flowers (Line 19, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) Of buds with thin anemic stems And of this tired tubercular time Anemic and tiredness are adjectives related to human beings that Forough has used for inanimate objects such as stems and time. There is no constraint on her use of similes and metaphors. A man whose blue veins (Line 23, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) Creeping up Like dead snakes from the two sides of his throat Reiterating That bloody syllable in his twitched temples.

IJALEL 2 (2):165-171, 2013 170 Hello! Hello! In the above lines, Forough drew an analogy between veins and dead snakes. Moreover, she has employed twitched as an adjective for temples which is not common. So, she could semantically defamiliarize her poetry. At the beginning of a cold season (Line 31, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) At the mourning ceremony of mirrors And the bereaved company of pale experiences And this evening grown out of the knowledge of silence How can one order someone walking So patiently So resolutely So restlessly To stop? “Evening grown out of the knowledge of silence”, “pale experience” and “mourning ceremony of mirrors” are all extraordinary and unusual compositions which make readers rethink and re-experience the world. The solitary crows of solitude (Line 42, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) Flying in the old gardens of weariness Silence is but unspoken words (Line 198, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) I fail to speak, but the tongue of sparrows Speaks the tongue of the fluent words of nature’s feast. The tongue of sparrows means spring, leaf, spring. The tongue of sparrows means breeze, perfume, and breeze. In Forough’s poetry, there is no limitation in using lots of adjectives for just one word. This strategy of Forough is clear in the above lines. As if they were of the green lines of imagination (Line 58, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) The fresh leaves panting in their passion for breeze When in the sky, lie began to blow (Line 68, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) And beside your springs, the spirits of willow trees (Line 99, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) Smell the kind spirits of axes So the sun eventually (Line 213, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season , translated by Ismail Salami) At a certain time Did not shine on the two poles of despair You were emptied of the echo of the blue tiles. In the above lines, Forough largely makes analogy between human sentiments and natural elements. 4. Conclusion Defamiliarization is a literary device which moves readers to see familiar things in an unfamiliar way. It is a challenging way of expressing new ideas in literature. Poets from different nations, cultures, origins, languages and literary contexts have always shown their interest to make their readers pay more attention to their works and change their mode of perception of the objects around. To achieve this goal, defamiliarization is a helpful instrument. Owing to the fact that Forough Farrokhzad has largely employed this method in her poetry, the authors of this study classified the existing defamiliarizations in her poetry into three categories of stylistic, syntactic and semantic

IJALEL 2 (2):165-171, 2013 171 defamiliarization. In her stylistic defamiliarization, Forough has used simple words and colloquial subjects in her poetry which were unusual to appear in poems at her time. Through syntactic defamiliarization, she has tried to change the place of sentences’ components and in this way, she has defamiliarized her poetry. She has also utilized semantic defamiliarization through juxtaposing some words which are not semantically accompanied with each other. For each classification, some examples have been provided from her last book titled “Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season.” Conclusion can be drawn that Forough Farrokhzad has applied different methods to defamiliarize her poetry. References Crawford, L. (1984). Viktor Shklovskij: Différance in defamiliarization. Journal of Comparative Literature, 3(36), 209-219. C. H. Tung, A. (2009). Teaching for Three Kinds of Competence. Retrieved from web.nchu.edu.tw/~chtung/2009.doc. C. H. M. (1987). A Lonely Woman: Forugh Farrokhzad and her Poetry. United States of America: Mage Publishers. Eggins, S. (2005). Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. Continuum International Publishing Group. Iwata, Y. (2008). Creating Suspense and Surprise in short Literary Fiction: A Stylistic and Narratological Approach, Birmingham: University of Birmingham. Karimi-Hakkak, A. (1997). Remember the flight: twenty poems by Forough Farrokhzad. Canada: Nik Publishers. Nofal, K. H. (2011). Syntactic Aspects of Poetry: A Pragmatic. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2:16, p. 47 – 63. Pourjafari, F. (2012). Defamiliarization in Sohrab Sepehri’s Poetry. Canadian Social Science, 8 (1), 200-203, http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.css.1923669720120801.2381. Salami, I. (2000). Forough Farrokhzad, Another Birth and Let us believe in the beginning of the cold season. Tehran: Zabankadeh Publications. Shklovsky, V. (1965). Art as Technique. Russian Formalist Criticism: Four essays. (Lemon, Lee T., Reis, Marian J. Trans.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Urbanová, Ludmila. On Expressing Meaning in English Conversation: Semantic Indeterminacy. Brno: Masarykova Univerzita v Brně, 2003. retrieved from http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=Urbanov%C3%A1++defamiliarization+process+interestingness%2C+originality%2C&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fis.muni.cz%2Fth%2F53048%2Fff_m%2FDIPLOMA_THESIS.doc&ei=IP_-UNriM_SQ0QGWmIH4Cg&usg=AFQjCNF85qlVNzBMZQfbpZvZV8eNiYz40A&bvm=bv.41248874,d.dmQ Vegge, T. (2000), Toni Morrison. Defamiliarization and Metaphor in Song of Solomon and Beloved, University of Oslo. Wall, A. (2oo9). A Note on Defamiliarizatioin from Myth, Metaphor and Science. Chester Academic Press, p 20 – 22. Zyngier, S. (2007). Complexity and Foregrounding: In the Eye of the Beholder. Poetics Today, 28:4 (Winter 2007), DOI 10.1215/03335372-2007-011. Smith, J. (1999). One of Volvo's core values. [Online] Available: http://www.volvo.com/environment/index.htm (July 7, 1999) Strunk, W. J., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style. (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan, (Chapter 4). Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton R. A. (2000). The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Scientific Communications, 163, 51-59.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace: Eros, (Dis)grace, & the Body

Shadi Neimneh English Department

Faculty of Arts Hashemite University Zarqa-Jordan 13115

Phone: 962 5 3903333 Ext. 4976 Email: shadistar2@yahoo.com

Received: 06-12- 2012 Accepted: 25-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.172 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.172 but then ageing is not a graceful business. Disgrace, p. 9 ‘Do you remember Blake?’ he says. ‘Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires’? Disgrace, p. 69 Abstract This paper looks at the problematic of the body in Coetzee’s novel Disgrace. It argues that the novel’s protagonist is initially driven by eros, impulsive sexual desires beyond his control. However, Lurie’s conception of the body changes in the course of the novel from one dominated by eros to an ethical one associated with (dis)honor and (dis)grace. Rather than a self-centered eros, Lurie’s new awareness of the body is one based on our essential embodiment and the humiliations of dying and ageing. This is why his new understanding of the body, which is the result of a change in his personality, makes him care about the body of the other. Lurie spends much time trying to "honor" the bodies of dead dogs or simply spare them from the disgrace of dying. My reading of the novel explores an ethical conception of the body in Coetzee’s novel. Already a contested political site, the body in Coetzee’s novel emerges as an ethically (and psychoanalytically) nuanced one. Keywords: Coetzee; Post-Apartheid/South African Literature; Body; Eros; Ethics; (Dis)grace 1. Introduction In Disgrace, J. M. Coetzee (1999) presents an intricate account of the interrelationship between eros, the body, and disgrace. In this novel, the body is “very strongly linked to power, desire, and disgrace” (Kossew, 2003, p. 155). However, typical critical scholarship on the novel has not adequately clarified the relationship between the body, desire, and disgrace. At one level in the novel, male eros is the cause of disgrace because it pits unrepressed desires against social norms. At another, eros is also what triggers an ethical outlook and a reformed state, i.e. the opposite of disgrace. Actually, one can observe a shift in the novel from one form of love propelled by eros to another form propelled by ethics, which is why a form of male eros leading to sexual disgrace is substituted by a grace-saving love for animals. The novel, roughly speaking, follows the deteriorating fortunes of its “sensual” protagonist, a divorced university professor in his fifties. Erotic desire seems to initiate the downfall of David Lurie; after the sexual abuse of a student in his Romantics class at Cape Technical University, the disgraced Lurie is forced by the university administration to resign his post. He leaves Cape Town to live with his daughter Lucy in a smallholding in the Eastern Cape. There, he and his daughter are attacked by a gang of three black Africans. He is burned and beaten while his daughter is repeatedly raped, and thus made pregnant. By the end of the novel, Lurie is reduced to a dehumanized existence, working among dogs at a local veterinary clinic and acting as a caretaker for dead dogs by ferrying their corpses to the incinerator to ensure that their bodies are properly/gracefully disposed of. Such a plot outline, sweeping as it is, illustrates my thesis that the novel revolves around a dramatic shift in Lurie's personality and lifestyle from the yearnings of an aging body in the grip of eros—i.e. a body taking sexual pleasure by imposing itself on prostitutes, colleagues, or students—to a consuming passion to care about the body of the other. This transformation from taking to giving, I argue, is deeply ethical. Eros, in the form of sexual love or uninhibited libido, used to dominate Lurie’s life, but his new life in the country is one dominated by another mode of being, one based on acknowledging the existence of other modes of being. Such a thematic shift from eros to ethics, from desire to conscience, enhances the moral aspect of the novel. Moreover, it critiques our human transactions because grace seems impossible among indifferent human beings and is transferred to (disgraced) animals instead. Whereas the body in Coetzee’s apartheid fiction has often been interpreted politically and allegorically so,1 I claim here that Coetzee’s post-apartheid fiction, as evidenced by Disgrace, marks a greater shift in the conception of the body from the political to the ethical within Coetzee’s oeuvre. Coetzee (1992) argues in Doubling the Point that "it is not that one grants the authority of the suffering body: the suffering body takes this authority: that is its power. To use other words: its power is undeniable" (p. 248; emphasis original). The

IJALEL 2 (2):172-178, 2013 173 authority of the body Coetzee speaks of is not only political. As my discussion of this novel will reveal, the body has an undeniable ethical force. Coetzee establishes the problematic of the body, i.e. the problematic of sexual desire that blights Lurie, at the very beginning of the novel. The novel’s first sentence reads: “For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well” (p. 1). Lurie’s frustrations in marriage and professional life2 make him indulge in numerous sexual affairs with streetwalkers, a part-time prostitute called Soraya, a departmental secretary, and finally a student in one of his classes called Melanie Isaacs. The disgrace of this last affair, in particular, directly affects his life as he loses his job after being found guilty before the university committee that questions him. In a sense, Lurie has a problem coming to terms with the instinctive needs and desires of his body. Married twice but divorced twice, and a womanizer of a sort, he could not actually solve the problem of sex, as he thinks he did. Lurie has to come to terms with his ageing body and his sexual desires. The fact that he attempts to solve "the problem of sex" in itself shows that Lurie struggled with the instinctive needs of his body throughout his life and thought he came to a compromise by visiting a prostitute once a week. This is why for Lurie Thursday “has become an oasis of luxe et volupté” (p. 1) in an otherwise empty week devoid of eros. Lurie, the professional man and the conscientious academic, seems to struggle with bodily compulsions. In fact, Lurie is not the only Coetzee character for whom the body with its drives poses a problem. In Coetzee’s oeuvre, the body is tortured, deprived of food, and sexually exploited. Above all, it succumbs to instinctual drives and the ravages of time. For example, the Magistrate in Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) similarly faces the problematic of sexual desire and age. His sex life seems odd; he frequents prostitutes and finds in the body of a barbarian girl an irresistible source of fascination and repulsion. He fetishizes her tortured feet, and his ritual of cleansing and rubbing often ends in fits of unsustainable erotic desire. The Magistrate finally makes love to her on their way to return her to her people. Back in his outpost, he continues to have this troubled relationship with his sexual desires, often experiencing his member as an alien, uncontrollable organ (p. 49, p. 163). In fact, his very relationship with the barbarian girl brings about his downfall and subsequent “disgrace” just like Lurie. People in the frontier gossip about his affair with this barbarian girl, and news reach the capital. His taking her to her people is seen as an act of consorting with the barbarian enemy. Therefore, the Magistrate is tortured and humiliated publicly by the Empire’s officials. He is “disgraced” in the eyes of his people; his “disgrace” culminates when he is forced to wear a woman’s smock (p. 128) for a mock crucifixion. The Magistrate loses all of his privileges as an administrator in his outpost settlement and symbolically leads a dog’s life. He is not allowed to wash himself; he is mocked by children and imprisoned in a cell. Excessive torture makes him think in the following terms: “There is no way of dying allowed me, it seems, except like a dog in a corner” (p. 128). Animals are used metaphorically in this language to figure the magistrate’s disgrace. He comes to experience his whole life in terms of bodily pain or self-preservative instincts like hunger and thirst. He is not symbolically different from the animals he compares himself to. Since he is a complacent individual spending his last days on a “lazy frontier, waiting to retire” (p. 8), he wishes to return to his “hunting and hawking and placid concupiscence” (p. 9) once frontier troubles are over. The magistrate, however, is aware of his old age, his “thin shanks, [his] slack genitals, [his] paunch, [his] flabby old man’s breasts, the turkey-skin of his throat” (p. 33). Since the body occupies much of his waking consciousness, it is no wonder that we find him speculating in the following terms about his own body and the body of the barbarian girl: “These bodies of hers and mine are diffuse, gaseous, centreless, at one moment spinning about a vortex here, at another curdling, thickening elsewhere; but often also flat, blank. I know what to do with her no more than one cloud in the sky knows what to do with another” (p. 36). The magistrate views the body as a hermeneutical crisis, as a problematic par excellence. He is aware of the disgrace of old age and the humiliations of desire. While biological functions dominate the body in pain—as evidenced when the magistrate says: "What I am made to undergo is subjection to the most rudimentary needs of my body: to drink, to relieve itself, to find the posture in which it is least sore" (p. 126)—eros asserts itself when the body is beyond the grip of pain, which is why the magistrate's "sex begins to reassert itself" (p. 163) as soon as the imperial officials depart. Just as the (sexed) body poses a problematic for the magistrate, it also poses a problematic for Lurie. Whether in the grip of pain or eros, the nagging body asserts its ontological, existential being. Coetzee (1992) asserts in an interview in his collection of essays and interviews Doubling the Point that "Whatever else, the body is not 'that which is not,' and the proof that it is is the pain it feels. The body with its pain becomes a counter to the endless trials of doubt" (emphasis original; p. 248). While Coetzee here asserts the ontological existence of the body with relation to pain and suffering, I believe we can extend the analogy to eros. Just like pain, pleasure is bodily in nature. It proves that the body exists beyond doubt. Both pleasure and pain, we can argue, ground the body in its corporeal nature and assert its authority. While a typical reading of Coetzee's apartheid fiction would dwell on the relationship between the body and politics, i.e. on the materiality of the violated body with relation to a traumatic history, my reading of this post-apartheid novel dwells on the relationship between bodily desire and ethics. My overall premise is that the discourse of ethics is privileged over the discourse of politics in Coetzee's post-apartheid fiction.3 2. The Body and Eros It seems that the magistrate’s “disgrace” is not that different from Lurie’s disgrace. Sexual disgrace applies to both cases where the sexual demands of the body are difficult to escape. After all, both men are trying to come to terms with the difficult demands of an ageing body. For Lurie, the “honey-brown body” (p. 1) of a prostitute is the site of carnal love, a commodity possessed by the agency she works for. This commodification of the body makes love a mechanical

IJALEL 2 (2):172-178, 2013 174 relation and, importantly, an escape from the nagging of desire. Lurie is a follower of eros and, like the magistrate in Coetzee’s earlier novel, a man leading a promiscuous life of affairs. Lurie, we are told, "has always been a man of the city, at home amid a flux of bodies where eros stalks and glances flash like arrows” (p. 6). Eros makes Lurie pursue women to the end of sexual fulfillment or victimization. At the same time, Lurie “had affairs with the wives of colleagues; he picked up tourists in bars on the waterfront or at the Club Italia; he slept with whores” (p. 7). In other words, eros dominates Lurie's life to a bothering extent. A failed sexual fling with his department’s secretary makes him think of emasculating/castrating himself: “He ought to give up, retire from the game. At what age, he wonders, did Origen castrate himself?” (p. 9). The disgrace of ageing and imminent dying makes him think of castrating himself: “A man on a chair snipping away at himself: an ugly sight, but no more ugly, from a certain point of view, than the same man exercising himself on the body of a woman” (p. 9). An aged man should retire from a game of sexual conquests and contingent humiliations. However, the pull of sexual desire is not easy to quell. In fact, in rejecting a public confession of guilt, apology, and counseling with relation to his affair with his student, Lurie is, in a sense, asserting the authority of the body over the restraints of professionalism. His rejection is tantamount to a rejection of castration, i.e. the words he is about to say to his daughter Lucy when they discuss the case: "He was going to add, 'The truth is, they wanted me castrated,' but he cannot say the words, not to his daughter" (p. 66). Lurie acted alongside his nature rather than against it when he acted out his sexual desire. Castrating a sexually active male is making him hate his masculine nature. However, sex with younger women can be a repulsive experience for an older man who feels unprivileged and thus humiliated. But Lurie, in his fifties, is in the grip of eros when he pursues Melanie. When he calls her home for the first time to invite her out, he is "in the grip of something" (p. 18) he could not control. A sexual adventure with her is described as: "Not rape, not quite that, but undesired nevertheless, undesired to the core" (p. 25). While the word “undesired” describes Melanie’s emotional state, an apt label for Lurie’s act would be “desired”, a sexual conquest propelled by eros in the form of sexual desire. Lurie finds himself drawn into this relationship. Once this affair begins, he finds it difficult to withdraw or keep himself away from the inevitable consequences. Eros is uncontrollable. It is the absence of restraint. If eros belongs to the realm of the Freudian id, it is the opposite of the privations dictated by the conscientious super-ego. Even in times not timely for sexual love, Lurie remembers Melanie with lust as he sees her riding a motorcycle with knees apart (p. 35) or when she comes to him crying (p. 26). After he arrives in the country he still remembers her body, in times apparently hostile to romance as when he greets some school children: "Without warning a memory of the girl comes back: of her neat little breasts with their upstanding nipples, of her smooth flat belly. A ripple of desire passes through him. Evidently whatever it was is not over yet" (p. 65). Again, the word “desire” is especially important in this quote. To the university disciplinary committee he explains that he acted with Melanie Isaac as "'a servant of Eros'" and responds to a student after the hearing that he was "'enriched by the experience'" (p. 52; p. 56). Lurie asserts that he was not himself when he was under the influence of Eros, the god of love who acted through him in this affair (p. 52). In one sexual encounter with Melanie at her flat, he impulsively carries her to the bedroom, begins to kiss her feet and is surprised at the feelings overcoming him, an act described in the following terms: "Strange love! Yet from the quiver of Aphrodite, goddess of the foaming waves, no doubt about that" (p. 25). This mysterious desire that influences his life seems otherworldly, an enormous force that engulfs his being. As a follower of love and beauty symbolized by Aphrodite, Lurie is still under the spell of Eros. When he and Lucy discuss his personal life, he finds it difficult to articulate details about his intimate life. He makes a reference to Blake and uses the expression "unacted desires" (p. 69): "'Unacted desires can turn as ugly in the old as in the young'", he says (p. 70). It once comes to his mind that Melanie is but a child he is exploiting, but his reasoning is that "his heart lurches with desire" (p. 20). To enact a desire is to fulfill it, to carry it out. The desires he sexually carries out are momentary, sudden, and unsteady, which is why the word “lurches” is significant. Lurie pleads guilty yet refuses to issue a public statement of apology to the university. As Gareth Cornwell explains, Lurie can be understood as making “a Romantic gesture of defiant individualism that identifies him with Byron, the poet whose life he has been researching” (p. 314). Cornwell adds that Lurie “professes to regard the promptings of the heart as a sacrosanct authority and accounts for his behavior by describing himself as ‘a servant of Eros’” (p. 314). By dubbing himself a “servant” of Eros, Lurie asserts the authority of the sexual impulse over the body. Recollections of his affair with Melanie continue to stir his sexual desire throughout the novel, which shows that eros is not easy to subdue or get rid of. Since Lurie seems to be leading a life based on desire without regard to restraints or principles, it is logical to conclude that his life is amoral and thus unethical. To his daughter he justifies his situation as one resting on eros, on what he calls "'the rights of desire'", and on "'the god who makes even the small birds quiver'" (p. 89). When they discuss his scandal, there are more direct details he wishes he could mention. As he remembers one of his sexual encounters with the girl, he wants to say that he "was a servant of Eros" and that it was "a god who acted through [him]" (emphasis original; p. 89). His fall is caused by his "inability to question the authority of desire itself and in this he is slave to his bodily instincts. All mind, he falls prey to the body" (Kossew, p. 158). It is as if Lurie could not resolve the tension between the Apollonian principle of order and discipline necessary for his professional life and the Dionysian principle of uninhibition and frenzy dominating his personal life. In his rationalization about what happened between him and the girl, he feels that "there was something generous that was doing its best to flower" (p. 89). The word “generous” is, to my mind, particularly important since it denotes the profusion of the sexual impulse, its free unaffected nature in Lurie’s case. He is so adamant on the notion of desire, on

IJALEL 2 (2):172-178, 2013 175 following his instinctive sexual drive. In his reasoning, even animals should not be forced to deny their nature (p. 90). Contrary to the novel's initial point that Lurie solved "the problem of sex" (p. 1) by visiting prostitutes, desire continues to be a problem in his life. He confesses to his daughter that desire, i.e. the problem of sex, is often for him "'a burden we could well do without'" (p. 90). And to Bev Shaw he confesses that during the act itself with Melanie he did not regret it (p. 148). In other words, when he says that “‘In the heat of the act there are no doubts’” (p. 148) he affirms that once in the grip of desire he necessarily enjoys being possessed by eros. Upon imagining Bev Shaw in her younger years, who is now a plain woman working at a clinic for animals, he impulsively acts through eros: “On an impulse he reaches out and runs a finger over her lips” (p. 148). Although he does his (sexual) job with her mechanically—“Without passion but without distaste either” (p. 149)—it is instinct that moves him, the male nature inside him. When Lurie visits Mr. Isaacs in his school office to talk to him about his relationship with Melanie and thus relieve his heart, his justification to the hurt father evokes the same notion of eros as a compelling passion: “‘A fire: what is remarkable about that? If a fire goes out, you strike a match and start another one. That is how I used to think. Yet in the olden days people worshipped fire. They thought twice before letting a flame die, a flame-god. It was that kind of flame your daughter kindled in me. Not hot enough to burn me up, but real: real fire.’” (p. 166). In his reasoning, his affair with Melanie is a "last leap of the flame of sense before it goes out" (p. 27). The fire of passion is a consuming one just as it is a sudden spark. At one point in the novel, Lurie identifies himself and his ex-wife Rosalind as "sensualists" and remembers her "long, pale body thrashing this way and that in the throes of a pleasure that was hard to tell from pain" (p. 187). By recklessly pursuing pleasure,4 Lurie becomes a hedonist seeking self-gratification. And the female is his way toward achieving such gratification, which is why he feels that there is still “something unfinished” in his entanglement with Melanie: “Deep inside him the smell of her is stored, the smell of a mate” (p. 190). The male principle seeking the female one is the essence of eros Lurie models his life after. It is difficult for him to forget Melanie. The humiliation he feels as an old man trying to perfect his masculinity on the body of a young woman is not enough to prevent him from picking a street prostitute once he is temporarily back from the farm to the city (pp.194-5). While eros does move Lurie, there are things that aided him in most of his sexual conquests. In this sense, Lurie’s fall from grace has something to do with a concurrent loss of power. Lurie’s infringement of the university’s sexual harassment code, by having a sexual liaison with a student, and a colored one in particular as the text and as some characters hint (Cornwell, 2002, p. 315), adds a racial dimension to the power relations of “patriarchy and the academy” (Cornwell, p. 315) already governing the relationship between Lurie and Melanie. By allowing eros to act though him, Lurie abused his academic authority and privileged male status over a female student. Therefore, loss of power—i.e acceptance of disgrace—is a necessary step in his character reformation. In the words of Cornwell, “among the hard lessons that his subsequent experience teaches him is the necessity of a last initiation, one that will cure his ‘mad heart’ … by deposing Eros and enthroning Agape in its place” (p. 315). In other words, Lurie’s love for dying animals and his identification with their suffering, as we will see shortly, are the result of a dramatic shift from carnal, erotic love for women to another form of sympathetic, asexual love. Although Lurie’s change is not necessarily religious in nature and although Christian love is not explicitly offered by the novel as an alternative to Lurie’s lifestyle, the suggested meanings of “Agape” as charity and communal love still apply to Lurie’s case. It is ironic, though, that Lurie’s transformation is effected through a new concern for animals rather than humans. Nevertheless, animals better signify the humiliation Lurie is reduced to. Moreover, they signify the strained relations of people in a post-apartheid South Africa. 3. The Body and Ethics Disgrace dramatizes a shift in the nature of Lurie’s motivation form the sensual to the ethical. His eros-driven actions I have elaborated in the previous section become motivated by another form of love, not the sensual one but that of sympathy towards animals. Lurie finds in love of human and animal dignity a response to disgrace as the necessary result of ageing and death. It is a love for the essence of life, for the souls of beings, be they human or animal. Such a pivotal transformation in the course of the novel accounts for his new attention to other forms of life in the country. Lurie sees his new life as that of a dog. Like his daughter Lucy, Lurie learns to accept humiliation and brutalization as part of the historical guilt of his ancestors. He and his daughter, as white South Africans, pay a price for a history of racism against and subjugation of black African people. They know now that they should lead a humiliating life like that of a dog. Negotiating Lucy’s plan to give up her land to Petrus, a greedy African worker assisting her in this time of changed power relations, the following exchange takes place between Lurie and his daughter:

‘How humiliating,’ he says finally. ‘Such high hopes, and to end like this.’ ‘Yes, I agree, it is humiliating. But perhaps that is a good point to start from again. Perhaps that is what I must learn to accept. To start at ground level. With nothing. Not with nothing but. With nothing. No cards, no weapons, no property, no rights, no dignity.’ ‘Like a dog.’ ‘Yes, like a dog.’ (p. 205)

Just like Lucy, Lurie has to learn to accept his new life of (dis)grace. The humiliation he lives (his disgraced life) is actually marked by the grace he can impart to the lives of disgraced animals like dogs once they are dead. The ending of this father-daughter dialogue is clearly reminiscent of references to dogs in Coetzee’s novels like Waiting for the Barbarians and Life and Times of Michael K (1983). In this latter novel, for example, Coetzee’s titular hero is reduced to an animal’s existence, living like a mole in an underground burrow and eating insects in a turbulent South Africa

IJALEL 2 (2):172-178, 2013 176 during the apartheid regime. Lack of dignity is presented by Coetzee as the direct source of disgrace, and animals are used metaphorically to figure such disgrace. While reasons for disgrace can be other than sexual, i.e. political or racial, part of this disgrace Lucy articulates is sexual since she is sexually humiliated by being gang-raped. Just like her father, Lucy experiences the disgrace associated with perverse sexuality. And animals waver between the literal and the metaphorical. Metaphorically, animals figure the depravity and wretchedness of human life. Literally, they are beings which are capable of suffering and pain. Like us, they are creatures with this material substance we call "the body." Upon his sexual scandal, Lurie visits his daughter in the country. Once he is in her smallholding in the Eastern Cape, he has to come to terms with the ugly realities of corporeal being. Hungry and tired, he is offered food. As he eats, he wants to be careful as “nothing so distasteful to a child as the workings of a parent’s body” (p. 61). For some people like Lucy and Bev Shaw, a life we share with animals is the only one we have, with nothing higher (p. 74). Despite Lurie’s assertion that we belong to a different rather than essentially higher realm of being (p. 74), the corporeality of the body, especially a maimed one, is what we share with animals. Lurie’s consciousness of what it means to be a body that suffers and dies is heightened by his contact with animals. When he enters the cage of a dejected bulldog bitch, he squats down and even “stretches out beside her on the bare concrete” (p. 78). Such apparently disgraceful act is actually full of grace, for Lurie enacts the "start at ground level" Lucy proposes after this encounter with the bulldog bitch. Humiliation in this scene becomes close to humility as indicated by Lurie's sleeping on the "bare concrete." In such an encounter, the presence of animals is metaphorically indicative. In literature and language, “animals provide touchstones for the delineation of human experience” (Randall p. 214). Animals in this sense are in the realm of the body as opposed to the “higher” meanings we attribute to humanity. Their embodiedness corresponds to the baseness of our lives. This is the utter materiality of the body Lurie has to come to terms with, with all the contingent humiliations. Lurie, we should remember, insists on the animals’ lack of “proper souls.” He insists on their bodily being when he tells his daughter that “‘Their souls are tied to their bodies and die with them’” (p. 78). Once he starts helping Bev Shaw at the animal clinic, what he confronts is not only arguments about animal rights by Lucy and Bev Shaw but also a first-hand experience of the suffering of (diseased) animals in Africa, their “disgrace” of dying. When his daughter is gang-raped, Lurie himself is set on fire and physically assaulted while Lucy’s dogs are shot. The material suffering of the body, animal or human, is a common fate. And if the violation Lurie did to the female body of Melanie was under the name of love/desire, such new violations are done with the intention of malice and hatred. They are a perverse form of the eros he experienced earlier. The confession he would like to hear from a black farmer, Petrus, with regard to the event, is “violation” (p. 119), rape as the opposite of eros. Once in his daughter's smallholding in the Eastern Cape and away from Cape Town, Lurie faces new (and violent) realities that aid him in his ethical awakening. Inter-racial hatred, violence, and suffering all contribute to Lurie’s changed (and new) worldview. Violation is also what would come to one’s mind when considering Lurie’s concern for the two sheep Petrus plans to slaughter for a party. Lurie starts to identify with the suffering animals, with the bodily violations the other receives at our hands. All of a sudden, the lot of the two Persians is important to him (p. 126). "A bond seems to have come into existence between himself and the two Persians, he does not know how" (p. 126). While this bond is identified as not that of "affection" (p. 126), it is still a variation on ethical love. He enters an unfathomable communion with animals. The change of his indifferent attitude towards animals is signaled by the tears that "flow down his face that he cannot stop" and the shaking of his hands (p. 143) one evening as he goes home after assisting in killing some animals at Animal Welfare Clinic. The "disgrace of dying" (p. 143) touches him just as it touches the animals he assists in killing. Lurie's "whole being is gripped by what happens in the theatre" (p. 143), i.e. by the killing of dogs at the clinic. This new sentiment towards animals is a variation on and replaces the eros that dominated his life previously and with relation to women. Lurie comes to experience the sanctity of life and the wretchedness of dying. Lurie’s conception of the body changes from eros to (dis)honor. He takes special interest in caring about the bodies of the killed dogs by personally taking them to the hospital incinerator and consigning their unwanted bodies to the fire (p. 144), by not allowing their limbs to be broken by the incinerator workmen since such as act dishonors the dignity of life (pp. 144-145). The disgrace of his sex life, eros, is what triggers a newer understanding of the body, its being, and its humiliating materiality. The eros that previously dominated his life and that made him selfishly think about satisfying his desires is now transformed into caring about other bodies, not his body but bodies "unable, utterly unable, to take care of themselves" (p. 146). Tremaine asserts that Coetzee “generally represents animals as creatures that suffer humanly inflicted captivity, pain, or death, sometimes resentfully but more often abjectly” (p. 589). This means that animals are reduced to their “embodiedness” by human beings. We degrade them to satisfy our selfish whims. The general suffering of the beasts of Africa Lurie witnesses in the country is a reality that was absent to him in his self-absorbed, academic life. The disgrace and humiliation Lurie feels because of this new job counter the honor/grace he is transferring to the corpses in the way he treats them. His call is transformed from the erotic to the elegiac, mourning the (dead) body rather than celebrating its desires. The yearning of the body in the Byron opera he is writing (the love between Byron and Teresa and the related fire of passion he tries to bring back to life in his work Byron in Italy) is the opposite of his new life in disgrace. If he is still capable of love, it is a different one. It is not the eros that would attract him to other women but the attention he would give to the dying animal: "He and Bev do not speak. He has learned by now, from her, to concentrate all his attention on the animal they are killing, giving it what he no longer has difficulty in calling by its proper name: love" (p. 219). Although Lurie resisted other forms of love in his sensual life, he is now able to extend other forms of love to animals and, thus, sublimate his drives toward non-sexual ends. Love for a diseased animal is a

IJALEL 2 (2):172-178, 2013 177 willingness to alleviate its suffering and then, once the animal is dead, to dispose of its body properly. Lurie finally discovers “what it was that was generously trying to flower: not the masculine prerogative always to act upon his desire, as Lucy had put it, but the gifts given to him over the course of his life by many women" (DeKoven, 2009, p. 869). Although Lucy and Bev Shaw did help Lurie in his ethical awakening, I would like to add the word "animals" to DeKoven's "many women." The suffering and violations of women and animals in a post-Apartheid Africa showed Lurie another aspect of life of which he was oblivious. Although this is not to equate the suffering of women with that of animals, the novel highlights the suffering of the unprivileged, dispossessed, and disfranchised. Lurie's exposure to unseemly aspects of life in the country is the cause of this change in his personality. If his sensual love is modified or disguised, then we are talking about a Freudian metamorphosis in his identity. The "new" Lurie is one who is more aware and accepting of the strictures imposed by reality, things like his advancing years, abundant suffering around him, and the politically strained situation of his country. In other words, the pleasure principle he used to follow gives way to the reality principle associated with death and suffering. 4. Coda At the very end of Disgrace, Lurie gives up a crippled dog he has developed an affinity with for a lethal injection (p. 220). He bears the animal in his arms “like a lamb” as he enters the surgery (p. 220). "'I thought you would save him for another week,' says Bev Shaw. 'Are you giving him up?' 'Yes, I am giving him up'" (p. 220). Giving up is apparently the opposite of caring or our absolute obligation to the other in Levinasean terms. However, Lurie carries the animal this way because now he has no problem in treating it with affection, with “particular fondness” (p. 215). In a sense, he is saving the sacrificial animal from the disgrace of a life of disability and thus loving it rather than giving it up. The animal seems to reciprocate Lurie’s gesture of love, for as he opens his arms the dog “sniffs his face, licks his cheeks, his lips, his ears” (p. 220). It is significant that Lurie begins to love this particular dog which no one else showed an interest in adopting (p. 215), and thus loving. Considering Lurie's and his daughter’s multifold disgrace in this novel, one can argue that this act is symbolic. If their disgrace is complete now, they have no future in this post-apartheid Africa except that of the diseased/unwanted dogs which are disposed of. From another perspective, Lurie is probably shedding off an unwanted aspect of his life, that animalistic side of unwieldy desire. In a sense, he is giving up a former life of eros in favor of a life of self-denial dedicated to feeding and cleaning animals and then ferrying their corpses to a hospital’s incinerator. According to Kossew, the novel records “the collision between private and public worlds; intellect and body; desire and love; and public disgrace or shame and the idea of individual grace or salvation” (p. 155). In attempting to save the disabled dog from the disgrace of disability, and from being unwanted, Lurie is also saving himself, offering value and meaning to his life. Hence, Coetzee’s conception of the body has an undeniable ethical dimension that problematizes the whole notion of eros. Coetzee's Disgrace is important because it confirms a shift in Coetzee's perception of literature from politics to ethics or simply problematizes the relationship between ethics and politics. Coetzee has dealt with the problem of representing politics in fiction in his apartheid fictions written before 1994, and here in this post-apartheid novel he interrogates how literature relates to ethical issues. This does not mean that the novel is devoid of political themes. For example, the novel can be discussed in terms of the politics of interracial violence since Lurie’s daughter is sexually violated by black men and she herself feels complicit with the power structures that contributed to her victimization. However, the brand of politics we have here is ethically nuanced. Alternatively put, the ethical thrust of this novel delivers political messages about our egocentric desires and apathy towards the suffering of others. References Attridge, D. (2004). J. M. Coetzee & the Ethics of Reading: Literature in the Event. Chicago: U of Chicago P. Brittan, A. (2010). Death and J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. Contemporary Literature, 51.3, 477-502. Coetzee, J. M. (1999). Disgrace. New York: Viking. Coetzee, J. M. (1992). Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews (David Attwell, Ed.). Cambridge: Harvard U P. Coetzee, J. M. (1988). The Novel Today. Upstream, 6.1, 2-5. Coetzee, J. M. (1980). Waiting for the Barbarians. London: Vintage. Coleman, D. (2009). The 'Dog-Man': Race, Sex, Species, and Lineage in Coetzee's Disgrace. Twentieth-Century Literature, 55.4, 597-617. Cornwell, G. (2002). Realism, Rape, and J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. Critique 43.4, 307-322. DeKoven, M. (2009). Going to the Dogs in Disgrace. ELH, 76.4, 847-875. Kossew, S. (2003). The Politics of Shame and Redemption in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. Research in African Literatures, 34.2, 155-162. Neimneh, S., and Muhaidat, F. (2012). The Ecological Thought of J. M. Coetzee: The Case of Life and Times of Michael K. Studies in Literature and Language, 4.1, 12-19. Randall, D. (2007). The Community of Sentient Beings: J. M. Coetzee’s Ecology in Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello. ESC, 33.1-2, 209-225. Tremaine, L. (2003). The Embodied Soul: Animal Being in the Work of J. M. Coetzee. Contemporary Literature, 44.4, 587-612.

IJALEL 2 (2):172-178, 2013 178 Endnotes 1 Actually, Derek Attridge (2004) differs from the mainstream of Coetzee’s scholarship by offering literal readings as events. See his book Coetzee & the Ethics of Reading. Moreover, in an article I co-authored with Fatima Muhaidat (2012), we argued that Coetzee's apartheid fiction has an inclusive and early ethical vision that extends to animals and plants. Using Life and Times of Michael K, we discussed Coetzee's ethicopolitical vision. i.e. the overlap between politics and ethics or an ethically rooted politics. See References. 2 Lurie, married twice and divorced twice, is thus leading an empty emotional life. At the professional level, things are not better. He was relegated from a professor of linguistics and literature at Cape University to an adjunct lecturer in communications in the same institution, now called Cape Technical University. 3 Coetzee (1988) in an early article entitled "The Novel Today" goes against "a powerful tendency to subsume the novel under history" (p. 2). Although this necessarily means that the novel should not be subsumed under ethics either, this does not deny Coetzee's fiction its ethical orientation. 4 In his recklessness and dangerous lifestyle, Lurie is a Satanic figure. For more on the analogy between Lurie and Lucifer as solitary creatures driven by impulses and falling into a state of disgrace, see Brittan (2010, p. 485). In fact, Lurie partakes in the characteristics of the Byronic hero in his daring nature and outcast condition. The Byron poem "Lara" he teaches to his students is significant as it is about the fallen angel Lucifer. He reads aloud to his students:

He stood a stranger in this breathing world, An erring spirit from another hurled; A thing of dark imaginings, that shaped By choice the perils he by chance escaped. (p. 32)

Coleman rightly says that "Lurie is drawn to the satanic; he identifies with it. If he were to choose a totem it would be the snake. He has even made an academic study of the origins of the Faust legend" (p. 611). Actually, Lucy hints at this association between Lurie and the satanic when she tells him during a conversation when he volunteers to work at the clinic provided that this work is not looked at as an attempt at reforming himself: "'So you are determined to go on being bad. Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. I promise, no one will ask you to change'" (p. 77). In defying norms, Lurie lived a dangerous life.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

The Predictor Factor of Reading Comprehension Performance in English as a Foreign Language: Breadth or Depth

Shima Kameli (Corresponding Author)

Faculty of Educational Studies, University Putra Malaysia E-mail: k.ishima@yahoo.com

Ghazali Mustapha

Faculty of Economic and Muamalat, University Sains Islam Malaysia E-mail: drghaz@usim.edu.my

Salah Alyami

Dammam College of Technology, Saudi Arabia E-mail: salah1sa@yahoo.com

Received: 28-12- 2012 Accepted: 28-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.179 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.179 Abstract The present study explored the association among vocabulary breadth/size, depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension in English as a foreign language. The main intention of this research was to explore the association of vocabulary knowledge depth/quality and reading comprehension performance. This study was also intended to find out which aspects of vocabulary knowledge, breadth/size or depth/quality, has more significant association with determining EFL learners’ reading comprehension performance. The Vocabulary Level Test (VLT), Word Associates Test (WAT), and Reading Comprehension test (IELTS) have been administered among all the respondents. The participants were 220 adult male and female EFL learners who were learning English in advanced level in BAHAR institute, Shiraz, Iran. The findings revealed that 1) test scores on vocabulary size/ breadth, depth/ quality of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension were positively correlated, 2) vocabulary size/ breadth was a stronger predictor of reading comprehension than depth/ Quality of vocabulary knowledge. Keywords: vocabulary breadth/size, depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension 1. Background Reading comprehension is commonly known as an interactive mental process between a readers’ linguistic knowledge, knowledge of the world, and knowledge about a given topic (Rahmani & Sadeghi, 2011). Reading is a complex process; L2 reading is even more complex. Success in reading comprehension is regularly depicted as an essential element to the academic success of EFL learners. Reading ability has always been viewed as critical to academic success (Bernhardt, 1991; Carrell, 1991; Urquhart and Weir, 1998; Levine, A., Ferenz, O., Reves, T., 2000; Grabe and Stoller, 2002). Researchers have long documented the prominent role in which vocabulary performs in assisting reading comprehension (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, 1982; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997; National Reading Panel Report, 2000; Coyne, Simmons, & Kame’enui, 2004; Stahl & Nagy, 2006). For the last twenty years or so, studies based on the association of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension has been an interesting topic in L2 research area. . Thus, in a consistent manner, research brings to the light that vocabulary knowledge more significant than other elements such as grammar knowledge, heavily relates to reading comprehension (Koda, 1989; Qian, 1999) and strategies of reading comprehension (Haynes & Baker, 1993). Furthermore, second language reading is not simple for numerous language learners; the majority of learners require more time to improve their vocabulary knowledge for reading comprehension performance in the target language. Laufer (1997) has claimed, “no text comprehension is possible, either in one's native language or in a foreign language, without understanding the text's vocabulary” (p.20). Therefore, the lack of capability in comprehending the word definitions may lead L2 readers to have difficulty in improving their reading comprehension skills. As a result, vocabulary knowledge appears to be an influential aspect in reading performance (Richard & Rodgers, 2001). The difference among breadth/size and depth/quality is that breadth/size underlines the whole numerous forms of vocabulary that L2 language learners have with boundary word definitions, whereas depth/quality concentrates on the different dimensions correlated with a single word (Wesche & Paribakht, 1996; Qian, 1999; Read, 2000; Guo, 2011). In vocabulary learning studies, this difference has frequently been created among two factors of vocabulary knowledge: Vocabulary breadth/size and depth/quality (Meara, 1996; Haastrup & Henriksen, 2000; Read, 2000); though it is obvious that both of them are apparently related (depth without breadth is rationally not possible). Furthermore, Qian

IJALEL 2 (2):179-184, 2013 180 (1999) remarked that breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge revealed in research depicted close relationship in reading comprehension. There are two vocabulary tests that have seen wide recognition and application: Nation’s vocabulary levels test and Read’s word associates test. Both tests are commonly applied evaluate of the English vocabulary knowledge for L2, (Nation, 2001; Schmitt, Schmitt & Clapham, 2001). Nation’s vocabulary levels test (1990) is used to measure vocabulary breadth/size and requires test takers to compare words with their short definitions or synonyms. The latest test version has a multiple choice format, with each target word displayed in a short non-defining sentence followed by four definitions as options, (Nation & Gu, 2007). Read’s word associates test (1993, 1998) is applied to assess the depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge and is in the form of a less open-ended test. Test takers are required to choose the words correlated with the objective word. On the other side, there is The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) which is the test being used for reading comprehension performance. It superseded the English Language Testing System (ELTS) in 1990. IELTS is generally approved as a trustworthy assessing tool in investigating whether candidates are ready to instruct or study in an English medium. In 2007, IELTS was investigated further over a million candidates in a single 12 months period for the first time ever, making it the world’s most accepted English language test for higher immigration and education. The most important concern of this research is to find out whether a person’s vocabulary proficiency level can be predicted through reading comprehension item types. To be more specific, it studies whether EFL learners with various levels of vocabulary knowledge, operationalized in vocabulary levels test (VLT) and word associates test (WAT), differ in their performance on IELTS reading comprehension item types 2. Vocabulary Level Test, Word Associate Test, and Reading Comprehension Using VLT and Eurocentres Vocabulary Size Test (EVST), Laufer (1992, as cited in Zhang & Annual, 2008) examined the association among the scores of vocabulary size and reading comprehension. The results revealed that, at all levels (less than 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000) there were significant relationships among the scores of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Her findings lent support to the assumption of L1 researches that claimed vocabulary is a stable and robust predictor of reading comprehension. Nassaji (2004), in his article “the relationship between depth of vocabulary knowledge and L2 learners’ lexical inferencing strategy use and success” attempted to discover how second language learners’ depth of vocabulary knowledge correlates to the type and level of lexical inferencing strategy use and how this relation intervenes learners’ success in derivation word definition from content. Nassaji used 21 adult intermediate ESL learners from various language backgrounds, involving Persian, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, and Portuguese to read a passage containing 10 unfamiliar words to obtain their meaning from context. In a recent time, all had arrived in Canada and were taking English courses to enhance their skill. Nassaji reported the WAT split-half reliability was 0.89 in this study (2004). Similarly, Schoonen and Verhallen (2008) conducted a WAT test in elementary schools in the Netherlands to find out the lexical improvement scope for children studying Dutch as a second language and found out that they lagged behind in comparison to their native-speaking peers. In Canada, Qian used Read’s WAT test in his study of the associations among second language vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skill in adult English learners (1999, 2008). Qian and Schedule (2004) found that word associates items would be a possible alternative to formal multiple-choice items as evaluates of vocabulary knowledge in the English as a Foreign Language Test (TOEFL). In a similar research, Chen (2009) used WAT as a tool to evaluate the depth of vocabulary to investigate the association between knowledge of vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and reading comprehension. The respondents were 138 people from five English classes in college of western Taiwan who had educated English as a foreign language for not less than 3 years. The results of this research were similar to prior relevant researches which illustrated that breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge affected L2 learners’ reading comprehension (Davis, 1968; Qian, 1999, 2002; Wallace, 2008). 3. Research Methodology The quantitative approach was chosen and the correlational design was used to describe the probable relation among the variables. Location of this research was BAHAR Institute in Shiraz city of Iran and the population of this study was students who were registered in advanced levels of English proficiency in BAHAR Institute to improve their English competency. The sampling strategy was chosen to be the accidental sampling (convenience sampling). The sample size was 220 male and female adult language learners. The data were gathered by three various research instruments: the test to assess breadth/size of vocabulary knowledge (VLT), the test to assess the depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge (WAT), and reading comprehension test ( the academic reading section of IELTS). To carry out the analysis, Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), version 16.0 for Windows Vista Home Premium, was used to run statistical analysis of the instruments. A two-tailed Pearson product moment correlation coefficient were calculated. Additionally and the multiple linear regression was applied to discover the further association of independents’ variable and predicting reading comprehension. In particular, the study explored the following research hypothesis: Ho1: There is no significant relationship between EFL learners’ vocabulary depth/quality and their reading comprehension performance subtest of IELTS.

IJALEL 2 (2):179-184, 2013 181 Ho2: There is no significant relationship between EFL learners’ vocabulary breadth/size, vocabulary depth/quality, and reading comprehension performance. Ho3: The breadth/size of vocabulary knowledge does not predict reading comprehension performance more powerfully than the depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge. 4. Results 4.1 Correlation between WAT & IELTS Ho1: There is no significant relationship between EFL learners’ vocabulary depth/quality and their reading comprehension performance subtest of IELTS. In the Pearson correlation analysis, the results suggested that both IELTS and WAT had positive correlation. Based on Table 4.1, therefore, it is concluded that there is significant correlation (r=.684, p<0.05) among EFL learners’ vocabulary depth/quality and their performance of IELTS reading comprehension based on the Guilford Rule of Thumb table (1956). It can be concluded that the above hypothesis is rejected so, there is significant relationship between EFL learners’ vocabulary depth/quality and their reading comprehension performance subtest of IELTS. Table 4.1. Correlation between Scores on the WAT and IELTS (n=220)

TESTS IELTS

Word A Test (WAT) .684∗∗

∗∗Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) This finding lends affirm to Qian’s (1999, 2002) asserted that depth of vocabulary knowledge is influential in reading comprehension. 4.2 Correlation among VLT, WAT, and IELTS Ho2: There is no significant relationship between EFL learners’ vocabulary breadth/size, vocabulary depth/quality, and reading comprehension performance. In order to expose the association among vocabulary breadth/size and vocabulary depth/quality with reading comprehension, the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was administrated. The data displayed that the breadth/size of vocabulary knowledge (r=.834, p<.05), as well as the depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge(r=.684, p<.05), was meaningfully correlated with reading comprehension. The correlation coefficient among VLT and WAT was .919, and the scores on both tests significantly and positively correlated with one another; therefore, based on the data displayed in Table 4.2 it cannot be posited that there exists no relationship between EFL learners’ vocabulary breadth/size, vocabulary depth/quality, and reading comprehension performance. As a result, hypothesis 4 is rejected. It means that there is significant association among vocabulary breadth/size, vocabulary depth/quality, and reading comprehension. In other words, based on Guilford’s Rule of Thumb (1956), the vocabulary breadth/size and vocabulary depth/quality were strongly correlated(r=.919, p<0.05). Table 4.2. Correlation between Scores on the IELTS, VLT, & WAT (n=220)

TESTS IELTS VLT WAT IELTS 1.000

VLT .834∗∗

WAT .684∗∗ .919∗∗ 1.000

∗∗Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) The inter-correlations among the three tests are all both positive and statistically significant. The correlation between the VLT and WAT (r=.919) is the highest, and the correlation between the VLT and IELTS (r=.834) is higher than that between the WAT and IELTS(r=.684). Therefore, based on Guilford’s Rule of Thumb table (1956), there is a very highly positive correlation among the VLT and WAT while this relationship among the IELTS and VLT is highly positive. Moreover, based on Guilford’s Rule of Thumb table (1956), there is a moderate and positive association among IELST and WAT. Consequently, as shown in the findings of the Pearson product moment correlation (Table 4.2), it can be administrated that there are significantly positive relationships between two vocabulary knowledge tests and IELTS reading comprehension. The results were similar to prior relevant researches which depicted that vocabulary breadth/size and depth/quality knowledge affected L2 learners’ reading comprehension (Davis, 1968; Qian, 1999, 2002; Wallace, 2008). Based on Chall (1987), vocabulary knowledge of reader facilitates text perception and reading comprehension can assist readers

IJALEL 2 (2):179-184, 2013 182 enhance their knowledge of vocabulary. Vocabulary is a fundamental bridge connection among sentences and understanding. The present results confirmed vocabulary knowledge has a superior role that controls readers’ reading understanding skills for this certain research. Through the results from Pearson correlation coefficient analysis, and the high positive correlation between breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge (r=.919, p<.05), it can be concluded that the language learners with a larger breadth/size of vocabulary may have perfect presentation on the vocabulary depth/quality test. It may be supposed that knowing further vocabulary would permit the language learners to need more depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge. The results in Table 4.2 indicated that the scores on the three language tests were positively correlated with one another, which prove the association among vocabulary breadth/size, depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension. That is, the wider and the deeper one’s vocabulary knowledge is the better reading comprehension he or she has. Among the inter-correlations of the three tests, it is intriguing that the correlation was the highest between the scores on the VLT and WAT (r=.919). It revealed that the two variables, vocabulary breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge, were themselves highly correlated. The high correlation shown in this study (r =.919) may be lead to suppose that the development of breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge is closely interrelated and may even be interdependent. This appears plausible, for one would not normally have vocabulary breadth/size knowledge without also acquiring some depth/quality knowledge. 4.3. Correlation among variables and Predicting Reading Comprehension Ho3: The breadth/size of vocabulary knowledge does not predict reading comprehension performance more powerfully than the depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge. Multiple regression analysis was administrated in this phase to predict reading comprehension performance from, on the one hand, vocabulary breadth/size, and on the other hand, depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge. To determine the more powerful predictors of reading comprehension, scores on the VLT and WAT were taken as the predictor (or independent) variables and score on the IELTS as the criterion (or dependent) variable. Table 4.3., summarizes the findings of the forward method of multiple regression analysis. The column labeled R2 indicates the proportion of the total variance in the criterion variable (IELTS in this case) accounted for by the predictor variables (the VLT and WAT in this case), and R2 is an estimate of the population value. Adjusted R2 value, however, is developed for the model to better fit the population (compensating for the optimistic bias of R2 value) and is of concern for models with more than one predictor. Reporting both the R2 and the adjusted R2 is important when there are numbers of predictors and a small sample size (Green, Salkind, & Akey, 1997). R Square change, the difference between an R Square value for the predicting predictor and an R Square value for the predictor being entered, is the highlight of the regression analysis, indicating the dimensions of the contribution of a variable at the point where it is entered into the regression equation.

Table 4.3. Multiple Regression Analysis using score on IELTS as Criterion Variable and scores on the VLT and WAT as Predictor Variables

Model R R 2 Adjusted R2 Change Statistic

R Square Change

1 2

.834a

.861b .696 .741

.695

.738 .696 .044

a. Predictors: (Constant), VLT score b. Predictors: (Constant), VLT score, WAT score c. Dependent Variable: IELTS

The previous phase indicated that the predictor variable VLT has a stronger correlation with the criterion variable IELTS (r=.834, p<.01) than the predictor variable WAT (r=.684, p<.01). Therefore, the predictor variable VLT was chosen to be entered into the regression equation first. As it is illustrated in Table 4.3., when VLT was entered into the equation, the R value was .834 and the R2 value and the adjusted R2 value were .696 and .695, respectively. VLT alone accounted for 69.6 %( R2=.696) of the variance in the criterion variable IELTS. Also, VLT, as a predictor, explained a significant amount of the IELTS variability (F (1, 218) = 499.768, p<.05).As VLT remained in the equation, WAT was then added at the second step. At this point, the R value changed to .861, R2 and Adjusted R2 value also changed to .741 and .738 respectively. VLT and WAT jointly accounted for 74.1% (R2=.741) of the variance in IELTS but the WAT measure did not predict significantly over and above the VLT measure (R2 Change = .044, F (2, 217) = 309.824, p<.05). The entry of WAT at the second step contributed only an additional 4.4% (R2 Change =.044) of the variance in IELTS. In other words, WAT did not explain a significant proportion of IELTS variance after controlling for the effect of VLT. In the multiple regression analysis, the outcome suggested that breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge contributed significantly to the prediction of reading comprehension performance. When comparing the unique contribution they made, however, the analysis yielded results that the vocabulary breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary measure accounted significantly for 74.1% of the variance in reading comprehension performance, so it

IJALEL 2 (2):179-184, 2013 183 turned out that vocabulary breadth/size is a more effective predictor of reading comprehension performance than depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge. This result runs against the original hypothesis; thus hypothesis 5 is rejected. Nevertheless, due to the stronger correlation with reading comprehension that vocabulary breadth/size shows in this study, this result does not seem surprising. The one that had a powerful association with reading comprehension (as shown in the correlation phase) would be the stronger predictor of reading comprehension performance. 5. Conclusion Based on Nassaji (2004), depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge facilitates inferencing, therefore improving vocabulary acquisition through reading. What has to be stated is that the relationship among depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension seem to have a lower relationship contrasted to breadth/size of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Conversely, depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge presented less predictive power than vocabulary breadth/size, while still contributed to conclusive reading. Hence, from the results mentioned above, it can be deduced that learners’ low vocabulary depth/quality will lead to low reading comprehension performance as well. All above mentioned findings suggested that the breadth/size of vocabulary knowledge was in a very high positive association with reading comprehension and also it appeared to be in a stronger relationship with reading comprehension than vocabulary depth/quality. To add to this, from the results in this study it could be inferred that the learners with a larger breadth/size of vocabulary appeared to have better performance on the vocabulary depth/quality test. With regard to this point, it may be assumed that knowing more vocabulary would allow learners to acquire more depth of vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, from the scores illustrated in Table 4.1 it can be concluded that the depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge contributed to perform well in reading comprehension, but still offered less predictive power than vocabulary breadth/size. This may have resulted from the way most Iranian EFL learners learned vocabulary when they first studied English; that is, to memorize vocabulary lists. Basically, in Iran EFL learners are encouraged and expected to strengthen and improve their breadth/size of vocabulary knowledge more than their vocabulary depth/quality. The pedagogical instruction in almost all English institutes in Iran is based on improving and focusing on meaning rather than form and structure; as a result, most Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary breadth/size is wider than their depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge. The particularly robust link between vocabulary breadth/size and depth/quality in this study may have been resulted from the high language proficiency of the participants. Since they were mostly advanced English learners whose vocabulary knowledge was generally richer, the breadth/size and depth/quality of their vocabulary knowledge could interrelate with each other to a large extent. It may also be explained by the overlapping construct of the two measures. Despite the fact that WAT explores more and deeper aspects of vocabulary knowledge, the synonymy and polysemy that WAT attempts to measure is actually the basic word meaning that the VLT requires, and the knowledge of collocation have more or less correlation with knowledge of individual word meaning. From the data illustrated in Table 4.3 it can be concluded that vocabulary breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge are both good predictors of reading comprehension in their own right, but neither of them is sufficient to account for the variance in reading comprehension when they co-exist. The finding that both vocabulary breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge were competing for the existing supply of the variance in reading comprehension, but that neither one made it to the significance level, is confirmed by the close interrelationship and interdependence between vocabulary breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge (as found in testing hypothesis 2). Theoretically, breadth/size and depth/quality of vocabulary knowledge may be discussed separately; but, apparently, in practice, they are actually inseparable and interrelated. Again, there is no denying that the role of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension is essential, but which aspect of vocabulary knowledge, breadth/size or depth/quality, plays a more crucial role on reading comprehension, remains in debate. Given the results in the present study, however, it may be no longer meaningful for this population (i.e., adults EFL learners in Advanced level) to argue for which aspect of vocabulary knowledge is more important in that they are both useful predictors of reading comprehension. Instead, combining the two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge in vocabulary assessment may be more beneficial than keeping them apart. Nevertheless, the results might depend on language proficiency levels of the learners. That is, the result of the present study could be due to the strong relation of vocabulary breadth/size and depth/quality that the participants had. These Iranian EFL learners were in advanced level and might be different from those in lower levels. 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International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

A Comparative Study of “Subtitled” vs. “Auditory” Documentaries Comprehension among

Persian Speakers of English

Masoud Raee Sharif, PhD (Corresponding author) Department of foreign Languages, Payarn Noor University of Teheran – Iran

E-mail: mraeesharif@gmil.com

Maryam Ebrahimian E-mail: maryam.ebrahimian@yahoo.com

Received: 29-12- 2012 Accepted: 29-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.185 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.185 Abstract This study set out to compare the effect of modality of presentation (subtitled vs. auditory) on the retention of verbal content of documentary films among Iranian EFL students. To this end, 60 participants (30 male and 30 female students) of homogeneous English proficiency were volitionally assigned to one of the two experimental conditions: English soundtrack with no subtitles (ESONSU), no soundtrack with English subtitles (NSOESU). The sample was asked to watch five five-minute documentary clips with the presentation format varied in terms of the verbal information, which was alternatively given in soundtracks and subtitles. Thus, while one group was presented with subtitled documentary excerpts, the other group watched the same clips with the sound tracks. Comparison of the two groups on Mann-Whitney U test illustrated that there is not any significant difference between the rate of comprehension of subtitled documentaries as opposed to audible documentaries. However, females were found to outperform their male counterparts in both subtitled documentaries comprehension (median = 20 vs. male median = 13) and audible documentary comprehension (females’ median = 20.5 vs. males’ median = 13.5). Key words: Listening comprehension, Reading comprehension, Subtitles 1. Introduction Today’s world is undoubtedly “a visually oriented one. Films and videos capture audiences not only in the field of entertainment, but also in the business of corporate world and education” (Stoller 1990:10, cited in Canning-Wilson 2000). The incorporation of video in foreign language instruction has recently benefitted from the “proliferation of subtitled material that provides learners with more opportunity for auditory discrimination through comparison of subtitles and audio for establishing connection between words and images; for checking and reinforcing listening comprehension, for improving vocabulary acquisition and reading ability with the help of verbatim subtitles” (Spanos and Smith 1990, cited in Chang, 2003, p.162). According to Winke, Gass and Sydorenko. (2010), with a greater emphasis on technology in language classrooms, the use of captioning will undoubtedly increase in importance and frequency. If this is to happen, appropriate research will need to increase in future years lest we introduce a pedagogical tool without fully understanding its implications. With this in mind, the present study investigates the influence of modes of presentation (muted vs. auditory documentaries) on the rate of listening comprehension among Iranian EFL students. So far, as Hinkin (2009) explains, “ample research has been carried out on audiovisual material enhanced with subtitles, each attempting to explore a different aspect of subtitling on second/foreign language learning”. However, as many language teaching specialists such as Hinkin (ibid) have pointed out “previous research has primarily focused on the influence of subtitles on attention and the effectiveness of subtitles for promoting foreign language acquisition. Some studies have also investigated comprehension of subtitled movies and television” (paragraph 2). However, “despite the obvious obsession people have with viewing movies, psychological research investigating the influence of subtitles on movie viewing is limited” (p.1 paragraph 1). A video stream is actually a semiotic composition of four channels: the verbal auditory channel (dialogue, background voices, and lyrics), the non-verbal auditory channel (natural sounds, sound effects, and music), the verbal visual channel: subtitles and any writing in the film, and finally the non-verbal visual channel (composition of the images, camera positions, movements and their editing)” (Baker, 1998). In bilingual situations, like the one in the present study, the listener relies on two separate verbal systems related by associative connections. In subtitled films, these three independent systems are interconnected and presented simultaneously. This may lead to better processing and recall because of the additive effects of both image and translation. However, further investigation of the influence of

IJALEL 2 (2):185-192, 2013 186 simultaneous presentations of multiple information channels is required. In particular, researchers must understand how visual and auditory stimuli, presented simultaneously, affect each other in terms of working memory (Hinkin, 2009). It is worth mentioning that "while working memory studies have profoundly influenced the development of new cognitive theories, including the Dual-Processing Theory (Mayer & Moreno, 1998 cited by Hinkin,2009, p. 3), limited research has investigated the effects of subtitled messages on multimedia comprehension” (Hinkin, 2009). Besides, subtitling has received little attention from experimental psychology and communication studies. For this reason, practical applications of subtitling rely more on conventional rules of thumb than on validated empirical guidelines. Research in this area can, therefore, have significant applied value (Prego et al., 2010, p.245), which is why the present study is of paramount value. The purpose of this study is twofold: first to determine which listening situation (foreign language soundtrack or foreign language subtitles) is more conducive to better comprehension of English documentaries; second, to investigate which gender of females or males, under similar conditions, would comprehend which situation (foreign language soundtrack or foreign language subtitles) better. In other words, the present study aims to answer the following questions: 1. Is there any difference in the comprehension of subtitled documentaries vs. audible documentaries? 2. Is there any difference in the comprehension of subtitled documentaries by male and female language learners? 3. Is there any difference in the comprehension of audible documentaries by male and female language learners? 2. This Study In order to conduct this research, two groups of male and female students consisting of 30 males from Allameh Helli Gifted Students High School and 30 females from Farhange Amoozesh Institute aged between 16-18 years old were chosen to participate in this study. Based on their own volition, they were then assigned to one of the two experimental conditions: English soundtrack with no subtitles (ESONSU), no soundtrack with English subtitles (NSOESU). A customized PET test (C-PET) as well as a set of teacher-made comprehension tests were used to elicit the required data. The former was utilized to ascertain the homogeneity of the sample. The K-R21 reliability index for this altered test stood at .74, rendering it reliable for the purpose intended. Based on the C-PET, it was found that the two groups of students were homogeneous in terms of general English proficiency prior to the main study. The ultimate 30 students in each group then stood as the final sample. In addition to the C-PET, a comprehension test comprising 47 multiple choice questions was also administered to the sample after watching the documentary films to see in which situation and by which gender more comprehension is achieved. 3. Procedure After ensuring the homogeneity, the sample was assigned to 2 groups (in 4 classes, 2 in each situation of either ESONSU or NSOESU on the basis of their preference to watch either the subtitled documentaries or the audible documentaries. The experiment continued for two sessions over two weeks. In each session, the students watched segments of one episode twice for about 30 minutes each time. Before presenting the film, the researcher would brief the sample on what they were going to watch. She would brainstorm the learners by asking questions about the story of the upcoming documentary. While presenting the film, the researcher would remain in the classroom with the learners to observe their reactions, and to pause and rewind if necessary. After watching the film, the researcher would ask for feedback from the viewers. In each session, the researcher presented segments (of 5 minute documentaries) from 3 episodes of the English documentary pack entitled “Planet Earth” to the sample. After each presentation, the participants were asked to complete the comprehension test on the same presentations. After they had completed the comprehension tests, the participants were informed of the purpose of the experiment and given the opportunity to ask questions related to the material. Finally the participants were thanked for their participation and dismissed. The experimental procedure took approximately 45 minutes from welcome to dismissal in each session. 4. Data Analysis Following the administration of the comprehension test, which consisted of 47 multiple choice items based on the information provided in the documentary clips, the student's performance on the comprehension test was scored. Each correct answer carried one point. To gain insight into the characteristics of the two groups, the scores obtained were plugged into the Mann-Whitney U tests for comparison of the results. 4.1. Placement Homogeneity (PET) In order to ascertain the homogeneity of the two groups, the researcher administered two sections of the Preliminary English Test (PET), reading and listening, to the participants. In order to calculate and compare the mean scores of the participants on PET, the present researcher also ran an Independent Sample t-test to prove that the two students enjoyed the same level of general language proficiency prior to the main study.

IJALEL 2 (2):185-192, 2013 187 Table 1. Descriptive Statistics Proficiency Test by Gender

Group N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Female 39 31.23 6.741 1.079 Male 39 31.05 7.071 1.132

Table 2. Independent t-test Proficiency Test by Gender

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances

t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. T Df Sig. (2-tailed)

Mean Difference

Std. Error Difference

95% Confidence Interval of the

Difference Lower Upper

Equal variances assumed .057 .812 .115 76 .909 .179 1.564 -2.936 3.295

Equal variances not assumed

.115 75.828 .909 .179 1.564 -2.936 3.295

It should be noted that the assumption of homogeneity of variances is met (Levene’s F = .057, P = .912 > .05). The first row of Table 2, i.e. “Equal variances assumed” is reported.

Graph 1. Proficiency Test by Gender 4.2. Statistical Analysis In order to test the Research Hypotheses, the following statistical techniques were utilized: 1. Independent t-test Proficiency Test by Gender was performed to check the homogeneity of the two groups at the outset of the experiment. 2. Mann-Whitney U test was run to probe the research questions 4.3. Normality Test (by Types of Movies) The students’ scores on the comprehension test did not enjoy normal distribution. As displayed in Table 3 the ratios of skewedness indices over their respective standard errors are beyond the acceptable ranges of +/- 1.96. Table 3. Normality Test (by Types of Movies)

SOURCE Skewedness Kurtosis

Statistic Std. Error Normality Statistic Std. Error Normality

AUDIO 1.299 .403 3.22 1.050 .788 1.33

VISUAL 1.325 .403 3.28 .544 .788 .690

IJALEL 2 (2):185-192, 2013 188 Histogram 1 graphically displays the non-normality of the data. That is why the non-parametric equivalent of independent t-test, i.e. Mann-Whitney U test is run to probe the research questions.

Histogram 1. Comprehension (by Types of Movies)

4.4 Normality Test (by Gender) The students’ scores on the comprehension test do not enjoy normal distribution. As displayed in Table 4 the ratios of s skewedness indices over their respective standard errors are beyond the acceptable ranges of +/- 1.96. Table 4. Normality Test (by Gender)

SOURCE Skewedness Kurtosis

Statistic Std. Error Normality Statistic Std. Error Normality

AUDIO .174 .464 .375 -.362 .902 .40

VISUAL 2.619 .361 7.25 10.408 .709 14.67

Histogram 2 graphically displays the non-normality of the data. That is why the non-parametric equivalent of independent t-test, i.e. Mann-Whitney U test is run to probe the research questions targeting male and female performance on the comprehension test.

Histogram 2. Comprehension (by Gender)

5. Results

IJALEL 2 (2):185-192, 2013 189 As stated earlier, the current study was conducted to answer the following questions: 1. Is there any difference in the comprehension of subtitled documentaries vs. audible documentaries? 2. Is there any difference in the comprehension of subtitled documentaries by male and female language learners? 3. Is there any difference in the comprehension of audible documentaries by male and female language learners? As for our first research hypothesis reading “is there any difference in the comprehension of subtitled documentaries vs. audible documentaries?” the sample did not enjoy normal distribution, so we had to resort to the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test to probe the answer to this research question. The above mentioned histogram depicts the rate of comprehension in our sample by gender. Based on the results displayed in Table 5 below, it can be concluded that there is no significant difference between the comprehension of subtitled documentaries (Median = 13) versus audible documentaries (Median = 14.5). Thus, our first null-hypothesis based on the first research question was supported. This means that in the current study reading the verbal information in the subtitles was not found to be more efficient than listening to the soundtracks. The performance of all students who watched the documentary movie clips mute while they read subtitles did not show greater superiority over that of those who watched the same movie clips and listened to the soundtracks.

Table 5. Mann-Whitney U Test Comprehension (Audible vs. Subtitled)

Pretest Mann-Whitney U 566.000 Wilcoxon W 1161.000 Z -.151 Sig. (2-tailed) .880 Median (Subtitled) 13 Median (Audible) 14.5

As for our second research question, which reads “is there any difference in the comprehension of subtitled documentaries by male and female language learners?” again a Mann-Whitney U test was run to compare the median scores of the male and female listeners on the comprehension test of subtitled documentaries. Based on the results displayed in Table 6, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between the rate of comprehension of subtitled documentaries by females (Median = 20) and that of males (Median = 13). Thus, it can be concluded that the 2nd null-hypothesis based on the 2nd research question is rejected, meaning that when Iranian female EFL students are given muted subtitled documentaries to comprehend, they can significantly outperform their male counterparts.

Table 6. Mann-Whitney U Test Comprehension (Male vs. Female Subtitled Movies)

Statistic Pretest Mann-Whitney U 31.500 Wilcoxon W 262.500 Z -4.360 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 Median (Female) 20 Median (Male) 13

As for our third research hypothesis which reads is there any difference in the comprehension of audible movies by male vs. female language learners, again, a Mann-Whitney U test was run to compare the median scores of male vs. female language learners on audible documentaries in order to assess the third hypothesis. Based on the results displayed in Table 7, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between the comprehension of females (Median = 20.5) and males (Median = 13.5) in the audible documentaries. Thus, it can be concluded that the third null-hypothesis is rejected, implying that female EFL students performed better on audible movies than their male counterparts.

Table 7. Mann-Whitney U Test Comprehension (Male vs. Female Audible Movies)

Pretest Mann-Whitney U 35.500 Wilcoxon W 288.500 Z -3.493 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 Median (Female) 20.5 Median (Male) 13.5

IJALEL 2 (2):185-192, 2013 190 6. Discussion The purpose of this study was to compare the utility and applicability of soundtracks as opposed to subtitles in the comprehension of documentary movies. This study was motivated by Lang’s (1995), which compared auditory (soundtrack) and visual (subtitles) verbal information in relation to recognition abilities. Nevertheless, most of the existing literature in this area, as Lang (1995) describes it, is inconclusive since “limited research is done on recognition tests for combined visual-verbal information”. Furthermore, the studies conducted before did not take into account gender differences. Considering that the research so far has not been conclusive, the need for further investigation is an important issue to be considered here. As enumerated above, he present study had 3 primary questions to answer, based on which 3 null hypotheses were formed. As for the first null hypothesis (differences in the rate of comprehension of subtitled documentaries versus audible documentaries), evaluation of the data demonstrated that there is no significant difference between the rate of comprehension of subtitled documentaries as opposed to audible documentaries. Thus, it can be concluded that presentation format does not influence performance on recognition tests. In other words, it doesn’t really matter whether people resort to subtitles or soundtracks for the comprehension of documentary movies. In this respect, however, our findings conflict earlier literature stating that reading verbal information in subtitles is more efficient than listening to the actual soundtrack, which is what most of the earlier literature points at. More specifically our results conflict Mayer’s (1997) findings that “when presented with a combination of two visual inputs (pictures and text), observers [are] not able to focus their attention on both stimuli concurrently”, which yields “less understanding compared to the presentation of a visual and oral stimulus concurrently”. Moreover, Hinkin’s (ibid) predictions which are based on Mayer and Moreno’s (1998) dual-process theory stating that “when participants are instructed to answer questions about the verbal content of a movie clip, performance would be optimized if the verbal information is presented in the soundtrack and no verbal information is presented in the subtitles” is also in contradictions with the findings of the present study. The findings of the current study also did not confirm Tulving & Thomson’s (1973) principle of encoding specificity (cited by Hinkin, 2009.p.11), which expects performance on the verbal-only questions to be better than performance with verbal information in the soundtrack. Alternatively, our findings are also in contrast with Lang’s (1995), where it was revealed that visually presented verbal information yields better performance on verbal recognition tasks than auditory verbal information. To summarize, our overall results indicate that the idea that processing subtitled documentaries is easier for the listener than audible input does not necessarily hold true. For example, it contravenes D’Ydewalle et al.’s (1987 & 1991), which suggests that reading verbal information is much easier than listening to the soundtrack because observers are able to read the subtitles faster than they can comprehend the actual words being spoken in the soundtrack. However, D’Ydewalle’s study and explanation can hardly ring true in the case of the native language, where soundtrack is by far easier and more convenient to listen to than subtitles. In the case of the mother tongue, use of subtitles is only justified when hearing the audio is not possible or easy as in public places with a lot of noise. The conflict between this and the previous studies could be attributed to a number of factors. First and foremost, the design of the present study, i.e. ex post facto, may have been inappropriate for this line of inquiry. In our work, the students did not receive any particular instruction or hands-on training prior to undergoing this study. They were just taken as they were and plugged into the study for data elicitation. Secondly, there could have been extraneous variables involved, which the researchers failed to detect and eradicate. Of other factors one could think of could be the research milieu or the contexts of such schools in Iran, which could have been different from those elsewhere in the world. Another potential explanation could be that the methods of multimedia presentation used in the current study drastically differed from those of Mayer and Moreno (1998). The present study used movie clips, which can present highly dynamic scenes, whereas the bicycle pump scenes presented by Mayer and Moreno contained less action. With regard to the second hypothesis in the present study, previous literature has not addressed gender specification with regard to comprehension in multimedia environment when subtitles are concerned specifically. It is to be mentioned that although pervious research has previously dealt with gender differences and reading comprehension performances of the participants, reading subtitles can not be regarded as a reading task. With regard to our third null hypothesis, a potential reason for the poor performance of male students as opposed to their female counterparts may be related to a factor called field dependent/independent; a variable which the researchers did not consider in the present study. Yousefi (2011) investigated the relationship between field independent vs. field dependent cognitive styles and Iranian EFL learners' listening comprehension ability. An interesting result of her study was that gender has no relationship with the learners’ listening ability, and although a slight difference is observed between field dependent boys' performance and field dependent girls' performance, it is not big enough to indicate any relationship between the two variables. Nevertheless, the interaction of sex and cognitive style can have a relatively strong effect on the learners' listening comprehension ability. Accordingly, she concludes that there is a statistically significant difference between field dependence and field independence learners' performance on listening tests, with the field dependence style showing a relatively facilitative effect on this skill. There could be physiological reasons for the superiority of female listeners as well. Researchers from Northwest Carolina found that the areas of the brain connected with language processing work faster in girls than in boys. This is mostly during language activities. Elsewhere it is found that girls show greater activity in the superior temporal gyrus.

IJALEL 2 (2):185-192, 2013 191 Girls also show greater activity in is the fusiform gruys found on the left side of the brain. This area helps students identify the spelling of words using visual modality (Halpern, 2000). As stated earlier, our findings show that female participants performed better in both audio and subtitle situations. Therefore, one might be tempted to conclude that women are altogether better listeners than men. However, the results of research by Yousefi (2011) did not find any significant difference between Iranian EFL learners' listening comprehension ability and their gender. She maintains that if there is any relationship between these two factors, it has to do with field dependence vs. field independence dichotomy, meaning that if one gender shows any superiority over the other, it is because of the general tendency of the respective gender to be FD or FI. Otherwise, their pure comprehension capacities are similar. Based on all that went above, one might ponder if women outperform men in listening comprehension, what is the state of affairs when it comes to speaking? Interestingly enough, there is ample body of literature pointing to the superior performance of women over men in speaking and altogether in all aspects of oral skills. Raee Sharif and Kiani Parsa (2009) found that between male and female speakers, the latter are comprehended much better than men, which implies that women are able to encapsulate their verbal message in a better way than men, and both men and women would comprehend them better. There are some limitations in the present study which can be addressed in future studies. First, the study included only the Iranian EFL learners. More comprehensive work including other nationalities and/or SL learners will contribute to our understanding of the relationship between modality of presentation and comprehension ability in the multimedia context. Secondly, as with any scientific finding, replication is needed in different settings with diverse populations to increase the external validity. Also it is possible that a different type of listening test would yield different results. Another limitation of the current study is that only recognition measures were used. The participants in this study completed only one type of question, namely verbal only multiple-choice recognition questions. Other types of questions including: pictorial, verbal and combined formats can be used in future studies. Moreover, comparison of performances on pictorial questions across other presentation formats (than video) can also be another line of inquiry. In prospective studies, comprehension tests can also incorporate free-recall measures to allow for comparisons between recognition and recall of movie content. These new comparisons might provide further information for predictions about working memory and dual-processing. In order to strengthen the claim that multiple-channel messages yield better comprehension, future studies must also include verbal-only conditions where participants are presented with either subtitle or soundtrack in the absence of pictorial information. It is suggested that the present study be replicated with different types of tests such as retention tests, matching tests and transfer tests as well as examination of male/female performances across different test types. Moreover, the study can be replicated with students of different proficiency levels or other age groups to investigate the differences between levels of comprehension with the same type of questions on other variables. Additionally, the current study attempted to continue previous subtitling studies by investigating comprehension of documentary films in terms of verbal only information related to movie scenes. Other experiments can be done when non-verbal information is presented in the actual documentaries or movie clips. Studies can also be directed at the retention level of each modality or presentation channel to see if observers presented with information in two different modalities (soundtrack vs. subtitles) concurrently show greater retention of verbal content than observers receiving verbal information in a single-modality, or in a similar fashion, whether observers presented with pictorial information only as opposed to auditory information possess a greater understanding of the content in general. Still further studies can focus on whether differences in the content or genre of the films can make any difference. Research is also needed to address the issues of cognitive load and the role it may play in long term memory when listeners access both pictorial and written annotations. Research can also examine the recall of films in an aural mode rather than a written mode to determine how well listening comprehension and speaking interact. Individual variability can constitute another line of inquiry such that studies can examine the extent to which these effects are influenced by the individual learner’s verbal ability (Plass et al., 2003) or his/her perceptual learning styles and strategies (Ehrman and Oxford, 1990; Oxford, 1990; Reid, 1995). Finally, the present study used an Ex post facto design in which subjects were assigned to different modality conditions. Although the use of such a design allowed for the examination of the effects of modality when learners were to learn the same stimuli under different conditions, it does not control for the differences in the results arising from individual differences. Another possibility is to use a within-group research design using similar groups of subjects in both conditions. However, care should be taken in the use of same-group designs because although such a design may control for individual differences, it may be susceptible to test-retest or repetition effects if the same group of subjects is tested repeatedly under different conditions. 70 Pedagogical implications This study showed female viewers outperform their male counterparts in comprehending documentary texts. One importance of this finding can be for teachers and instructional designers in multimedia environment. If as Becker (2008) maintains, boys and girls differ in language processing and language development, the findings of the present researcher on superiority of female participants in processing both soundtracks and subtitles can be important for both teachers and parents. This is because the research helps teachers provide the best testing for the students. The teacher has to provide a testing method that caters for the boys’ and girls’ shortcomings in language processing. For example, during the testing process boys perform well when tested using the same sensory modality (Becker, 2008).

IJALEL 2 (2):185-192, 2013 192 When reading comprehension, boys will perform better if the teacher uses both visual and audio modalities. Using the two modalities when teaching helps the teacher ensure both boys and girls perform well. For example, in reading comprehension in an English class, the teacher will allow the student to read through the comprehension loudly. This will allow the teacher to use the auditory modality to support the students’ shortcomings. Then after reading the compression loudly, the teacher will use visual modality whereby he will allow students to use visual modality (Becker, 2008). If research can identify and better understand gender differences, then males and females can potentially approach situations in a way that best suits them. For example English teachers can engage students in receiving information in channels (audio and subtitles) which best suit their cognitive ability. Furthermore, since the viewer is considered as a limited capacity information processor, who should perform the task of encoding, processing, and storing the contents of the message and interact between a message content and structure and his own information processing system, the teacher or instructional designer can develop a working structure of auditory events with the primary purpose of helping students to control their attention in multimedia environment as they read and listen to multimedia. Moreover, we can handle the issue of subtitled films in class with different modalities so that every individual with differing preferences can benefit from it. A related issue exists in cases where the viewer understands the language of the subtitles, but not the soundtrack. If viewers must rely on subtitles to comprehend the information from a movie or television program, then the observers must focus their visual attention strictly on the program. This study also offers some implications for multimedia design. Multimedia environments that provide both pictorial and written modes of information may be most effective for learning because the students can choose the mode that best suits their needs and learning preferences. Future research is needed to examine issues related to the outcomes of these studies. For example, a more comparative approach to examining the connection between testing mode and presentation mode seems warranted. References Baddeley, A.D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Baker, M. (1998). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Routledge.London. Canning-Wilson, C. (2000). Practical aspects of using video in the foreign language classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol VI № 11 Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Canning-Video.htmlChang, S（2003）. The Effect of Metacognitive Strategy Training on the Second Language Listening Comprehension through the Use of Subtitles. http://catalog.digitalarchives.tw/item/00/4a/b0/08.html Or wwwlib.ntut.edu.tw/www/ntut/journal/36-1/A-13.pdf Hinkin, M. (2009). Comprehension of multiple channel messages: Are subtitles more beneficial than soundtracks? [Online] Available: http://krex.kstate.edu/dspace/bitstream/2097/1679/1/MichaelHinkin2009.pdf (September 26, 2010) Imanian, M (2004 ). Verbal and non verbal methods of testing receptive skills Nourzadeh, A. (2005) On the Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners’ Gender and their use of Reading Strategies at High Schools Nassaji, H. (2004) Input Modality and Remembering Name-Referent Associations in Vocabulary Learning. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics (CJAL)/Revue canadienne de linguistique appliquée (RCLA), 7(1) Retrieved from http://www.aclacaal.org/Revue/vol-7-no1-art-nassaji.pdf Ollagnier- Beldame, M. Encelle, B. & Prié, Y. ( 2011 ) Video Enrichment: Design Issues and Pilot Studies on Perception and Usability Perego, E. Del missier, F. Porta, M. & Mosconi, M. (2010). The Cognitive Effectiveness of Subtitle Processing. Media Psychology, 13, 243–272. doi: 10.1080/15213269.2010.502873 Stewart, M. A. & Pertusa, I. (2004), Gains to Language Learners from Viewing Target Language Closed-Captioned Films. Foreign Language Annals, 37, 438–442. doi: 10.1111/j.1944-9720.2004.tb02701.x Winke, P. Gass, S. & Sydornco, T. (2010). The Effects of Captioning Videos used for Foreign Language listening Activities. Language Learning & Technology, 14(1), 65–866. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/vol14num1/winkegasssydorenko.pdf.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

The Effect of Task-Related Emotional and Cognitive Involvement on Incidental Acquisition of

Second Language Vocabulary

Massoud Rahimpour Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Queensland, Australia E-mail: Rahimpour2011@gmail.com

Parviz Ajideh

Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran E-mail: parvizaj@gmail.com

Davoud Amini (Corresponding author)

Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran Tel: +989144004080 E-mail: davudamini@Yahoo.com

Farahman Farrokhi

Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran E-mail: ffarrokhi20@yahoo.co.uk

Received: 12-12- 2012 Accepted: 29-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.193 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.193 Abstract Both cognition and affect have been proven to have a significant role in instructed second language acquisition. Unlike cognitive processes, the affective processes in language learning have not received due attention in the research on task-based language teaching. The effect of task-related emotional state on learning achievements resulting from task engagement is an almost unexplored area. The study reported here investigated the effect of emotional involvement as compared to cognitive involvement both applied to the pre-task phase of a reading-while-listening focused task on lexical acquisition as a result of engagement with the task. Emotional involvement was operationalized as a video clip shown before the main task which elicited positive affect. MANCOVA statistics indicated that both emotional and cognitive involvements had an enhancing effect on short-term retention and ease of activation of vocabulary. However, the enhancing effect was not observed for long-term acquisition. The findings imply pedagogical suggestions for task-based vocabulary teaching. Keywords: task effectiveness, emotional involvement, cognitive involvement, incidental vocabulary 1. Introduction Learning vocabulary is an incremental process (Schmitt, 2010), and as such, the development of vocabulary for both recognition and production needs, relies on a good number of cognitive processes to perceive, store and retrieve new words. These processes include such phenomena as perception, attention, noticing, memory functioning, appraisal of stimuli, repetition, association and consolidation of lexical knowledge. But none of these cognitive processes takes place in void, detached from affective functioning of learners' mind and body (Dai & Sternberg, 2004). The interaction that goes on between affective and cognitive processes during such learning activities as the acquisition and processing of new vocabulary and the subsequent upheavals in language performance as a result of this interaction may be regarded as one of the main reasons why a great majority of vocabulary develops through incidental encounters where there is a profitable balance between cognitive, emotional and motivational aspects of intellectual functioning. However, the collective nature of an instructional environment is somehow in conflict with individual learners' whole-person involvement. A significant breakthrough in teaching literature to resolve this conflict is task-based curriculum (Skehan, 2003). Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is an attempt to provide an optimally authentic atmosphere to involve learners in a meaningful, goal-oriented interaction with the material, peers, instructor and the world inside themselves. An authentic involvement would incredibly require the beckoning of experiential knowledge as well as emotional and motivational engagement. From that perspective, TBLT does not simply engage learners in authentic cognitive gymnastics such as decision-making and problem-solving. Rather, the emotional involvement exercised by individual learners who are engaged in tasks will claim a massive effect on linguistic achievements from task engagement.

IJALEL 2 (2):193-203, 2013 194 Despite the critical significance attributed to learners' affective state before, during and after task performance for educational effectiveness of tasks, the affective aspect of task performance has not received the due attention in the TBLT literature (Swain, 2011). Very little is known about how affect influences cognitive processing involved in language learning tasks. Important questions still remain unattended regarding the relationship between cognitive-affective processes in the learning situation and the effectiveness of the tasks specifically designed to promote incidental acquisition of vocabulary. The study which is reported here was an attempt to investigate the distinctive impacts of emotional and cognitive involvements on task effectiveness and the related language learning outcome in terms of incidental acquisition of vocabulary. The findings of the study can help develop pedagogical techniques to enhance task effectiveness and language learning outcome. 2. Review of the Related Literature 2.1. Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition One of the influential positions in offering a breakthrough to the robust task of vocabulary acquisition was the idea of incidental vocabulary acquisition. Although there have been controversies over what is exactly meant by the term ‘incidental’ (Gass, 1999), the concept seems to have been refined to the following definition: “Incidental learning is the process of learning something without the intention of doing so. It is also learning one thing while intending to learn another.” (Brown, Waring & Donkaewbua, 2008: p. 136) Hulstijn (2003) considers the absence of the preannouncement of a vocabulary test before the task completion as the main indicator of incidental vocabulary learning. The majority of studies on incidental vocabulary acquisition in a foreign language during 1990s implied picking up formal and semantic aspects of lexicon through context-based extensive reading and listening (e.g. Paribakht & Wesche, 1999). However, in the last decade, due to the development of focus on form movement and task-based language teaching, vocabulary learning researchers have also begun to advocate focused instruction of vocabulary (de la Fuente, 2006; Laufer, 2005) where input-based tasks are accompanied by a set of enhancement techniques such as dictionary use, frequency control, glossing, etc. One of the instructional techniques for the elaboration of input through reading was glossing (Watanabe, 1997). Different forms of glosses - marginal and multiple choice, and - were put into scrutiny. The current study uses within-text translation glosses as the enhancement technique to assist the processing of unfamiliar words within the reading-while-listening text since glosses have been proved to be more effective than, or at least as effective as, glosses in contributing to vocabulary acquisition (Azari, 2012). 2.2. Task Effectiveness and Cognitive Processes The theoretical basis of TBLT lies in two general theories of learning: Socio-cultural theory and cognitive theories. From cognitive perspective, focused tasks facilitate the acquisition of language forms by providing the conditions for cognitive processes involved in perceiving, storing and retrieving the linguistic knowledge (Ellis, 2003). Therefore, from cognitive point of view, the effectiveness of tasks depends to a large extent on the type and quality of mental actions involved in task performance (Moonen, Degraaff & Westholf, 2006). Effective acquisition of language forms results from the effective processing of the forms in a meaning-focused context. Studies within the cognitive views of TBLT have attributed the effectiveness of cognitive processes in language acquisition to the characteristics and conditions of task performance (Robinson, 2001, 2005; Skehan, 1998, 2003). However, the majority of the research agenda in this regard has focused on the effect of task characteristics and conditions on such performance factors as fluency, accuracy and complexity (see Salimi, Alavinia, Hosseini & Shafaee, 2012). For instance, Robinson (2001) distinguished between task complexity, task difficulty and task conditions which might lead to different levels of fluency, accuracy and complexity in oral and written performance. Skehan (1998; 2003) proposed code complexity, cognitive complexity and communicative stress as the three determining elements of task complexity. Despite the insight they offer, these models do not explain any association between different types of mental processing induced by tasks and the acquisition of linguistic elements including lexical items. The concept of task-induced involvement proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn (2001) is one of the few postulations to account for the relationship between the mental actions induced by tasks and vocabulary acquisition. Also, in a study of the relationship between task complexity and incidental acquisition of vocabulary, Alavinia, Bonyadi and Malehmir-Chegini (2012) demonstrated that the meaning-focused instruction based on task complexity led to improved vocabulary acquisition and retention. In addition to task features and conditions, the cognitive load imposed by a task has been considered as a crucial factor affecting task performance. Rahimpour (2010) postulated that "part of the complexity and difficulty of tasks lies with the cognitive load imposed by a task" (p. 192). In the case of vocabulary acquisition through text-based tasks, the cognitive load of a task is typically ascribed to the linguistic and schematic knowledge involved in completing the task. In a series of studies, Pulido examined the individual differences in incidental acquisition of vocabulary through reading. According to Pulido (2003), reading proficiency had a robust effect on recognition and production of incidentally-acquired words both in short-term and long-term acquisition, whereas familiarity with the topic of the text made differences only on recognition performance in short-term testing. Investigating the possible effects of reading ability and background knowledge on lexical inferencing through reading, Pulido (2009) found that a higher level of reading ability and familiarity with the topic led to deeper processing of unknown words in the reading text. This finding was in contrast with Mondria (2003) according to which the effortful process of inferencing does not lead to better retention of unfamiliar words when compared to reading with textual aids such as translations. Examining the

IJALEL 2 (2):193-203, 2013 195 conduciveness of cognitive involvement of participants during task engagement on incidental acquisition of vocabulary is one focus of this study. 2.3. The Role of Affect in SLA The recognition of the key role played by affective factors in second language acquisition is as old as the field of SLA itself. Such affective variables as anxiety, attitude, self-esteem, personality factors, classroom atmosphere, and teacher-learner relationship have been manifested in language teaching methodology in the history of SLA. Some of these methodologies have dealt with affective concerns in their locus, making a direct association between affective variables and learning. Humanistic methodologies of 1970's, Krashen's affective model, learner centered learning, socio-cultural model, cooperative learning, and experiential learning are among affect-oriented methodologies (Richards & Rogers, 2001). One of the most conspicuous attempts to integrate affective observations into language teaching practice is what has come to be known as 'Humanistic Language Teaching' (HLT). However, there’s not a unified definition of HLT in the literature. While some observers attribute the title to a set of innovative methods of the 1970’s such as Community Language Learning, Silent Way and Suggestopaedia (Richards & Rogers, 2001), others consider it as a general approach encompassing broader visions than that of a particular method (Stevick, 1990). Affective dimensions of learning have a unique position in instructions suggested by HLT. Stevick (1990) as an enthusiastic advocate of HLT identified five emphases within humanistic pedagogy including feelings, social relations, responsibilities, intellect and self-actualization. In addition to HLT-based methodologies of 1970's, almost all of the methodological proposals for language teaching including communicative language teaching and TBLT seem to contain some elements of HLT. TBLT has borrowed a good number of axiomatic beliefs proposed by humanistic education. Emphasis on holistic development of the learner, personal relevance of the subject matter to the learner, imagination and creativity and goal-oriented classroom activities are among the many common features of TBLT and HLT. Another area of integrating affect into language teaching has been the theory of Emotional Intelligence (EI). The emergence of Multiple Intelligences Theory (Gardner, 1983) had its own share in underscoring the indispensible role of affect in language learning. In a thought-provoking article, Arnold and Fonseca (2004) proposed a general framework to apply MIT to the EFL classroom. According to this framework, language learning tasks are developed around different types of intelligences. For example, in a role-play involving expression of feelings while being considerate of others' feelings, at least three types of intelligence, i.e., linguistic, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences are evoked. In this MI-based model of the second language teaching each type of intelligence provides a hook through which English can be acquired (Mirzazadeh, 2012). Providing a variety of language activities that evoke different types of intelligences makes multiple memory pathways produce sustained deep learning (Schumann, 1997). Arnold and Fonseca (2004) assert that different aspects of second language acquisition such as reading comprehension and vocabulary recall (Sadoski, Goetz & Fritz, 1993) are mediated by multiple ways of meaning-making stimulated by different tasks related to different intelligences. This makes up the theoretical suggestion for applying MI theory to TBLT (Zhu, 2011). Central to many of the MI-based proposals for SLA is the affective responses associated with language learning activities that call upon each type of multiple intelligences. There has been growing interest within cognitive psychology over the past two decades in examining memory for the stimuli that evoke emotional responses. Evidence collected by experimental studies (reviewed by Hamann, 2001; Kensinger & Schacter, 2008) indicate that emotionally-loaded experiences are remembered better than non-emotional ones. The effect of emotion on memory enhancement has been demonstrated for a variety of emotional stimuli including words, sentences, pictures and videos (Kensinger, 2004). By and large, memory enhancement for emotional data has been taken for granted due to the abundance of experimental focus on this subject (Dolcos, Iordan & Dolcos, 2011). What remains for scrutiny is the 'how and why' of emotion-memory interactions. According to LaBar and Cabeza, these interactions "occur at various stages of information processing, from the initial encoding and consolidation to their long-term retrieval". (2006: p. 54) As to the encoding stage of information processing, not all perceptual information can be processed simultaneously due to limited capacity in processing. Therefore, attentional system acts selectively upon relative sensory information (Kensinger, 2004). According to Kensinger (2004), both dimensions of emotion, i.e., arousal and valence modulate selective attention; that is, emotionally arousing or valenced information capture attention. Furthermore, emotionally charged information are prone to 'facilitated or prioritized processing' (p. 243). The result is that emotional stimuli are more likely to receive selective attention compared to non-emotional stimuli. In addition to its effect on encoding, emotional load of the information being processed has an enhancing effect on consolidation of memory. Memory consolidation is a concept introduced in the early 20th century by Muller and Plizecker (1900) to account for a process by which memories become more resistant to interference. A formal definition describes consolidation as "the progressive post-acquisition and stabilization of long-term memory as well as memory phases during which such presumed stabilization takes place" (Dudai, 2004: p. 52). Consolidation is regarded to be accomplished in two phases: An early phase which lasts about several minutes or hours, and a late phase which may last weeks, months and even years. A major predictor of memory consolidation is the degree of emotional arousal which in turn enhances declarative memory (Cahil & McGaugh, 1998; LaBar & Cebeza, 2006; McGaugh, 2000). Emotional memory can also explain a layperson's experience in learning a second language according to which the words associated with an emotional load take less effort to learn and remember. Laboratory researches have confirmed layman impressions regarding recall advantage for emotional words in second language (Aycicegi & Harris, 2004; Aycicegi-Dinn & Caldwell-Harris, 2010; Ferre, Garcia, Fraga, Sanchez-Casas & Molero, 2010; Jay, Caldwell-Harris &

IJALEL 2 (2):193-203, 2013 196 King, 2008). This phenomenon, known as 'emotion-memory effect' (Aycicegi-Dinn & Harris, 2010) or 'emotionality effect' (Jay, et al., 2008), is observed when participants perform a task on a list of words and are later tested whether for recognition or production of the same words. These studies indicate that emotional words have superiority over neutral words for later recall and retention (Hadley & MacKay, 2006; Kensinger & Corkin, 2003; MacKay & Ahmetzanov, 2005). Kensinger and Corkin (2003) reported an experimental study which supported not only a quantitative memory benefit for emotional words compared to neutral ones, but also qualitative advantage in terms of vividness by which the details related to the presentation of words are remembered. The recall advantage for emotional words may be modulated by a variety of factors. Among these factors are the valence (positive or negative) and arousal attributed to emotional words. For example, Ferre et al. (2010) found that the emotionality advantage in recall was higher for positive emotional words compared to negative emotional words. Aycicegi-Dinn and Caldwell-Harris (2010) reported that negative words had no recall advantage over neutral words. There are also studies that have conditioned the superior recall of positive-valenced words to the age of participants (Kensinger, 2008). Kensinger (2008) has also argued that differences between memories for positive or negative emotional words could be modulated by their arousal, in a way that highly-arousing words showed no difference in recall rate regardless of their positive or negative valence. Lately, more and more research studies are highlighting the significance of art, imagination, literature and language play in effective development of second language (e.g. Pomerantz & Bell, 2007). The fact that imagination, art and literature have the capacity to induce emotional response is well-known to language pedagogists. However, serious endeavors in the realm of both theory and practice to scrutinize the applications of this capacity to SLA are unjustly lacking. In an emotionally poignant article, Luk (2002) wrote about her experience of EFL classes where she utilized a short story titled 'Later' to teach different SL skills including writing, reading, speaking and even grammar. The point raised by Luk is that "this story is only a means to create an 'emotional' atmosphere to make learning more meaningful and memorable" (p. 5). Underlining the significant role of emotional state in language learner, however, is not meant to undermine the role of cognitive processes. Rather, as Howard Gardner (1983), the innovator of multiple intelligences theory, suggests affect needs to be brought to the foreground. In this study the relative effectiveness of emotional and cognitive involvement in task engagement leading to vocabulary acquisition has been brought into scrutiny. 2.4. Positive Affect: Broaden and Build Theory The role of affective status of a language learner has never been a central issue for the researchers of second language learning and teaching. Among the few affective variables that have received relative attention are stress, anxiety and attitude toward target language and society. A quick review of these studies indicates that they have mainly focused on negative affect. As a matter of fact, studies concerning the role of positive affect in language learning are almost lacking. Traditionally, distinctive negative emotions have been linked with specific action tendencies (Fredrickson, 2001). For example, fear is associated with the tendency to escape and anger with the tendency to attack. In line with this argument, some researchers have tried to associate distinctive positive emotions with particular action tendencies such as joy being linked to aimless activation and interest with attention (Frijda, 1986). Fredrickson evaluated these associations as vague and proposed instead a general theory to account for the effect of positive emotions on cognitive and behavioral changes which is known as The Broaden and Build Theory (Fredrickson, 1998; 2001). According to this theory which is associated with positive psychology, negative emotions narrow down momentary actions as a result of instinctive approach-avoidance tendencies. In contrast, positive emotions broaden thought-action repertoires promoting the individual's personal resources including intellectual, social and psychological resources (Fredrickson, 1998, 2001; Fredrickson & Brinigan, 2005). 'Joy', for example broadens thought-action tendencies by creating the urge to play and 'interest' by creating the urge to explore and take in new information (Fredrickson, 2001). So, positive emotions broaden thought-action repertoires while negative emotions narrow them (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. The effect of negative and positive emotions on human activities

Broaden and Build Theory is comprised of two complementary hypotheses: The 'Broaden Hypothesis' states that positive emotions widen action-thought tendencies. Fredrickson and Branigan (2005) were able to demonstrate in laboratory conditions that positive emotions stimulated by short video clips broadened the scope of attention, an important cognitive phenomenon. A good number of empirical studies carried out by Fredrickson and her associates in her positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab at the University of Michigan and later at the University of North

IJALEL 2 (2):193-203, 2013 197 Carolina are corroborative of the broadening effect of positive emotions on such cognitive processes as attention and perception (for a review see Fredrickson, 2003; 2008; 2012). The second hypothesis within the 'broaden and build theory' is 'The Build Hypothesis' according to which experiencing positive emotions leads to 'resourcefulness and optimal functioning' (Fredrickson, 2012). Fredrickson and co-researchers conducted a set of laboratory researches to verify the claims made by the Build Hypothesis (for a list if publications on this topic, visit www.positiveemotions.org). Put together, these two hypotheses which have been formulated as the Broaden and Build Theory advocate the observation that positive emotions are involved in broadening the scope of attention, cognition and action as well as building physical, intellectual and social resources in the individual (Fredrickson, 1998). According to Fredrickson (2001), "experiences of positive affect prompt individuals to engage with their environments and partake in activities" (219). Common techniques employed in the empirical studies to provoke positive emotions in participants are showing video clips or pictures and playing music (Gross & Levenson, 1995). The present study will use a film clip to provoke positive emotions and provide for emotional involvement. The review of literature above indicates that the three areas of incidental vocabulary acquisition, task-based language teaching and affect in language learning have been studied mostly in isolation from each other. Very little is known about how incidental vocabulary acquisition can be facilitated in a task-based program, or what effects the affective states of the learners might have on task effectiveness. The relative contributions of cognitive and affective processes involved in task-performance to task effectiveness and incidental learning of vocabulary are not known either. The study reported here is an attempt to bring together the above-mentioned three research areas to examine the relevance of affective and cognitive processes involved in task performance to the learning of linguistic elements as a result of engagement with the task in hand. More specifically this study aimed at investigating the effect of the emotional and cognitive involvement on task effectiveness in incidental acquisition of vocabulary. 3. Method 3.1 Research Questions and Hypotheses The following three questions were the main focus of the study:

1. What is the effect of emotional involvement and cognitive involvement applied to the pre-task phase of a reading-while-listening task on short-term retention and ease of activation of second language vocabulary?

2. What is the effect of emotional involvement and cognitive involvement applied to the pre-task phase of a reading-while-listening task on long-term retention and ease of activation of second language vocabulary?

3. In case of effectiveness, is there a difference between emotional and cognitive involvements applied to the pre-task phase of a reading-while-listening task in affecting short-term and long-term acquisition of vocabulary?

To initiate the study, the following three hypotheses were proposed: 1. The emotional involvement and cognitive involvement applied to the pre-task phase of a reading-while-

listening task have enhancing effects on short-term retention and ease of activation of second language vocabulary.

2. The emotional involvement and cognitive involvement applied to the pre-task phase of a reading-while-listening task have enhancing effects on short-term and long-term retention and ease of activation of second language vocabulary.

3. There is a significant difference between the emotional and cognitive involvements in task-engagement in affecting short-term and long-term retention and ease of activation of second language vocabulary.

The independent variable of the study was the type of mental action in task engagement-- emotional involvement and cognitive involvement-- applied to TBLT classroom through pre-task intervention. The dependent variable was incidental acquisition of SL vocabulary resulting from engagement with a reading-while-listening task. The incidental vocabulary acquisition was measured at the level of its four subcomponents:

1. Short-term retention of vocabulary as measured with a test of passive vocabulary immediately after the task engagement

2. Short-term ease of activation of vocabulary as measured with a test of active vocabulary immediately after the task engagement

3. Long-term retention of vocabulary as measured with a test of passive vocabulary two weeks after the task engagement

4. Long-term ease of activation of vocabulary as measured with a test of active vocabulary two weeks after the task engagement

3.2 Research Context In this study, 79 B.A. students of English as a foreign language in Iran were presented three types of pre-task involvement activities prior to their engagement in the main task, glossed reading-while-listening task. They were given active and passive vocabulary tests immediately after the task engagement and two weeks later to assess their acquisition and retention of 20 target words from the reading-while-listening text.

IJALEL 2 (2):193-203, 2013 198 3.3 Subjects Three intact classes of junior students of English as a foreign language at the Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch were randomly selected out of 8 available junior classes for this study. To ensure homogeneity of the three groups, a pretest was administered to the students in three classes, and those who scored below and above the range of 6-25 were left out of the data analysis. Then the three classes were randomly labeled as control group, emotional involvement (EI) group, and cognitive involvement (CI) group including 24(16 female, 8 male) and 26 (15 female, 11 male) and 29 (19 female, 10 male) students, respectively. The subjects aged between 21 and 36). 3.4 Materials The main task was a reading-while-listening task. The text for the reading-while-listening task was extracted from a popular success book Giant Steps, written and read out by Anthony Robins (Robins, 1997). The 20 target words had been signified by glosses within the text. The reading text was followed by a whole-class discussion of the topic of the text The Vocabulary of Success. The students were asked to use as many arguments and illustrations from the text as possible. The pretest included reading and listening comprehension items taken from archive versions of TOEFL iBT as the overall listening and reading skills were assumed to be relevant to task performance. The post-tests were comprised of a vocabulary retention test and a vocabulary ease of activation test. The retention test was a test of passive vocabulary including 10 four-item multiple choice word translation questions from English to Persian. In order to neutralize the effect of guessing, a 5th item stating 'I'm not sure' was added to the response options. The ease of activation test included 10 fill-in-the-gap sentence translation items from Persian to English. The English translations of the sentences were provided except for the target words To elicit positive affect for the emotional involvement group, a humorous movie of about 15 minutes from the English comedy series, My Family was shown in the pre-task phase. To ascertain the validity of the pre-task video in inducing positive affect for the emotional involvement group, an internationally reliable short form the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS-SF) developed by Thompson (2007) including selective 10 items measuring positive and negative affect was employed. 3.5 Procedure To choose the target words, 40 words from the reading-while-listening text, conjectured to be less familiar to the students, were selected and then put to a survey from the students two weeks prior to treatment sessions. The survey asked students whether they signified each word as familiar or not. If yes, they were supposed to provide an equivalent or explanation in . 20 words which were checked as unfamiliar were selected for the study. Both control and experimental groups participated in a text-based task preceded by a pre-task phase and succeeded by a post-task phase. The main task was a reading-while-listening task involving reading a text while listening to it read out by the author. The target words had been highlighted using within-text glosses. The post task entailed a whole-class discussion of the information presented by the reading-while-listening text. The discussion was stimulated by a set of triggering questions that summarized the main points in the text. While the main task and the post task were identical for all three groups, the procedure for the pre-task phase was different for the control group, EI group and CI group. The EI group was shown the humorous video assumed to elicit positive affect following a brief introduction of the movie subject and the task succeeding it. The learners in the CI group first were read out a short text presenting a biography of Anthony Robins, the author of The Giant Steps, and the general theme of his publications. Then a whole-class brainstorming session went on about word power and effective communication in social relations and career success. Amid the brainstorming, some of the non-target words from the reading-while-listening text were written on the board and illustrated by the teacher. The control group was engaged in a different kind of activities for the pre-task phase. They read a passage on effective communication and answered 8 comprehension questions that followed. The pre-task activities took about twenty minutes for each of the three groups. The two tests for measuring short-term retention and ease of activation of target vocabulary were administered immediately after the task completion. The tests for measuring long-term retention and ease of activation were administered two weeks later. 4. Data Analysis and Results This empirical study was intended to investigate the effect of Emotional Involvement (EI) and Cognitive Involvement (CI) in task performance on four dependent variables, i.e. short-term retention (STR), long-term retention (LTR), short-term ease of activation (STEA) and long-term ease of activation (LTEA) of vocabulary. The descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations and number of participants) of measures for the four dependent variables are introduced in Table 1. Table1. Descriptive statistics

N Mean SD Short term retention Control 24 2.08 1.558

Emotional Involvement 26 3.54 2.044 Cognitive Involvement 29 3.66 1.987

Total 79 3.14 1.992

IJALEL 2 (2):193-203, 2013 199 Short term ease of activation Control 24 1.63 1.173

Emotional Involvement 26 2.73 1.538 Cognitive Involvement 29 2.76 1.480

Total 79 2.41 1.489 Long term retention Control 24 1.79 1.215

Emotional Involvement 26 2.00 1.386 Cognitive Involvement 29 2.07 1.412

Total 79 1.96 1.334 Long-term ease of activation Control 24 1.63 1.096

Emotional Involvement 26 1.88 1.243 Cognitive Involvement 29 1.79 1.292

Total 79 1.77 1.208 To detect the hypothesized differences between the three groups, a between-groups multivariate analysis of variance with pre-test as covariate (MANCOVA) was conducted using the scores on the four dependent measures. Preliminary assumption-testing was conducted to check for normality, linearity and homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices with no serious violations noted. The MANCOVA results demonstrated an overall significant difference between the three groups on the combined dependent variables. Wilks' Lambda was significant at .000. Tests of between subjects effects indicated significant differences between the three groups on STR (F= 19.84) and STEA (F=12.57) but non-significant difference between them on LTR (F=1.6) and LTEA (F=.84). These analyses indicated a statistically significant difference between the control group and the two experimental groups in terms of STR and STEA. However, the differences for LTR and LTEA scores were not different for the two pre-task involvement types and the control. Follow up analyses for multiple comparisons of involvement type groups separately for each dependent variable indicated significant differences between the control group on the one hand and EI and CI groups on the other. However EI and CI groups were not different on their STR and STEA scores. On the other hand, between-groups analyses for LTR and LTEA scores indicated no significant difference between any pairs of groups. The results of pair-wise analyses of the three groups are presented in figure2. The results of data analysis confirmed that emotional and cognitive involvement elicited through pre-task intervention had enhancing effects on STR and STEA. But this enhancing effect was not observed for LTR and LTEA. In fact, EI and CI improved both retention and ease of activation scores in the immediate post-test whereas it did not have any significant effect on the performance upon the delayed post-tests. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 was accepted whereas Hypothesis 2 which predicted an enhancing effect for emotional and cognitive involvement on long-term retention and ease of activation of vocabulary was rejected. Since no significant difference was indicated between the two experimental groups, Hypothesis 3 which predicted different effects for emotional and cognitive involvements in task engagement on incidental acquisition of vocabulary was also rejected.

Figure 2. Between-group differences for short-term and long-term retention and ease of activation scores

IJALEL 2 (2):193-203, 2013 200 5. Discussion This quasi-experimental study intended to examine the differential roles of emotional and cognitive involvements as applied to the pre-task phase of a text-based and input-enhancing task in facilitating the incidental acquisition of unfamiliar vocabulary. The results manifested an enhancing effect for both CI and EI in term of short-term retention and ease of activation. However, the two types of pre-task activities were not significantly different from each other in their enhancing effect. The conduciveness of cognitive involvement in task performance has been well-recognized by information-processing theories (McLaughlin & Heredia, 1996). According to these theories, attentional resources of learners in processing newly-encountered information are limited in capacity. Therefore, the cognitive processes of perceiving and storing the details provided in the input are facilitated when the cognitive load imposed by the task demand is lowered (Rahimpour, 2010). Activating some of the linguistic and schematic knowledge required to fulfill the purpose of the reading-while-listening task proved effective in decreasing the cognitive load of the task setting the attentional resources free to be focused on aspects of lexical knowledge related to the target words introduced through reading-while-listening task. Thus, the input-enhancement technique of glossing appeared effective when it was accompanied by the pre-task intervention to reduce the cognitive demands of the task. The same glosses did not prove effective for the control group where the cognitive pre-task intervention was absent. The type of pre-task intervention for the second experimental group concerned showing a humorous movie intended to arouse positive affect in the learners before getting engaged in a reading-while-listening task. The emotional involvement through pre-task intervention turned out to have an enhancing effect on short-term retention and ease of activation of target words. This finding is in line with Fredrickson's Broaden and Build Theory, according to which the experience of positive affect encourages the individuals to involve more and more in what is going on in the environment (Fredrickson, 2001). Involving learners in positive affect experience through pre-task activities promoted the learners' engagement with the subsequent learning situation rendering learners capable to make an optimal use of their social and cognitive resources in attending to the input provided by the main task. The relation between affective response to the input and cognitive processes involved has formally been suggested by Stimulus Appraisal Theory (Schumann, 1998). According to Schumann, affective appraisal of stimuli is at the core of cognitive processes from which our behavioral responses are derived (Garret & Young, 2009). Therefore, affective variables must not be seen as fixed factors in relation to the learning situation. Affect regulation must be regarded as an important element in task design and implementation. Through some case studies focusing on self-regulation of affect in SLA by learners studying Russian as a second language, Bown and White (2010) demonstrated that affect regulation is an integral part of successful learning:

Importantly this finding runs counter to a view of students as having particular, fixed emotional characteristics and reveals instead how emotions arise in relation to particular tasks, settings and learning opportunities and are mediated by cognitive appraisals of those antecedents. (p. 440)

Emotional state of learners in relation to the new word in the input and the text in which they appear will immensely affect the acquisition and recall of those words. Discussing the contributive relevance of Multiple Intelligences theory to EFL, Arnold and Fonseca (2004) suggest that 'language learning tasks be developed around different types of intelligences' (p.126). Among these intelligences is the visual-spatial intelligence which is involved in creating mental images of concepts. According to Arnold and Fonseca (2004), emotional responses are related to our nonverbal processing system which is in close association with the cognitive process of imagery. They assert that "the connection of words with experience and with emotional responses gives words their meaning" (p.127) and hence is a good predictor of words' comprehension and recall. Accordingly, it is suggested here that input-enhancement techniques such as glossing –as suggested by focused tasks– cannot in themselves promote the chances of vocabulary acquisition. Rather, it is the inclusion of cognitive and emotional processes induced by task conditions that determines successful retention and recall of vocabulary. Despite the enhancing effect of both emotional and cognitive pre-task interventions on short-term measures of incidental vocabulary acquisition, there was no indication of an identical effect on long-term measures. The implication is that engaging learners with the input-enhancing task whether emotionally or cognitively was effective in improving the learners' intake of focused items. Nevertheless, a remarkable portion of this learning was subject to a high rate of decay so that ultimately, the active and passive knowledge of vocabulary demonstrated by the emotional and cognitive involvement groups upon the delayed post-tests did not show any significant difference with those who were not provided with either emotional or cognitive interventions. This finding is corroborative of the integrated views of intellectual functioning which see cognitive and affective processes of mind interactively reinforcing each other (Duncan & Barrett, 2007). Ackerman and Lohman (2006) decline the idea of artificially demarcating affective variables from cognitive processes and emphasize, instead, the fruitfulness of studying the complicated interaction that may possibly take place between these aspects of mind. Furthermore, recent findings in neuroscientific studies of learning-related brain structures advocate the interactive functioning of cognition and emotion (e.g., Dolcos, Iordan & Dolcos, 2011). 6. Conclusion As alluded by Swain (2011), cognitive and emotional processes are the two determining variables in the process of second language learning. Meanwhile, there is an interactive functioning of the two elements in facilitating language

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IJALEL 2 (2):193-203, 2013 203 Pulido, D. (2009). How involved are American L2 learners of Spanish in lexical input processing tasks during reading? Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 31, 31-58. Rahimpour, M. (2010). Cognitive development and language acquisition. In L. Sclia-Cabral (Ed.). Psycholinguistics: Scientific and technological Challenges (pp. 189-194). Port Alegre: ediPUCRS. Richards, J. C. & Rogers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: CUP. Robins, A. (1997). Giant Steps: Small changes to make a big difference. London: Simon and Schuster Ltd. Robinson, P. (2001). Task complexity, cognitive resources, and syllabus design: A triadic framework for examining task influences on SLA. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 287-318). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Robinson, P. (2005). Cognitive complexity and task sequencing: Studies in a componential framework for second language task design. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 43(1), 1-32. Sadoski, M, E. Goetz & J. Fritz (1993). Concreteness effects in text recall: Dual coding or context availability? Reading Research Quarterly, 30, 278-288. Salimi, A. Alavinia, P. Hosseini, P. & Shafaei, A. (2012). The impact of task complexity and strategic planning time on EFL Learners’ accuracy and fluency in written task production. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 1(7), 104-116. Schumann, J. H. (1997). The neurobiology of affect in language. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. Schmitt, N. (2010). Researching vocabulary; a vocabulary research manual. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Skehan, P. (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Skehan, P. (2003). Task-based instruction. Language Teaching, 36, 1-14. Stevick, E.W. (1990). Humanism in language teaching. Oxford :OUP. Swain, M. (2011). The inseparability of cognition and emotion in second language learning. Language Teaching, 45(4), 1-13. doi:10.1017/S0261444811000486. Thompson, E. (2007). Development and validation of an internationally reliable short form of the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS). Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(2), 227-242. Watanabe, Y. (1997). Input, intake, and retention: Effects of increased processing on incidental learning of foreign language vocabulary. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 287–307. Zhu, H. (2011). The Application of multiple intelligences theory in task-based language teaching. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 1(4), 408-412.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Living Anonymity: Exile as Motif in Lenrie Peters’ He Walks Alone

Christopher Babatunde Ogunyemi

Department of English Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Nigeria.

E-mail: bbcoguns2@yahoo.se

Niyi Akingbe, PhD Department of English

Joseph Ayo Babalola University Ikeji Arakeji, Nigeria

E-mail: deniakingbe@yahoo.com

Adebola Abosede Otemuyiwa Department of English

Joseph Ayo Babalola University Ikeji Arakeji, Nigeria

E-mail: otemuyiwa2011@yahoo.com

Received: 27-12- 2012 Accepted: 30-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.204 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.204 Abstract Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted. And while it is true that literature and history contain heroic romantic, glorious, even triumphant episodes in an exile’s life, these are no more than efforts meant to overcome the achievements of exile permanently undermined by the loss of something left behind for ever. (Edward Said, 2001:137) Keywords: Living Anonymity, Exile, He Walks Alone and Lenrie Peters 1. Introduction Edward Said’s submission above best explains the fundamentals about writings on Exile which portends either self-identity or collective identity of a group of people who live in a continuum. This kind of writing either informs, educates or entertains but the major motif here is to criticize and to sarcastically inform the people within the literary ethos about the exigency of exile, its psychological effects, sociological effects and even its political effects on African people. Exile writing visualizes issues that bother on alienation and the quest for freedom. Writers throughout the ages have been using their literary works of arts to show various reactions that bother with exile. Some x-ray physical exile others psychological exile which grossly affects the psyche of the writer or the character in question. Migration and forced migration are panacea to alienation and exile. Writings emanating from such feelings are nostalgic and thought provoking. Many writers have used their works to buttress the feelings of exile in time and space. The experience of exile literature in Lithuania is predicated on the apocalyptic second coming of the soviet armies in Lithuania. This threw away many intellectual and professional away into exile. Poets arose to react critically to these plights. Examples of such poets are Kazys Bradunas (b.1917), Jonas Mekas (b.1922), Algirdas Landsbergs (b.1924) among others from all parts of the world. Our concern in this paper is to examine exile as motif in Lenrie Peters’ poetry that is entitled “He Walks Alone” The poem explains various reasons Africans go on exile and their impressions when they feel nostalgic. Feelings for their roots, their families and their cultures give rise to some sensitive impressions in their works of arts. However, the work uses textual analysis to explain how Lenrie Peters uses irony and metaphor to portray the image of exile politically, psychologically, economically and physically as recurring motifs in his poetry. His wealth of imagery is situated within the axis of literary application in order to explain what informs migration literature in Africa. This paper is visualized in six movements: the first being the introduction throws a searchlight into the concept of migration and its attendant example in Lithuania and Africa. The second probes into what constitutes the textual analysis approach; the third views exile as motif in African poetry; the fourth delves into Lenrie Peters’ preoccupation of exile; the fifth movement conceptualises the application of the textual analysis to the poem in question and the sixth, being the last movement concludes the work. The paper conceptualises the textual analysis approach to demonstrate the intrinsic value of migration and exile in the body of the text. Daniel Chandler has done some excellent

IJALEL 2 (2):204-208, 2013 205 application of the textual approach to the mass media. This approach allows concrete insight into the understanding of poetry as it moves in time and space. 2. Exile as Motif in African Poetry Poetry usually employs “the use of epigrammatic statements, lyrics, concrete images which graphically delineate incontrovertible truths in life and social justice” (Maduka and Eyoh, 2000:14). Based on this, poets such as Williams Wordsworth, John Keats, Shakespeare, Yeats etc use their poetry to explicate various motifs from innocence to experience, nature and love, unbridled quest for social justice and so on. Exile is an example of such subject matter that poetry axiomatically lends its credence on because it deployed terse words and encoded metaphor in the illumination of thematic preoccupation. Poets could successfully communicate their feelings without been harmed or without been intimidated by the societal framework or instrument of power that lacks literary imagination. Similarly, poets easily call the attention of audience to the plight of exile in order to bring about new life and new experiences. It boils down to what is exile. According to Jacqueline Corness in a paper entitled Alienation and Freedom- A study of Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground as it relates to the Theme of Exile, she defines exile from the perspective of Said when she opines that: Exile is not, after all, a matter of choice: you are born into it, or it happens to you. For this reason, exile is often thought to be the most psychological difficult state of removal from, for example, one’s country. While some people are separated from their homeland because they have freely chosen to live elsewhere, exiles are considered to be at mercy of external forces (2). Exile is a serious human condition that makes many poets to show their concern and also demonstrate how they feel. Wole Soyinka’s “Telephone Conversation” is a capsule presentation of psychological exile experienced in England when he was refused an accommodation simply because he is a black man. Arthur Nortje`s “Autopsy” is a poem that visualises the evil effects of exile on children who were naturally born into it, they feel isolated and perverted. Buhadur Tejani`s “Leaving the Country” is a poem in Africa that showcases the evils behind political exile and alienation. The spirit of nothingness, hollow expectations and practical dislocations are the feelings that emanate from people. African poets reflect exile situation as motif in their poetic canon. 3. Lenrie Peters and Exile Preoccupations in Poetry Although, Lenrie Peters is not a victim of political exile, his exile motif in poetry is predicated on the psychological exile and alienation he experiences in Britain. The same feelings Soyinka experiences which makes him to write the “Telephone Conversation” Before 1965, Peters studies and lives in Cambridge, after the independence of Gambia his country, he came home to help restructure the political and economic situation. His poem “He Walks Alone” is a typical example of exile and alienation people suffer in foreign land. His biography shows that: “He Walks Alone” is a poem that shows degree of alienation African students suffer in Europe. As a result of this alienation in their system, they feel exiled and Peters asks them to go home. The poem is a rich experience from the poet who having studied abroad is critical of the hypocritical behaviours which is sometimes found in Europe. An African student is given quality education but refused employment by the system that educates him. The poem is sarcastic because it tries to ridicule the harsh weather and the harsh behaviours Africans face in diaspora. As a result of alienation, some Africans have lost their roots. They want to behave like the Europeans but it is not possible because their physiological traits were not tailored towards the European individualism. Africans are collective in nature, so when they demonstrate Eurocentric feelings, the Europeans could not accept them, the Africans quickly run back home in order to eat in unison, speak in one accord, love themselves and struggle together in African communalism. 4. Exile in ‘He Walks Alone’ The poem is written in seven stanzas of unequal five lines. The poet addresses exile as motif because man is an integral factor in society- Exile has caused many untold pain, isolation and rejection. The first stanza reports: He walks alone head bowed with memories Exiled in the park some playful thing of long ago glues him to a shop window

IJALEL 2 (2):204-208, 2013 206 The poet creates an image of an African man in Europe who is looking for an identity. He is not accepted into the system though he is a legal resident. He cannot vote and be voted for; he cannot seek employment in choice places. He walks alone thinking about home, thinking about his family. Most times he goes around with his head bowed to the colour and psychological differences that exist between him and his host community. At the park, he is always given some distance as if he is a mini-human. The situation on the train is the worst, nobody sits beside him. He feels exiled and alienated. The choice of words here shows that Lenrie Peter employs some coded meanings with words like “head bowed in memories”. The exile is confronted by a denial by the host community’s culture. But also there is a feeling of belonging to a different but alien culture that has no recognition, and which does not accord him any relevance in the colonial metropolis of London. Hence, his ‘’head is bowed with memories’’ and longing for African warmth usually underscored by: communal gathering, scores of festivals, the warmth of comradeship and shared labour, joy of harvest and a recollection of the sparkling African blue weather of the dry season. An underlining feature of the exile’s flirtation with memory is his concern for warmth and tenderness sufficiently present in Africa, a memory which unobtrusively can not be obliterated by a stretch of distance from Africa. In the second stanza, the issue of exile seems more manifest Faded suit sharp lined loosely held by his proud heart shoes scaled with polish cannot comprehend; too much to tell of harsh experiences The African tries to emulate the European but he cannot really fit into the system. The exile’s consciousness is sharpened against the backdrop of the drudgery of everyday life in London, reverberated by ‘‘faded suit’’, ‘’shoes scaled with polish’’ which betrays an instalmental living on the fringes of English society. This is a description placed at the disposal of an exceptional sincerity and a compelling purpose of coping with the debilitating English weather. The choice of being cladded in faded suit and a pair of shoes scaled with polish is bewildering to the exile. But how is the exile in English society expected to cope with isolation, harsh weather and cultural shock? How is he to describe and set his experiences within an historical condition which can only be understood by himself? The exile realises that only memory can be employed as a weapon of liberation to break through the walls of isolation and racial discrimination ineluctably grounded in English social milieu. Memory constitutes a bastion of recollection of negative experiences for the exile in the poem. The applications of concrete images such as “proud heart” “shoes scaled with polish” are contrasting. As an immigrant he is proud to have journeyed to other part of the world, but in the end cannot fit into the new environment. Irony is another instrument the poet uses to make his poem satiric in nature. In this poem, many of these ironies are applicable. The most important are: irony of situation, irony of life, dramatic irony, irony of circumstances and irony of character. This is because exile explores all these feelings in the life of the African whose character is very critical in the poem. Stanzas three and four explain more: No coward he respository of rejected talents an ounce of earth silted weightily in his heart. the breaking point is looking back In this stanza, Peters commences a poetic evaluation of the significance of western education to contemporary African students. Inspite of the difficulties generated by the racially stratified England, the persona does not disintegrate with the threats of racism. But has to maintain a stoical fidelity to his pursuit of western education, whose immense reward will translate to the transformation of his African society. And more so, he can not afford to pack his bags and return to Africa, because ‘’the breaking point is looking back’’. But has to cope with the social, psychological and economic stress of England as to acquire western education at all cost. This necessitates that he deplores courage as a tool of postmodernist sensibility, towards surmounting these travails. The treatment of a sensitive socio-political issue of racism in this poem underscores James Reeves’s observation that, ’’what poetry does to the mass of ordinary experience is to make permanent and memorable whatever in it is vital and significant’’(88). Peters in this poem ostensibly criticises racial discrimination, and amplifies the plight of African students in their determination to confront this social malaise. Crossed the Rubicon Race, nationality, ideology, religion arrowed from earth to moon founder of a new brotherhood an hero he not of our nation born

IJALEL 2 (2):204-208, 2013 207 Here, the character in the poem is undergoing some rejections. He is grossly isolated, “crossing the Rubicon” is a metaphor for Atlantic Ocean. The poet is calling an attention that this character who flew across the Atlantic is now been exiled physically and psychologically. He battles racism, nationality stratification resulting into modern slavery, religious differences, ideological divergences, post-nationalism and globalization. Language to this poem is very crucial to the understanding of exile and its attendant evils. The poet chooses both the connotative and denotative language to portray the colourful images and metaphors which he explores in the handling of exile as motif in the poem” He Walks Alone” Stanzas five, six and seven substantiate this assertion. Known no tenderness skin a mosaic of scars heart in fixed deposit safe from ridicule, decomposing Marionette-strings linked with stars Exile go home under your bed a bowl of tears leave back streets nightmares evenings kneeling in pews brassy noises of homely fires Dream and wait coarse cauctus of desert wastes perhaps tomorrow sunflowers fading in the heat will lie insensate at your feet In this poem, the choice of both connotative language and denotative language is to present the motif of exile in its natural state. The poet wants to prevent ambiguity by using “everyday’s language” as connotative and “implied language” as denotative. The image of poverty is too conspicuous in the poem. The character lives in isolated area, some areas are exclusively reserved for immigrants and some jobs are also exclusively reserved for immigrants. Such jobs include cleaning, flushing of toilets, etc. Lenrie Peters is extremely critical about the use of language in the poem. Although he sounds very harsh, maverick and mechanical when he says “exile go home”. The poet seems to be worried about frustrations, psychological intimidation people in exile go through. Although this is self exile, he admonishes the Africans that they should seriously start thinking about home for the sake of development and posterity. Similarly, the arrays of metaphors which are situational make the motif of exile interesting to study. Though exile is a social factor, the poet is calling attention that instead of constant endurance and travails, affected persons can make it good at home. Although man is powerless in the face of uncontrollable phenomenon, the poet achieves success in his artistic craft and the handling of the theme of exile as motif in “He Walks Alone” The title of the poem is symbolic because it expresses the exile experience and it emphasises individualism which is not part of African culture and tradition. Above all, it is a contribution to African literature because “African literature, indeed the literature of black civilization, in modern times, has moved from the literature of protest to the literature of assertion and emancipation, which also indicates self-examination” (Black Aesthetics, ix). Of paramount significance is the musical theatricality which the poem employs with distinct end rhymes which gives the poem a regular patterning. The significance of this regular patterning is to show that exile is a continuous phenomenon in the life of people. As African people move from one place to the other, other people too may consider relocation from one locale to the other. They would begin to consider balancing with the socio-geographical factor of the environment they find themselves in. In the course of this, nostalgia, pain, acceptance problem sails in. The end rhyme employed by Lenrie Peters could be considered original because it neither conforms to Elizabethan nor the English type. The tone of the poem is melancholic. That is the situation exile encourages. The poet is exhibiting a practical manifestation of what it is to be in exile. The expectations are usually very high but the system is not accommodating to satisfy all the yearnings revolving in the mind. The audience would perceive “He Walks Alone” as a didactic poem. A didactic poem is a poem that teaches and explains the rudiments about human society and predicament. The motif of exile is an over- riding factor in this poem. 5. Conclusion The motif of exile is the main preoccupation that Lenrie Peters examines in exhaustive chunk. He uses rich imagery to demonstrate this, bearing in mind that Africans are people of “historical evolution” in the word of Boyin Svetlana. This

IJALEL 2 (2):204-208, 2013 208 poem is very sensitive to the plight of exile and identity. The use of ordinary language is to denote clear image of understanding so that the issue of ambiguity would not arise. To sum up, Lenrie Peters’ “He Walks Alone” is an exemplification of exile experience coupled with the question of identity and how these factors have dire consequences on the people. The rich artistic creation is a contribution to African literature. References Corness, J. (2005): Alienation and Freedom: A Study of Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground as it relates to the Theme of exile. A paper presented at Literature and Exile Seminar, Högskolan Dalarna, Sweden.Spring. Emenyonu, E. (1990): Literature and Black Aesthetics. Ibadan: Heinemann Nigeria http://culturalpolitics.net/popular_culture/textual_analysis. Maduka, C. T. (1999): The Intellectual and The Power Structure. University of Port Harcourt and Ahmadu Bello University Press. Maduka Chidi. T., & Luke, E. (2000): Fundamentals of Poetry.Uyo: Scholars Press. Merkl, D. (2009): The Analysis Methodologies in Corporate Narrative Reporting Research. Gwynedd: Bangor Business Press. Peters, L. (1999):“He Walks Alone” Poems of Black Africa. Wole Soyinka ed. London: Heinemann Peters L. (2000): Biography XVII International Poetry Modelling. New York. Reeves, J. (1958): Teaching Poetry.London: Heinemann. Said, W E. (2001):Reflections on Exile and other Essays. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press. Silbajors, R. (1972): “The Experience of Exile in Lithuanian Literature”. Ohio State University Lithuanian Quarterly Journal of Arts and Sciences.Antanas Kilmas ed. Volume 18, no.1 Spring.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Finding Ghosts in a “No Man’s Land”: Žižekian Subjects in Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy

Nafise Shajani

M.A. graduate student Shahid Beheshti University, Iran

Mobile: +98915-303-8170 Email: nafise.shajani@yahoo.com

Received: 28-12- 2012 Accepted: 31-01- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.209 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.209 Abstract The present article is an attempt to investigate Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy in the light of Žižek’s Hegel-inspired theorization about subjectivity. It studies Hegelian themes of “absolute negativity” and the “night of the world” that figure prominently in theorization of the Žižekian subject. In so doing, it argues how the characters of The New York Trilogy experience their immediate surroundings as “absolute negativity,” as a “no man’s land” that is eclipsed by the “night of the world,” and how as empty points of negativity they see the need for the transition from a state of nature to that of culture, so that giving birth to their subjectivity. By dividing the procedure between two groups of characters, it tries to show how desperately both try but fail in their attempts to become a subject, that is why ghosts frequent New York’s streets, and not the real subjects. Keywords: subject, subjectivization, “absolute negativity”, “night of the world”, “empty point of negativity” 1. Introduction 1.1 Cartesian Subject: For and Against In Ticklish Subject, Žižek (2000) asserts that the spectre of the Cartesian subject is haunting Western academia, and “all academic powers have entered into a holly alliance to exorcize this spectre,” (p. 1) however he claims that the book is an endeavour to “reassert the Cartesian subject” (p. 2).

The point is not to return to the cogito in the guise in which this notion has dominated modern thought (the self-transparent thinking subject), but to bring to light its forgotten obverse, the excessive, unacknowledged kernel of the cogito, which is far from the pacifying image of the transparent self. (p. 2)

To grasp Žižek’s notion of the subject fully, and how in stark contrast to the opposing contemporary views he supports the Cartesian subject, one must have at least a partial understanding about those theories. The first view supports cogito as “the basis of the centred subject,” or as it is more commonly known the “individual” (Myers, 2003, p. 32). In this view the individual is indivisible and master of itself. In fact “nothing impedes its understanding of itself because it is in total control and total autonomy over its actions” (ibid, p. 33). However, post-structuralists reject the idea of cogito as a “completely self-contained being that develops in the world as an expression of its own unique essence” (Mansfield, 2000, p. 13). Instead, they placed the idea of “decentred subject” (Myers, 2003, p. 32). This subject is “constructed, made within the world, not born into it already formed” (Mansfield, 2000, p. 11). The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism also describes the postmodern subject as “a fragmented being who has no essential core of identity,” this subject is then to be regarded “as a process in a continual state of dissolution rather than a fixed identity or self that endures unchanged over time” (Sim, 2001, pp. 366-7). Žižek (1989) recalls that in post-structuralism reducing to the so-called subjectivation, the decentred subject is the effect of a “non-subjective process”:

The subject is always caught in, traversed by the pre-subjective process (of ‘writing’, of ‘desire’ and so on), and the emphasis is on the individuals’ different modes of ‘experiencing’, ‘living’ their positions as ‘subjects’, ‘actors’, ‘agents’ of the historical process. (Sublime Object of Ideology, p. 174)

However, the problem with this model is that the objective world is so pervasive that there is little or no subjectivity left. The point here is that if there is no subjective element to my character, then I do not have any individuality. Both models of subjectivity we have talked about so far are affected by forms of extremism. They either emphasize highly the subjective world of the individual or value the objective world. 1.2. Žižek’s Reading of Cogito 1.2.1 Cartesian Doubt as a “Withdrawal into Self” In stark contrast to these models stands Žižek's reading of the cogito, which is more indebted to the method through which Descartes arrived at his famous pronouncement about cogito, than just cogito itself. For Žižek, the method of

IJALEL 2 (2):209-215, 2013 210 Cartesian doubt gives form to the knowledge of transformation from nature to culture that is a movement from the self-enclosed individuality to the realm of the universality. When one withdraws into self, the only possible way to escape from madness is to construct a world of culture, or the Symbolic world. Žižek believes that German Idealists among them Kant and Hegel were haunted by the question of this transformation. Hegel was interested in the relation between a self-conscious subject and the external world, so at the core of his philosophy of phenomenology is the idea of intersubjectivity (Beiser, 1999; James, 2007). In Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel calls this self-transforming process, as a “reflection into self,” the “moment of the ‘I’,” or as “pure negativity” (1977, p. 11). Žižek believes that the missing link between nature and culture should be found in the process of Cartesian doubt. He describes this process as a withdrawal into self, one that is analogous to Descartes’s physical withdrawal into the oven (Abyss of Freedom, 1997, p. 8). As Descartes cuts himself off from the world, all he is left with is cogito. 1.2.2 Subject as an “Empty Point of Negativity” For Žižek, Descartes’ cogito is an empty void of negativity and not the “I” of the individual, as post-structuralists aver it to be. In Abyss of Freedom (1997) Žižek brings to light the basic insight of Schelling, that a subject, prior to its assertion by the Symbolic universe, is an infinite lack of being, or the violent gesture of contraction that is inclined to negate every being outside itself (p. 8). The subject is, then, a void, and he locates the subject in this empty space devoid of all content. However, the crucial point is that, it is this void that brings about one’s transition from a state of nature to that of culture. Borrowing a Jamesonian concept, Žižek calls the subject, a missing link, or “vanishing mediator” between a state of nature and that of culture. He borrows the concept of vanishing mediator from an essay “The Vanishing Mediator; or, Max Weber as Storyteller” by Marxist critic Fredric Jameson. It is a concept that mediates the transition between two opposed concepts and then disappears. Žižek's point here is that, the transition from nature to culture is not direct, because it is impossible to pass directly from “purely ‘animal soul’ immersed in its natural life-world to ‘normal’ subjectivity dwelling in its symbolic universe” (Ticklish Subject, 2000, p. 36). An “in-between,” or a kind of “vanishing mediator,” which is “neither Nature nor Culture” has to intervene between the two states (Cogito and the Unconscious, 1998, p. 256). It is the missing link around which the transition is made possible. 1.2.3 A Passage through Madness For Žižek, this passage from nature to culture is one that passes through madness: “Was not this withdrawal-into-self accomplished by Descartes in his universal doubt and reduction to cogito, also involves a passage through the moment of radical madness?” (Ticklish Subject, 2000, p. 34). He reads the vanishing mediator as a passage through madness, and by so doing he conceives the subject as mad. However, he believes that this madness is not to be conceived as a negative element, since it is a prerequisite for the normality of a subject. In Cogito and the Unconscious (1998), he further justifies the ontological necessity of madness by offering the claim that, “it is not possible to pass directly from the purely ‘animal soul,’ immersed in its natural environs, to ‘normal’ subjectivity … the ‘vanishing mediator’ between the two is the ‘mad’ gesture of radical withdrawal from reality, which opens up the space for its symbolic (re)constitution” (p. 259). And for him, this is the same madness as Hegel’s “night of the world”:

The human being is this night, this empty nothing, that contains everything in its simplicity-an unending wealth of many representations, images, of which none belongs to him-or which are not present. This night, the interior of nature, that exists here-pure self-in phantasmagorical representations, is night all around it, in which here shoots a bloody head-there another white ghastly apparition, suddenly here before it, and just so disappears. One catches sight of this night when one looks human beings in the eye-into a night that becomes awful. (Cited in Ticklish Subject, 2000, pp. 29-30)

This passage from Hegel’s Jenaer Realphilosophie manuscripts appears in many of Žižek’s oeuvres, and plays an important role in his theorization of the Hegelian subject. Hegel characterizes the contraction into self, and the experience of pure self as the “night of the world”. Žižek reads the passage as an exemplary description of the negative, disruptive power of imagination, “as the power that disperses continuous reality into a confused multitude of ‘partial objects’, spectral apparitions of what in reality is effective only as a part of a larger organism” (ibid, p. 30). In Abyss of Freedom (1997) he also adds that, a subject “prior to its assertion as the medium of rational Word,” is that “pure “night of the Self,” an “infinite lack of being,” or the “violent gesture of contraction that negates every being outside itself” (p. 8). 1.2.4 The Construction of a Symbolic Universe How, then, is the subject able to climb out of madness and reach a state of normality? In Cogito and the Unconscious (1998), Žižek resorts to Daniel Dennett, the American philosopher and cognitive scientist who was born in 1942 and whose ground–breaking works in the field of evolutionary biology provide him with the world-wide fame. Žižek’s point of reference is where Dennett makes an insightful parallel between animal’s environs and human’s environs. He quotes from Dennett’s Consciousness Explained, where he says, “stripped of [the ‘web of discourses’], an individual human being is as incomplete as a bird without feathers, a turtle without its shell” (416, Cited in Cogito and the Unconscious, 1998, p. 256). He believes that “without language,” humans are like “crippled animal[s],” but as soon as the lack is “supplemented by symbolic institutions,” the human being is born (ibid, p. 256). In Ticklish Subject (2000) Žižek explains the phenomenon as such:

IJALEL 2 (2):209-215, 2013 211 The withdrawal-into-self, the cutting off of the links to the environs, is followed by the construction of a Symbolic universe which the subject projects on to reality as a kind of substitute-formation, destined to recompense us for the loss of the immediate, pre-symbolic Real. (p. 35)

It is deducible that, the construction of a Symbolic universe is possible only and only when the outside reality is eclipsed by this “night of the world,” in other words, when the reality or the outside world is experienced as “absolute negativity”. Then if one wants to escape from madness, one must build up a world of culture. It is in the phrase “absolute negativity” that one can observe Hegel’s break with the Enlightenment tradition: “The subject is no longer the Light of Reason … ; his very core, the gesture that opens up the space for the Light of Logos, is absolute negativity, the “night of the world,” the point of utter madness in which phantasmagorical apparitions of “partial objects” wander aimlessly” (Žižek 2000, Ticklish Subject, p. 34). However, where Žižek parts company with Hegel is in arguing that this withdrawal from the world, that is the “subject’s contraction and severing of all links with the Umwelt” is the “founding gesture of ‘humanization,’ indeed the “emergence of subjectivity itself” (Abyss of Freedom, 1997, p. 9). 1.3. Fear of the Dissolution of Subjectivity Žižek (1998) believes that “the entire psychoanalytic experience focuses on the traces of the traumatic passage from ‘night of the world’ into our ‘bodily’ universe of logos” (Cogito and the Unconscious, p. 259). And his reading of the “night of the world,” as a pre-ontological universe in which “partial objects wander in a state preceding any synthesis” (Ticklish Subject, 2000, p. 49) fit perfectly with “Lacan’s notion of the ‘dismembered body [le corps morcele]’,” (Cogito and the Unconscious, 1998, p. 259) or as it is called the “threatening return of fragmentation” (Hall, 2004, p. 83). Lacan believes that this fragmentation manifests itself in the form of “images of castration, mutilation, dismemberment, dislocation, evisceration, devouring, bursting open of the body,” (Ecrits, 2001, p. 9) which are all signs revealing the “base-level fear of fragmentation that drives human attempts to secure identity” (Hall, 2004, p. 83). And that is the reason behind subjects’ attempts to identify with something external, to externalize themselves in order to acquire the basis of a self-unified identity. 2. Discussion 2.1 New York as a Place of “Absolute Negativity’’ In Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy, New York is depicted as a barren and fragmented place of nightmarish objects where the outside reality is experienced only as loss, as “absolute negativity” and is eclipsed by the “night of the world,” or as Blue observes, “It’s a no man’s land, the place you come to at the end of the world” (Ghosts, p.181). The characters are determined by the confines of such an environment. After experiencing the radical negativity and confronting with the “night of the world,” they are able to make the transition from nature to culture. In the meantime, they struggle to survive within this disarray and the brokenness of their immediate reality, but all their attempts to become a subject in a Žižekian sense appear as a total failure. Commenting upon the states of things in New York, Stillman senior the character of City of Glass utters these words:

I have come to New York because it is the most forlorn of places, the most abject. The brokenness is everywhere, the disarray is universal. You have only to open your eyes to see it. The broken people, the broken things, the broken thoughts. The whole city is a junk heap. (p. 77)

He embraces the evident dislocation within the city. New York is as “an inexhaustible space”, “a labyrinth of endless steps” that brings for Quinn “the feeling of being lost”, “lost, not only in the city, but within himself as well” (City of Glass, p. 4). It is the “nowhere” he builds around himself: “New York was the nowhere he had built around himself, and he realized that he had no intention of ever leaving it again” (ibid, p. 4). It is a place that if Stillman senior decides to vanish, he will become “part of the city”, “a speck”, “a punctuation mark” or “a brick in an endless wall of bricks” (ibid, p. 90). New York is also experienced by Blue as a place of “absolute negativity”. The outside reality is dispersed into a multitude of partial objects, and is eclipsed by the “night of the world”. The “visibility is poor” due to the snow fall, and Blue “has trouble deciphering what is happening in Black’s room” (p.139). The reality outside is blurred, so that even binoculars appear to be of no help. Through this interminable snow fall, Blue says, Black appears to be “no more than a shadow” (p. 139). Within each story this theme of “radical negativity” is depicted with utmost vigilance. Auster’s use of relevant imageries is significant is creating the ethos of New York. At the end of City of Glass, the darkness wins out over the light, while the light becomes fainter and more fleeting. When the reality outside is eclipsed by the “night of the world,” that is to say darkness becomes prevalent, and the world is experienced as “absolute negativity,” the need of a withdrawal into self keeps rushing to the surface; however, in this story Quinn fails in the fulfillment of subjectivization and remains as the subject of enunciation. It is interesting that the characters are bound within the boundaries of this city, within its “chaotic streets” and “aggressive buildings” to the extent that upon finding themselves within the district of another city, they have the feeling of being “displaced” and “unsure of” themselves, such as the feeling that the narrator of The Locked Room experiences upon entering Paris (281). Drawing on the related images between the chaotic ethos of New York and the lost sense of selfhood, Alford (1995) in his essay “Spaced-Out: Signification and Space” explains the connections between “selfhood”, “space” and “signification”. He argues that characters’ wanderings presuppose their absence of a “destination,” that is to say, a sense of self, so the space in this Trilogy is the “seeming theater for a loss of selfhood” (p. 613). He further contends that under the façade of the characters’ suffering from this loss of destination is “not” the traditional sense of “alienation,”

IJALEL 2 (2):209-215, 2013 212 but their “placelessness” owes to “their sense of self being neither exactly at ‘home’ nor exactly ‘away’” (p. 627). To put it in a Žižekian terminology, the characters can neither withdraw into self, nor have a sense of their surrounding space. Near the end of City of Glass, this search to find a place within is depicted by Quinn’s trial to disappear “into the atextual, nonspatial void of having completed the red notebook” (p. 623). 2.2 Characters as Empty Points of Negativity For Žižek, prior to its assertion by the Symbolic universe, subject is an empty void of negativity, an infinite lack of being that negates every being outside itself (Cogito and the Unconscious, 1998, p. 258). The New York Trilogy’s characters are ultimate examples of this assertion. Through his wanderings in New York, Quinn had the feeling of being lost, lost “not only in the city, but within himself as well” (p. 4). His wanderings provide the opportunity to “escape the obligation to think,” and this, more than anything else, brings him “a measure of peace” (p. 4). Whereas Stillman senior believes that in order to be a subject, one must enter into the Symbolic, or the world of culture, Quinn escapes the “obligation to think” (p. 4). Talking to Quinn in the Riverside Park, Stillman senior says he “prefer[s] not to speak to anyone who does not introduce himself” (p. 73). He believes in order to begin, one “must have a name”: “Once a man gives you his name, he’s no longer a stranger” (p. 73). One must first withdraw into self, cut off from all the links with external reality and appear as absolute void of negativity to be a subject at all, to enter a world of culture. With Quinn, however, it is a different case. He does not think of himself as a real subject. Writing in the red notebook, he puts his initials D.Q., standing for Daniel Quinn, on the first page. It is said that, for more than five years he has not put his own name in one of his notebooks: “He stopped to consider this fact for a moment but then dismissed it as irrelevant” (p. 39). In order to substitute for this lack of subjectivity, he resorts to adopting masqueraded identities. Even his dreams are a testimony of his troubled unconscious. He finds himself “alone in a room, firing a pistol into a bare white wall” (p. 9). By drowning himself completely in Stillman case, he has signed his soul away. Firing a pistol into a bare white wall, is like firing into that “empty space” of his own subjectivity, and from then on he is dead as a real subject, as Quinn, and lives a dead life, only through the imaginary Paul Auster, the fake detective. Afterwards his dreams are fraught with images of “coffin[s]” (p. 35) and “mountain[s] of rubbish,” which he is “sifting through” as if in search of something lost (p. 71). Even the blankness of the notebook is a metaphor for the empty void and blank spot within the characters. It is an emptiness which resists symbolization, or the withdrawal into self, so hindering the characters to become a subject fully. As a container which registers the thoughts, life events, and wanderings of Quinn, or as McKean (2010) says, as an attentive listener whose blank pages compel Quinn to jot down his confessions, it is also a sign of its failure to fully adapt to the needs of subjectivity (p. 107). Instead of filling the void of subjectivity, and registering the growth of a fully developed subject, it consists of incoherent writings that are full of insecurity, uncertainty and are governed by pure chance. The same stands for Black and Blue. Inspecting Black, Blue sees him as “a kind of blankness, a hole in the texture of things,” (p. 143) while his “blank stare” signifies “thought rather than seeing” (p. 135). As an empty point of negativity who withdraws into self, he is also “thrusting Blue into an empty room,” (p. 166) as Blue says metaphorically. From then on, Blue is entangled in an inward quest, “groping about in the darkness, feeling blindly for the light switch” to illuminate his journey from the world of nature to that of culture (p. 166). Talking about the autopsy on Walt Whitman’s brain and the breaking of it upon falling to the ground before surgery, Black says it’s sad to think of him “lying in his grave”, “all alone and without any brains,” as though the subject without the radical withdrawal into self, without brain is like a “scarecrow,” like a ghost (p. 170). Nowhere is this difference more obvious than in The Locked Room, when the narrator compares his own life and thoughts with those of Fanshawe. Fanshawe is described to have lived “inside himself,” to “withdraw” into self and by the time he is fourteen he actually becomes “a kind of internal exile … cut[ting] off from his surroundings” (p. 212). Once in France, he was given the chance to live in a country house with no one to distract him from a hermetic life. Fanshawe lived in this solitude for more than a year, and little by little it seemed to “alter him,” to “ground him more deeply in himself” (p. 272). Solitude has become “a passageway into the self” and “an instrument of discovery” (p. 272). The narrator later finds it natural that Fanshawe has become a writer: “The severity of his inwardness almost seemed to demand it” (p. 209). Fanshawe is always detached from life and external reality and this is the quality that sometimes scares the narrator away from him. He realizes that Fanshawe is “alien” to him, that “the way he [Fanshawe] lived, could never correspond to the way he [the narrator] needed to live” (p. 208): “It took me a long time to learn what was good for Fanshawe was not necessarily good for me” (p. 209). Whereas this inwardness and cutting off from the reality is “essential business” for Fanshawe, giving birth to his being a subject of the enunciated, for the narrator “it was only sordid, a miserable lapse into something [he] was not” (p. 211). This is something that differentiates Fanshawe from others; “Fanshawe was visible, whereas the rest of us were creatures without shape” (p. 206). He is “searching out the unknown,” looking “for challenges elsewhere,” (p. 211) in the Symbolic domain perhaps. He knew that the way to culture is attained by a radical withdrawal into self, and through the negation of all determinacy. When as sixteen-year-old teenagers they come upon a cemetery through an aimless drive, they see a freshly dug grave. The snow is falling and they stop at the edge looking down into it. The narrator describes the experience as such: “I can remember how quiet it was, how far away the world seemed to be from us. For a long time neither one of us spoke, and then, Fanshawe said that he wanted to see what it was like at the bottom” (p. 215). The scene is spectacular. The snow is falling eclipsing the reality outside. The world seems to be far away demanding a withdrawal into self. The narrator then says, whenever Fanshawe withdrew into self, here metaphorically into the void of the grave and pretending to be dead, he was alien to him, though the narrator was present. Fanshawe is alone down there, he continues, “thinking his thoughts, living through those moments by himself, and though I was present, the event was sealed off from me, as though I was

IJALEL 2 (2):209-215, 2013 213 not really there at all” (p. 216). By climbing into the grave, it seems as though he “is apprehending his own death” (Segal, 1998, p. 214) that is why near the end, death seems so tempting to him and the only solution left: “I’ve lived with it for so long now, it’s the only thing I have left” (Locked Room, p. 306). This reminds the narrator of another shared experience with Fanshawe; the “cardboard box”: It was Fanshawe’s “secret place,” and so “off limits to me,” the narrator says, “he never let me go in it” (p. 215). Getting to know Fanshawe, to share his experiences and his way of life is like “slipping through a hole in the earth” or “falling into a place” where he had never been before; says the narrator (p. 199). Whereas this inwardness is “essential business” for Fanshawe, for the narrator it is “only sordid, a miserable lapse into something” he is not (p. 211). 2.3 Humpty Dumpty: “The Purest Embodiment of Human Condition” The New York Trilogy’s readers are faced with characters who are pure potentials and have not yet been born. But what does it mean when we say that the characters have not yet been born? Do we doubt the testimony of our eyes and mind when we read the stories? Do they not exist on the page? Do they have not a name, a job or relations? Have they not got a story behind them? Let’s go back to Žižek’s theory about subject. The subject according to him is an empty point devoid of all content, and it is exactly this void that enables the transition from a state of nature to a state of culture. One must remember that this transition is possible only by a withdrawal into self. If not for this transition, there would not be a subject, since according to Ticklish Subject this withdrawal into self or the “cutting off of the links to the environs” is followed by the “construction of a Symbolic universe,” and the construction of this Symbolic universe is what “subject projects on to reality as a kind of substitute-formation, destined to recompense us for the loss of the immediate, pre-symbolic Real” (Žižek, 2000, p. 35). So, when we say the characters have not yet been born, we mean that they could not make the transition from a state of nature to that of culture. As the result, their subjectivization, that is to say the process of being a subject, has not fulfilled and the subjects have not yet been born. To be more precise, we should say that they “exist,” but not yet developed into what is a subject, “not yet achieved the form that is their destiny,” or as Stillman senior observes, “[w]e are pure potential, an example of the not-yet-arrived” (City of Glass, p. 80). He further avers that “Humpty Dumpty,” the egg in Through the Looking Glass, is the “purest embodiment of the human condition” (p. 80).

What is an egg? It is that which has not yet been born. A paradox, is it not? For how can Humpty Dumpty be alive if he has not been born? And yet, he is alive—make no mistake. We know that because he can speak. More than that, he is a philosopher of language. (p. 80)

Characters of The New York Trilogy are still in the process of being born. They have not yet completed the process of subjectivization, not made a satisfactory transition to the world of culture, so they have not yet been born as complete subjects. They only “seem to be there,” but “cannot be counted as present” (p. 107). They are rather a “shadow,” a “ghost” or “a husk without content”, “a man without interior, […] with no thoughts” (p. 61), transparent objects that have not yet been solidified. Ghosts actually frequent these stories, and not real subjects, as Black puts it beautifully “there are ghosts all around us” (p. 171). The whole city is haunted, and the characters who frequent its streets as well. There are those such as Quinn, Blue, and the unnamed narrator of The Locked Room who do not make the transition successfully, though they are not content with the course of the events as such, because they know they are not where they are supposed to be, as Blue says, “but in a false position” (p. 166). There are also those such as Stillman senior, Black, and Fanshawe, who once confronting the radical negativity and the void of subjectivity, made the transition, but on the other part of it saw the naked reality of a disintegrated big Other, so all their hopes became thwarted. Unable to digest the fact, they faced periods of isolation, self-exile, and madness. Some committed suicide, and one was killed by his counterpart, Mr. Blue. Upon a detailed analysis, one is confronted with characters who “wander aimlessly” through the streets of New York. Such is the case with Quinn:

By wandering aimlessly, all places became equal, and it no longer mattered where he was. On his best walks, he was able to feel that he was nowhere. And this, finally, was all he ever asked of things: to be nowhere. New York was the nowhere he had built around himself, and he realized that he had no intention of ever leaving it again. (p. 4)

The characters are “lost, not only in the city, but within themselves as well,” and by giving themselves up to the movement of the streets, they are able to “escape the obligation to think” and this brings them “a measure of peace” (p. 4). They are moving “rapidly along the surface of things,” always “taking pleasure in the world as such,” and “asking no more of things than that” (p. 141). The characterization of Blue shows a person who “has never given much thought to the world inside him, and though he always knew it was there, it has remained an unknown quantity, unexplored and therefore dark, even to himself” (p. 141). This kind of life on the surface of things and this rejection of a withdrawal into self, of the world inside is followed by a sense of lethargy that permeates the stories. City of Glass represents Quinn as a man who has an indifferent attitude toward life: “He no longer wished to be dead. At the same time, it cannot be said that he was glad to be alive” (p. 5). He cannot even remember any of his dreams. The narrator says, it was then that “he had taken on the name of William Wilson” (p. 4). Of course, he had long ago “stopped thinking of himself as real,” and if “he lived now in the world at all, it was only at one remove, through the imaginary person of Max Work” (p. 9). The characters’ lack of introspection or their self-withdrawal shows itself in different ways; whether through their desire to lose themselves in their wanderings in New York’s streets, or else through their willingness to inhabit the self

IJALEL 2 (2):209-215, 2013 214 of another persona, that is through the masqueraded selves they assume during their lives. Both their attempts point to figures who suffer from a misunderstanding of their place in the world. In what have been said till now it was depicted, how miserably the characters failed through their wanderings, so the only possible way left to them is to invent, to duplicate real life in the form of writing stories, reports, biographies, and adopting fake identities. Since their transition from a state of nature to that of culture is left incomplete and unsatisfactory, and besides it does not lead to the desired effect of giving birth to a subject, they try to compensate for it through such duplications and adaptations, although they know that they are all inventions after all. Taking up the pseudonym of William Wilson as the writer of his stories, Quinn is said to treat him with deference, “but he never went so far as to believe that he and William Wilson were the same man” (p. 61). Another time and through a deft twist of naming he adopts an invented identity of a detective. He knows that the identity of Paul Auster is fake and an illusion, “Auster was no more than a name to him, a husk without content,” (p. 61) so he does not really lose himself, “he was merely pretending, and he could return to being Quinn whenever he wished” (p. 50). That is because he knows, to be Auster meant “being a man with no interior, a man with no thoughts. And if there were no thoughts available to him, if his own inner life had been made inaccessible, then there was no place for him to retreat to” (p. 61). So, the question is, why, in spite of their dissatisfaction with their masks, they are not content to “emerge from behind the mask[s] of [their] pseudonym[s]” (p. 5). The answer is probably because this is the only way left to them to retreat to. 2.4 A Passage through Madness This radical withdrawal-into-self also involves a passage through the moment of madness. The New York Trilogy’s characters are also faced with extreme moments of madness. They are frustrated, some choose self-exile and isolation from their immediate surroundings and still some commit suicide as the result of not being able to cope with the reality as such. Confronting the naked reality of a disintegrated big Other, Stillman senior and Fanshawe choose death instead of living a frustrated life in a dislocated world. Hope has thoroughly abandoned them. Committing himself to a twenty-four-hour watch on Stillman’s alley, Quinn understands “the true nature of solitude,” and one thing he discovers there, is that “he was falling” (p. 115). Approaching Stillman senior, he also comes to know the need to a true subjectivity and he even experiences moments of negativity. He gets to know that the way to a true subjectivity passes through madness, but he is unable to surpass the moment because he is stuck somewhere in between. He even comes to know that many people are “locked inside madness” as a result of being unable to surpass the transition completely:

For every soul lost in this particular hell, there are several others locked inside madness—unable to exit to the world that stands at the threshold of their bodies. Even though they seem to be there, they cannot be counted as present. (City of Glass, p. 107)

Quinn takes an attitude of total indifference near the end. Imprisoning himself in a “windowless cubicle” in Stillman’s deserted apartment on East 69th Street, he thinks that “he had come to the end of himself” (p. 123). Living in a state of paralysis, he accepts whatever happens around him without protest. He is neither surprised nor disturbed by what goes around him. Approaching the end of the red notebook is synchronized with the dominance of darkness over light, as if he is also coming to the end of his own subjectivity. In his hide and seek with Black, Blue also approaches moments of subjectivity and subsequently experiences moments of madness. He knows that he cannot live such a life, because he is a man unaccustomed to true inwardness. For a period in between he falls to utmost despair and even lives “with the knowledge that he is drowning” (p. 175). Being entangled with Fanshawe’s case, the narrator of The Locked Room is vanishing before his wife’s eyes, the same as Fanshawe. “Fanshawe himself was not death,” the narrator says, “but he was like death, and he functioned as a trope for death inside me” (p. 295). Trying to take the same route as Fanshawe, the narrator had once experienced the true nature of subjectivity, but could not surpass the moment totally. Now, he can see that his own life is fading before his eyes and his only hope is that, he “will find a break in the darkness” that he has visited and stuck in ever since (p. 231). 2.5 Representation of Death in The New York Trilogy It is actually the fear of the dissolution of subjectivity that brings about the characters’ attempts to identify with something external, and here by adopting masqueraded identities in order to acquire a self-unified identity. It is this fear that is responsible for creating an array of images such as death, corps, coffins, darkness and a host of other relevant imageries all standing as manifestations of this fear that is prevalent among the Trilogy’s characters. Let’s deal with the issue in detail. Death, as the strongest manifestation of the dissolution of subjectivity, happens in The New York Trilogy both literary and metaphorically. At the end of City of Glass, Quinn lies in the deserted apartment not conscious about his life and surroundings, sipping death metaphorically, while darkness takes over the light. Approaching the end of the red notebook, he is also approaching the end of his own life, that is to say the end of his own subjectivity. Death, as the dissolution of our subjectivity, carries with it the relevant images of corruption and corps. Quite aware of the dissolution of his own subjectivity, Quinn lies in the vacant apartment, unbothered by what is circulating around him. Even before the end, he dreams of coffins, of firing a pistol into a bare white wall, all representing the death of his subjectivity and his own apparent death. Death hovers The Locked Room as well, but the case is a bit different for the narrator of the novel. Being like Fanshawe is “suicidal” for him: “Fanshawe himself was not death, but he was like death, and he functioned as a trope for death inside me” (p. 295). It is like the death of his own subjectivity, because taking the same route as Fanshawe is like vanishing from his own life, like tasting death:

IJALEL 2 (2):209-215, 2013 215 I felt as though I was no longer inside myself ... I couldn’t feel myself anymore. The sensation of life had dribbled out of me, and in its place there was a miraculous euphoria, a sweet poison rushing through my blood, the undeniable odor of nothingness. This is the moment of my death, I said to myself, this is when I die. (p. 292)

Death as “something that happens to us every day” (p. 195) is prevalent in these novels. The words “death” and “dead” occur one hundred and eleven times in The New York Trilogy, showing the preoccupation of characters with the dissolution of their subjectivity. Blue’s mind, for instance, is occupied with the unsolved case of the “child lying in his grave with no name,” (p. 162) and he imagines himself instead of the child. This is the moment of utmost despair, of living a life but having no name after your death. Fanshawe also writes about the story by Peter Freuchen he had once read. The story says that an Arctic explorer, being stuck in an igloo, notices how the walls of his shelter were gradually closing in on him, because by each breath he took the walls became thicker, and the igloo smaller, until no room was left for him. Fanshawe says that it is a frightening thing to “imagine breathing yourself into a coffin of ice” (p. 250). In “The Pit and Pendulum” by Poe, Fanshawe again gives an example of how unavoidable death is, and how the instrument of the protagonist’s destruction is the very thing he needed to keep him alive: “For surely a man cannot live if he does not breathe” (p. 250). These are all signs revealing the fear of fragmentation that directs all the characters’ attempts to secure their subjectivity through identifying with something external and this is the hidden motive behind the characters’ adopting of fake identities. 3. Conclusion In theorizing the subject, Žižek borrows and amends some notions from Hegel. In stark contrast to contemporary thought, he also endorses Cartesian subject. He believes that the method of Cartesian doubt gives form to the knowledge of transformation from a state of nature to that of culture and describes this process as a withdrawal into self. According to Žižek, Descartes’ cogito is an “empty point of negativity,” and it is this void that enables the transition from nature to culture. He further reads this passage as one that passes through madness. For him, this madness is reminiscent of Hegel’s “night of the world”. The subject is able to climb out of madness and reach a state of normality by the construction of a Symbolic universe, which acts as a projection on to reality to recompense us for the loss of the pre-Symbolic Real. In quite the same way, The New York Trilogy’s characters found themselves in an environment which was totally negative, dislocated and out of place. They experienced their immediate surroundings as loss, as a place of “absolute negativity” that was eclipsed by the “night of the world,” so that they were confronted with the need to cut off from the blurry-outside-reality, withdraw into self, and in the meantime make the transition from a natural being to a social subject. As pure potentials, they were in the process of being born every day, however, all their attempts at actualizing their potentiality failed and that was why ghosts rather than real subjects frequented New York’s streets. In the end, it was revealed that death as the strongest manifestation of the fear of the dissolution of subjectivity creates a powerful web of imageries within the Trilogy, and it was actually this fear that drove characters attempts to secure their identity through assuming fake identities. References Alford, S. E. (1995). Spaced-out: Signification and space in Paul Auster’s The New York trilogy. Contemporary Literature, 36 (4), 613-32. Auster, P. (2006). The New York trilogy: City of glass, ghosts, the locked room (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Penguin Book. Beiser, F. C. (Ed.). (1999). The Cambridge companion to Hegel (5th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hall, D. E. (2004). Subjectivity. New York, NY: Routledge. Hegel, G. W. F. (1977). Phenomenology of spirit. (A. V. Miller, Trans.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. James, D. (2007). Hegel: A guide for the perplexed. London: Continuum. Lacan, J. (2001). Ecrits: A selection. (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York, NY: Routledge. Mansfield, N. (2000). Subjectivity: Theories of the self from Freud to Haraway. NSW: Allen & Unwin. McKean, M. (2010). Paul Auster and the French connection: City of glass and French philosophy. Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory, 21 (2), 101-118. Myers, T. (2003). Slavoj Žižek. London: Routledge. Segal, A. (1998). Secrecy and the gift: Paul Auster’s the locked room. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 39 (3), 239-57. Sim, S. (Ed.). (2001). The Routledge companion to postmodernity. London: Routledge. Žižek, S. and Von Schelling, F. W. J. (1997). The abyss of freedom-Ages of the world. Michigan: University of

Michigan Press. Žižek, S. (Ed.). (1998). Cogito and the unconscious. Durham: Duke University Press. ---. (1989). The sublime object of ideology. London: Verso. ---. (2000). The ticklish subject: The absent centre of political ideology. London: Verso.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Critical Pedagogy of a Post-9/11 Muslim Memoir

Esmaeil Zeiny Jelodar (Corresponding author) School of Language Studies and Linguistics, National University of Malaysia (UKM)

43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia E-mail: mehdizeiny@gmail.com

Noraini Md. Yusof

School of Language Studies and Linguistics, National University of Malaysia (UKM) 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

E-mail: animy@ukm.my

Ruzy Suliza Hashim School of Language Studies and Linguistics, National University of Malaysia (UKM)

43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia E-mail: ruzy@ukm.my

Raihanah M.M

School of Language Studies and Linguistics, National University of Malaysia (UKM) 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

E-mail: rmm@ukm.my

Received: 25-12- 2012 Accepted: 03-02- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.216 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.216 Abstract Traditional education of literature would do injustice to both students and the discipline in this age of globalization. This is the era when teachers should use critical pedagogy to teach any genre of literature. Nowadays, a great number of memoirs form the Middle East perpetuate Islamophobia; yet some of them are taught at schools in the West. Perpetrating and perpetuating Islamophobia, as a trait of globalization, can be seen in some Iranian diasporic writings as well. This paper examines Persepolis: The story of a childhood, a diasporic Iranian memoir that is included in the educational curriculum of some Western schools. Utilizing Fiore’s theory of critical pedagogy, we seek to provide ways for critical pedagogy of this memoir, and our discussion shows teachers how to use a text such as this to teach against Islamophobia. Keywords: Globalization, teaching critically, West, East, Islamophobia, memoir 1. Introduction Largely neglected throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Iranian immigrant female writers have become significant to a growing Western readership. One of the most striking traits of this emerging women literature is its obsession with the personal and collective past, which has been translated into the dominance of the memoir as a genre. It is argued that memoir is a recently acquired tool of expression for Iranian immigrant female writers based in the West. Once in the West, they took the opportunity to give voice to their thoughts and ideas about political situations in Iran as well as the status of women under the Islamic regime. What triggered them to write was the Western curiosity about Iran and Iranian women, especially after the event of 9/11, when the curiosity of the West was aroused to learn about a country that was recently labeled as an “Axis of Evil” by the Bush administration. This remunerative industry of Iranian women’s memoirs has mushroomed while a war against Iran is pending in American administrations and after the ruinous consequences of US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq (Darznik 2008). These diasporic memoirs, which gained prestige and became well-known worldwide after the event of 9/11, can be indicative of the fact that they are political and ideological. Memoirs became a tool for the authors to express their ideology and political thoughts in favor of the West. To an increasing number of critics, memoirs by immigrant Iranian women, constitutes “a pernicious outcome of contemporary military campaigns in the Middle East: a restaging of Orientalist and imperialist ideologies by a cadre of native informers” (Darznik, 2008:1). By presenting a sketchy depiction of Iran, particularly its women as oppressed, which in fact have been already represented in the Western discourses of Orientalist, these writers put their works at the disposal of imperialism to create justification for the imperialism project of hegemony disguised as ‘war on terror’ project or the project of saving women which conjures up Spivak’s famous statement of “white men saving brown women from brown men” (Spivak, 1999 cited in Dabashi, 2011: 60). All of these memoirists have been praised by different critics for the authenticity of the text. However, the

IJALEL 2 (2):216-222, 2013 217 critics failed to consider the fact that these life narratives can be easily co-opted into propaganda. They further American imperialistic agenda and confirm Western derogatory perception of Muslims (Whitlock, 2007). Hamid Dabashi (2011) labels these memoirist ‘native informers’ and the ‘comprador intellectuals’ because of their contribution in paving the way and rationalizing the attacks on Muslim countries by imperialism. In Spivak’s (1999) terms, these memoirists are native informant as “a certain postcolonial subject” who has “been recoding the colonial subject and appropriating the native informant’s position. Today with globalization in full swing, telecommunicative informatics taps the native informant directly in the name of indigenous knowledge and advances biopiracy” (1999: ix). In differentiating the terms ‘native informer’ and ‘native informant’, Dabashi argues that “where informant credits comprador intellectuals with the knowledge they claim to possess but in fact do not, informer suggests the moral degeneration specific to the act of betrayal” (2011: 12). These writers commenced their activities under the guise of “defending human rights, women’s rights, and civil rights of Muslims themselves—and the relative lack of those rights in Muslim countries gave them the space and legitimacy they required” (Dabashi, 2011: 17). They can easily demonize their own culture as they know that they are protected and based in the centers of Western powers otherwise it would be too perilous a task to provide such serviceable knowledge directly from the Middle East and in this case, Iran. What created the conditio sine qua non for them was the phenomenon of globalization and labor migration. Dabashi further argues that these immigrant authors are being employed by “the imperial power to inform on their home countries” and to justify the invasion which commonly “points to the inner logic of imperial domination in the age of globalization” (Dabashi, 2011: 23). Globalization is, indeed, a good replacement for classical colonialism with new manners of domination. In the age of globalization, these writers or “native informers” (Dabashi, 2011) are manufacturing consent for the public that a military intervention would do good to save the country from barbarism and they are employed to show that the conquer of the world by imperialism is a human project and a liberation. Despite all these challenges posed by globalization and their vulnerability to critics’ criticisms, being accused of the authors’ one-sided view and perpetrating Islamophobia, some of these memoirs have been included in educational curriculum in the West. One of such memoirs is Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003). Since its initial release, some of the American institutions have utilized her memoir for the secondary school, not only restricted to English classroom, but included in interdisciplinary and cross-content subjects such as women’s studies, political science, history, human rights and government (Barzegar, 2012). 2. Critical pedagogy To eradicate the traditional way of teaching memoir as a genre of literature, there must be a form of globally accountable education that could address the dehumanizing stereotypical representations of those who are seen as the “Other” in the life narratives. Formal and informal education in the West preaches and stresses exoticism in regard to representation of Muslims. Fed by education in the West, either formal schooling or informal like that of media, students’ opinion can be shaped and directed towards a biased view against Islam and Muslims. A memoir can act as a core curriculum of responsible education and be utilized by teachers to obliterate the prejudiced views of the West against the East. However, in many cases, these memoirs present sketchy and colored depictions of Muslims. A great number of teachers take memoirs as authenticated and never question their accuracy. Teachers, oftentimes, use these memoirs to teach social justice and equality but they fail to encourage students to question the memoirs and the memoirists, and to be critical of the status quo. Before teaching memoirs from the Middle East to students in the West, teachers need to ask themselves how this genre of literature would contribute to their students’ ideas about the wars waging in Muslim countries. Who is being represented in these memoirs and who is not? Would the students read the memoirs in earnest? Or would they just read something about an alien culture as if they are reading one of Shahrzad’s Arabian Tales? Would any of the students feel interested in these memoirs or would the compulsion to read is because they are included in the curriculum? (Fiore 2010). This is what Fiore (2010) terms as critical pedagogy of a memoir. Critical pedagogy is the questions of “how and why knowledge gets constructed the way it does, and how and why some constructions of reality are legitimated and celebrated by the dominant culture while others clearly are not” (McLaren, 2009: 63). Education is absolutely relied on knowledge; the great significance in education goes to the questions of where it comes from and who it comes from. McLaren (2009 cited in Fiore 2010) argues that in critical pedagogy, it is known that “some form of knowledge have more power and legitimacy than others” which causes human suffering. Thus, as Kincheloe (2008: 11-12) puts it, critical pedagogy functions to ease human suffering by “seeking out the causes of such suffering.” Fiore (2010: 4-5) believes that there are some tenets that a critical teacher should follow:

A teacher must have a clear educational purpose; social, cultural, political and economic factors affect both students’ and teachers’ understanding of themselves, each other, the curriculum and knowledge in general; all types of knowledge are valid; dialogue with students is necessary to create a curriculum that is relevant to the lives of students; power affects the way we teach; the classroom and education in general does not exist in a vacuum devoid of a political dimension; positivist notions of the “correct” way to teach must be challenged; the dominant culture holds the privilege of being able to decide whose knowledge is legitimate, and whose is not.

She argues that a critical pedagogical teacher needs to define his/her purpose and positionality as a teacher long before the beginning of the class. It is a must for a critical teacher to know exactly where he/she is coming from and where they wish to end up with their classes. A critical teacher should also be aware that a great number of factors impacted

IJALEL 2 (2):216-222, 2013 218 the cultural, political, social and economic identities of the students before they even begin the class. A critical teacher must show it to students that he/she is not the only one holding power in the classroom just because he/she is a teacher rather students hold the power as well as the education is theirs too. A critical pedagogical teacher needs to understand the significance of culture as it plays an important role in the lives of their students. Thus, a critical teacher must possess knowledge based on a wide range of popular culture such as television, movies, music, radio and internet (Fiore 2010). But they should be mostly concerned with “alternative bodies of knowledge produced by indigenous, marginalized or low-status groups” as a critical teacher they comprehend “the ways different forms of power operate to construct identities and empower and oppress particular groups” (Kincheloe, 2007: 17). Amongst all the principles for a critical teacher posed by Fiore (2010), there is one tenet that stands out: a teacher should be a researcher. In the traditional way of teaching, teachers are regarded as an automaton; educated only in the skill of transferring knowledge from textbooks to the students which is what Freire (1970) refers to as banking method of schooling. Freire (1970) argues that a teacher in this sense is a narrator who “expounds on a topic completely alien to the existential experience of the students” whose only job is to “fill the students with the contents of his narration” (71). This is, sadly, a typical function of teachers in today’s educational environment where “education” as Freire continues “becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor” (72). As Kincheloe (2008: 19) states, a critical teacher should “engage in constant dialogue with students that questions existing knowledge and problematizes the traditional power relations that have served to marginalize specific groups and individuals.” Critical teachers comprehend that the old way of schooling’s assumption which standardized curriculum will serve the students best is not true. This standardized curriculum, indeed, further “privileges the already privileged dominant culture in society, while further marginalizing those who do not hold the cultural capital to successfully ascend the socio-economic standing they were born into” (Fiore, 2010: 9). She further argues that it is through dialog with students that a critical teacher can understand his/her students’ communities, cultures, languages and the different hardships they are confronting. Fiore (2010: 9) believes that this may “take time away from the traditional curriculum” and a critical teacher should realize that “this is a necessary part of what is referred to as the “double curriculum.”” This “double curriculum” is effective in teaching students “the knowledge that their curriculum privileges some, while marginalizes others” (Fiore, 2010: 9). Thus, as Fiore (2010) asserts, a critical teacher should be aware of the fact that everything can be political and pass that knowledge to his/her students. To provide example of political educational environment, Fiore (2010: 10) illustrates a teacher’s classroom:

In it we see the standard items: desks, chairs, books, maybe even a chalk board. If she is lucky enough, we will also see various technologies that will assist her throughout the day: a computer, printer, scanner, and maybe even a Smartboard. We also cannot forget those less inanimate items which also influence her teaching but may not necessarily show up in the class: her principal, a school trustee, or school board superintendent. While our teacher may not go to great lengths to understand how something like a piece of chalk wields power in her classroom, she will have considered why some classrooms have a chalk board, while others have a Smartboard. As a critical pedagogue she will have questioned not only why that item, be it a Smartboard, Macintosh Computer, or MacMillan textbook, is there and how she will use it in class, but she will also question how it got there. Did Apple donate computers in order to encourage brand loyalty in her young students? Did Smartboard donate the technology in order to force administrators to purchase the corresponding programs and curriculum?

Since education is entangled in various power relations; therefore, textbooks can be political. Textbooks have usually been perceived as a voice of authority and students use them and other “printed teaching material 90 to 95 percent of their working time (Firer, 1998: 196). Unfortunately, these books are almost never questioned and the information that is given by the books is simply taken as pure fact. As Peterson (2009: 313) argues a critical teacher should know that “knowledge is not produced somewhere in textbook offices and then transferred to the students”. Peterson (2009) continues that a critical teacher should first recognize that what textbooks present as realities are not “value-free” and therefore, as Fiore (2010: 11) believes those realities are not objective information as objective knowledge is “impossible” because teachers, researchers and authors cannot stand as “objective observers outside reality.” Fiore (2010) points out another important perspective that a critical teacher should be cognizant of: who is publishing the textbooks? Muslim memoirs are being published by the publishing houses irrespective of the fact that the “realities” given in the memoirs are selective at best (Peterson, 2009), and untrue in the worst-case scenario (Sensoy, 2009), simply to “encourage a worldview that would further privilege the current socio-political climate that benefits corporate interests” (Fiore, 2010: 12). Critical pedagogy is, indeed, aimed to divulge this truth “to teachers through teacher education programs, and to students with the help of teachers themselves” (Fiore, 2010). The norms should be scrutinized and should be put into question. She believes that critical teachers should interrogate the norm as it is the “commonly accepted beliefs, values, assumptions and ideas of the dominant culture” (2010: 12). A critical teacher should make it clear that it is through this ‘norm’ that the ‘other’ is created. She further argues that “the otherization of individuals, when the normativized beliefs of society necessarily drive a person to the periphery of society, leads inevitably to the suffering of these individuals” (Fiore, 2010: 12). Critical pedagogy might seem a political process but, in fact, it is allocated to ease human suffering; in this sense, education is regarded as a tool to achieve its goal (Fiore 2010). Education is viewed as a “political space in which all its elements, physical, textual or otherwise, are understood to hold power, some having more power and therefore more

IJALEL 2 (2):216-222, 2013 219 legitimacy than others” (Fiore, 2010: 13). Critical teaching seeks to find out why and how these power inequalities hurt some certain students while benefit others, especially in multiethnic classes. It seeks to figure out “whose story is not getting published? How and why do some books remain on the bestseller list for months, while others never make it to the list at all?” (Fiore, 2010: 13). These uncomfortable questions should be asked to reach the ultimate truth. 3. Miseducation in the West The Miseducation of the West emerges from “a long history of distorted Western knowledge production about Islam” (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 2004: 20). The educational systems and the media of the West, as the two sources of knowledge production, influence the Western perspective of the Islamic world. Kincheloe and Steinberg (2004) contend that Bush administration, the Western media, and schools have collectively failed in accurately teaching the West about contemporary Islam and Muslims. This failure is due to their views towards Islam. In actuality, miseducation of the West begins with the notion that Western conception of the “East” is a reflection and a creation of their opinions and beliefs about the East, than an exact depiction of the East itself. The representations of Muslims were impacted by imperialist and colonial concepts that viewed the East as inferior to the superior and potent West. In Orientalism (1995), Said “essentialized a radical difference between Western superiority and Oriental inferiority, between the familiar and the strange… This gave the West legitimate authority to not only represent the Orient, but to change its reality” (as cited in Moghissi, 1999: 33). Consequently, an image of the East was created by the superior West that had little to do with facts and realities. Moghissi (1999: 33) argues that the construction of the East by the West posed a danger as this construction was not just a few stereotypes, rather it was a whole body of knowledge that was touched by imperial sentiment and wanted “control of the Other through knowledge”. The Miseducation of the West in modern time continued with the Bush administration after the event of 9/11. Kellner argues that Bush’s speech addressed to the congress a week after 9/11promulagted that the world of Muslim and Islam is a world of wickedness and aggression while constituting America as pure and good (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 2004). This distorted and polarized view created a binary opposition between good and evil, us and them, civilization and barbarism. This binary opposition is taught and reinforced by Western media and schools education. Nowadays, teachers and the grass roots must deal with the ramifications of these Orientalized constructions of the East. Teachers confront textbooks that exhibit little or misleading information about Muslims. The ordinary people are also in constant confrontation with the Orientalized image of themselves through the media’s incessant use of Muslims as “the radical and bad guys”. This generalization and stereotypical representation of Muslims, certainly, distorted the West’s understanding of the Islamic world. In asking their sophomore literature students on their perceptions about women in Islam, Lori Cohen and Leyna Perry (2006), assert that many of their students responded with the cliché answer: “submissive to men, not well educated, covered faces and bodies with hijab or burka, can’t show ankles, no rights, fragile, loyal and dedicated to families,” and “separated from men” (2006: 20). These students did not understand that their perceptions were, in fact, tantamount to stereotypes. Putting all the Muslim women into the category of oppressed and inferior is certainly a cause of miseducation which reinforces Islamophobia. According to Eirin, one of the students, the image of women in Islam equals “the image of women covered head to toe with clothing; the worship of Islam; the notion that most have the mind of a terrorist” (Cohen & Perry, 2006: 20). These remarks reverberate Westerners’ perspectives of Muslim world, particularly post 9/11. With the crash of twin towers and the emergence of radical oppressive regimes such as Al-Qaeda and Taliban, Westerners has been viewing the Middle East as ‘the home of terrorist’ collectively and has been exhibiting it in their media and the educational system. 4. Teaching against Islamophobia: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood As in-depth analysis of the major themes and instances of the memoir is beyond the scope of this paper, we focus on the predominant theme, Islam, and several related examples just to provide examples of critical teaching of the memoir. Knowing that this textbook is a memoir whose author is Iranian and the publication’s date in the 2000s, it is, thus, essentially important for a critical teacher to find out about the author and her status within the society before even delving into the text itself. This is fundamentally significant because memoirs from the Middle East published post-9/11 could be vulnerably one-sided and written in favor of Western globalization. Providing this brief background of the author is the first step in the right direction to study the memoir: Satrapi is from the upper sect of the society, she attended a French school in Iran and she left the country for Austria when she was 14. Satrapi starts her memoir with a chapter called “The Veil.” The Veil, which Westerners usually identify with Islam and oppression of women, is being introduced through a child’s eyes. She starts her graphic memoir with two frames: The first frame is the replication of the image on the cover, the unsmiling Marji which reads: “This is me when I was 10 year old. This was in 1980” (2003: 3).

Panel 1: Persepolis: The story of childhood.

IJALEL 2 (2):216-222, 2013 220 The unsmiling Marji insinuates that she is unhappy with the present situation. The second frame shows four other girls with the same facial expression, all frowning and with crossed arms, and a sliver of a fifth girl on the far left which just shows a bent hand and a chest-length veil. It reads: “And this is the class photo. I’m sitting on the far left so you don’t see me…” (2003: 3). The expression on the fourth girl’s face shows certain disapproval. Here, Satrapi cuts herself out, suggesting that being veiled renders one invisible. It implies that she is disembodied, fragmented and has no visibility. This idea of her is confirmed in a scene where she describes her mother’s photo of the passport where she had to veil: “she sure didn’t look very happy. In fact, she was unrecognizable” (2003: 126). Her mother is reduced to invisibility with the veil on; Satrapi seems to imply that Muslim women are invisible in society. At the outset of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Satrapi demonstrates how the forced veiling physically segregates her from the rest of the society “Then came 1980. The year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school. We didn’t really like to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we had to” (2003: 3-4). What is peculiarly strange about the assertion is her claim not to understand why to veil. Despite her class position, it is hard to believe that Satrapi was not aware of the context of the veil as she lived in Iran so long. The exotic and the stereotypical representation of Muslims are immediately provided in the first few pages of the graphic memoir. What Satrapi tries to show is the negative impact of veiling on women, especially on young girls. Reading the memoir, students who are unfamiliar with Muslim culture will feel awkward towards veiling and Islam; however, a critical teacher will never confirm Satrapi’s ideas about veiling as he/she knows that this view is absolutely personal. While admitting that forced veiling is to be condemned, the teacher should put the issue in its proper context for students and should reveal that there are also a great number of women with contrasting views on veiling. By providing that account, a critical teacher certainly does not and should not dismiss the author’s agency. A critical teacher will have to explain to the students that Satrapi’s writing is selective as she has not put the issue of veiling in its suitable context. Satrapi presents negative images of Islam; she portrays Islamic rituals and scoffs them. Her depiction leads Western readers to the idea that Islam is a religion of violence and barbarism. To show this, Satrapi asserts that “hitting yourself is one of the country’s rituals, during certain religious ceremonies, some people flagellated themselves brutally. Sometimes even with chains. It could go very far. Sometimes it was considered a macho thing” (2003: 96). In one panel, she depicts a man stabbing his head with a dagger:

Panel 2: Persepolis: The story of childhood.

This panel is perfectly fit to convey exoticism of Islam. Unless a critical teacher explains the whole ritual in its proper context, which in this case is Ashura, this image will allude to Islamic exoticism and violence. A critical teacher needs to explain that Ashura is a Shia Islamic holiday observed on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic year. For the Shia Muslims, Ashura and the ten days afterward are days of lamentation and mourning marking the death of Imam Hossein, the third Shia Imam and the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. After doing some research about it, a critical teacher should make it clear to his/her students that Satrapi is wrong in implying that these rituals and customs, which were presented as torture, were carried out to show machismo and not for devout religious reasons. The teacher has to make it clear that the depiction is portrayed with exaggeration and hitting yourself with a dagger is absolutely a rare phenomenon in Iran. A critical teacher will understand that Western readers are bound to have distorted information about these Islamic rituals as they are portrayed without contextualization. By deleting its context, Satrapi is, in fact, bolstering such distorted images to her readers in the West, “using her authority as a Native to add to the damage of such misconceptions” (Barzegar, 2012: 45) and a critical teacher should be enabled to elaborate this for his/her students. This is the stage where a critical teacher should explain the author’s link to the Western ideology machinery. Students should be provided with the fact that how Satrapi’s memoir, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003) falls under the disposal of Western ideological machinery. A teacher should elaborate the fact that Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir, since its publication, has never faced a serious negative criticism comparing to other life narratives like that of Nafisi’s. Nafisi’s memoir, a highly commercialized memoir, sparked a controversy about the popularity of Iranians women’s memoirs during the time of the West’s intolerance towards the ideological power and the current regime of Iran. Iranian women memoirs like that of Satrapi’s gain popularity especially after the event of 9/11 and the present discussion about a possible “American intervention” in Iran due to its nuclear energy program. Dabashi (2011) criticizes these life narratives as these narratives provide the customary justification for moral and cultural legitimization of intervention by imperialism. Satrapi’s graphic text also falls under criticism of Dabashi as it is a perpetuation of anti-Islamic and anti-Iranian sentiments.

IJALEL 2 (2):216-222, 2013 221 Teachers are to depict that Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood can be even more threatening than others of its ilk as this graphic memoir is being utilized as educational equipment in primary and secondary classrooms in the West to teach the audience about an exoticized and “a distant culture that has been stigmatized as an “Eastern Other”.” (Barzegar, 2012: 3). It is even being used as historical lesson in some schools in the West. The readers face savagery and oppression in the memoir. According to Dabashi these kinds of writers are native informers whose principal task is to fake “authority, authenticity, and native knowledge” (2011: 72) by giving information to the Western public about the outrageous behaviors happening in their birthplace; thence, justifying the imperial projects of the West. The fact that Satrapi’s text is recruited for the Western ideology machinery can be obviously seen in its marketing strategy. It is significantly important for students to be cognizant of the fact that Satrapi’s graphic memoir, Persepolis (2003), emerged exactly at a time when France was toying with the idea of banning veiled Muslim girls in public schools. This, in fact, can be a political endeavor to form comprehension about cultural customs of the Middle East by “presenting a liberal Middle Eastern viewpoint amidst radical unrest” (Costantino, 2008: 433). It could be argued that the implicit inscription through marketing strategies is that this graphic memoir is an instrument in bolstering a national political agenda in France at the time when President Jacques Chirac promulgated the plan of the government in passing a law forbidding the veil in public schools in December 2003 (Barzegar 2012). Persepolis is used in public schools seemingly to teach young French students about a different culture, but it is used to reinforce and support the national political agenda on banning the veil in France and committing Islamophobia throughout the West. Satrapi’s graphic memoir is topical for the time of its publication in America as well. Its first publication in English (2003) appeared right at a time when President George W. Bush has begun to extend efforts in his global project of ‘war on terror’ and after his notorious ‘Axis of Evil’ addressed to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Since then, writings about Iran, Iranian women, and Islam create a good alibi for the Western intervention and Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood is no exception. It should be mentioned that Satrapi’s graphic memoir was one of the reading items in the West Point, the United States military academy, and it was on the reading list of some other educational centers of North America as well. It was accompanied by unit guides and teaching supplements. Barzegar (2012: 18) argues that “the fact that the memoir has become part of a curriculum at a military institution reinforces Dabashi’s claim that such literary pieces contribute for justification for imperial rule and intervention as well as helping to promote Islamophobia in the West” and consequently, it shows Satrapi’s position as a native informer. Her narrative can be seen as a colonizing instrument which promotes war against Iran and Islam; hence, it is recruited for the imperialism and the Western ideological machinery. While we completely sympathize with Satrapi’s concerns with the women’s right in the Islamic Republic and with Iranian women as subordinated to enact the male Islamist patriarchal rules, we think that diasporic cultural approach should not be universalized. While we never disacknowledge the fact that stringent rules are imposed upon women, Satrapi’s graphic memoir is less to unveil those outrageous behaviors than to promote Islamophobia. What is common to almost all the memoirs from the Middle East is the perpetuation of Islamophobia. A critical teacher will understand that a common trait of such neo-Orientalist texts is the denigration of Islam and Islamic rituals to create Islamophobia. To depict the Oriental Other, portraying religious fundamentalism and extremism is of necessity in these texts and that should be explained to students. 5. Conclusion It is high time for teachers to understand that the traditional way of teaching literature such as teaching protagonist, antagonist, plot, setting and character, would do injustice to both students and literature. The robotic repetitions and memorizations will not ease the challenges and problems posed by globalization. Simply asking the students to find the protagonist, describe the setting and figure out the plot is not sufficient to provide students the equipment they need “to address the social problems afflicting their world today” (Fiore 2010: 105). The contents of textbooks should be scrutinized, no matter how objective the textbook might seem. Teachers should be critical of its knowledge because it was written by a person who “researched a subject, analyzed data and eventually produced a textbook” (Fiore, 2010: 11). The author of this book, certainly, has assumptions and experiences that impact the way he/she writes. Because textbooks reach a great number of students around the world and shape and affect their ideas about the world, it comes of utmost significance to uncover who writes the textbooks. Critical pedagogy is the vehicle that drives both teachers and students to be informed in better ways regarding the literature brought into their environment. A critical teacher needs to constantly question whose story is being told and whose is not? He/she needs to encourage their students to never take a book as pure reality and question its contents. Instead of continuing the already sketchy Western ideas and letting the book fall into the trap of globalization, it is a task for the teachers to make sure that the students peruse these texts critically, humbly and thoughtfully. Reading in this way, a memoir such as Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003) can be used to teach against Islamophobia. References Barzegar, L. (2012). Persepolis & Orientalism: A critique of the reception history of Satrapi's memoir. Colorado. Master of Arts: pp. 60. Costantino, Manuela. (2008). Marji: Popular Commix Heroine Breathing Life into the Writing of History. Canadian Review of American Studies 38.3 (2008): 429-47.

IJALEL 2 (2):216-222, 2013 222 Dabashi, Hamid. (2011). Brown Skin, White Mask. New York: Pluto Press. Darznik, J. (2007) Writing outside the veil: Literature by women of the Iranian diaspora. Princeton, Doctor of Philosophy: pp. 176, 2007. Fiore, Nicole. (2010) Reading Muslim women: The cultural significance of Muslim women’s memoirs. McGill University, Master of Arts: pp. 116. Freire, Paulo. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum. Kincheloe, J. L. (2008). Critical Pedagogy: Primer. New York, NY: Peter Lang Spivak, G. Chakravorty. (1999). A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kincheloe, J. L. & Steinberg, S. (2004). The Miseducation of the West: How Schools and the Media Distort Our Understanding of the Islamic World. Westport, CT: Praeger. Lori Cohen and Leyna Peery. (2006). Unveiling Students' Perceptions about Women in Islam. The English Journal, Vol. 95, No. 3. pp. 20-26. McLaren, P. (2009). A Look at the Major Concepts. In A. Darder, M.P. Baltodano, & R.D. Torres (Eds). The Critical Pedagogy Reader. New York, NY: Routeledge, pp. 61-83. Moghissi, Haideh. (1999). Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: The Limits of Postmodern Analysis. New York, NY: Zed Books. Peterson, R. E. (2009). Teaching How to Read the World and Change It: Critical Pedagogy in the Intermediate Grades. In A. Darder, M.P. Baltodano, & R.D. Torres (Eds). The Critical Pedagogy Reader. New York, NY: Routeledge. pp. 305-323. Satrapi, Marjaneh. (2003). Persepolis: The story of a childhood. New York: Pantheon Books. Said, Edward. (1995) 1978. Orientalism. Reprint. London: Penguin Books. Sensoy, Ö. (2009). Where the Heck is the “Muslim World” Anyways? In Ö.Sensoy & C.D. Stonebanks (Eds.).Muslims Voices in School: Narratives of Identity and Pluralism. Boston, MA: Sense. pp. 71-88. Whitlock, G. (2007) Soft weapons: Autobiography in transit. Chicago: University of Chicago press.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2; March 2013

Copyright © Australian International Academic Centre, Australia

Nigerian Pidgin Variations in the Ikom-Ogoja Axis of Cross River State, Nigeria

Mercy Ugot, Ph.D

Centre for General Studies Cross River University of Technology

Calabar, Nigeria E-mail:mercyugot@yahoo.com

Offiong Ani Offiong, Ph.D

Department of Linguistics and Communications University of Calabar

Calabar, Nigeria. E-mail: offiongani2002@yahoo.com

Oyo Ekpo Oyo

Centre for General Studies Cross River University of Technology

Calabar, Nigeria E-mail: oyooyoekpo@yahoo.com

Received: 03-01- 2013 Accepted: 05-02- 2013 Published: 01-03- 2013 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.223 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.2p.223 Abstract This Paper focuses on lexical items in the Ikom Ogoja variety of Nigerian Pidgin (NP). This however does not mean that the regularized Nigerian Pidgin (NP) is not being used in the area. However, factors such as contact with the substrate languages in the area and borrowing have all influenced the emergence of some variations in NP usage. The Paper highlights these variations in the Ikom-Ogoja axis of Cross River State in areas of borrowing, reduplication, metaphors and metaphorical extensions and euphemisms. This has helped to show the dynamism of NP which is constantly growing and expanding to suit the needs of a pluralistic society such as Nigeria in general and Cross River State in particular. Keywords: Reduplication,euphemism, substrate, superstrate and metaphorical extensions. 1. Introduction The one fact that is generally accepted about pidgin languages all over the world is that they arise from contact situations (Elugbe & Omama 1991, Todd 1984). Such contact situations included trade in particular. The Nigerian Pidgin (NP) as a contact language has expanded and stabilized due to certain factors which include the fact that it continued to be of relevance, it served as a common language as it became a ready means of communication in a multi ethnic society, and thirdly, Mafeni (1971:98) sees it as growing or stabilizing in a society that is undergoing urbanization

…The rapidly growing towns of Nigeria have increasingly become the melting pots of many tribes and races which constitute Nigeria and pidgin seems to be today a very widely spoken lingua franca, many towns and city dwellers being at least bilingual in pidgin and an indigenous language. Pidgin therefore has developed from being a limited language of trade and business along the coastal regions of Nigeria to a fully-fledged language in its own right as a result of acquisition of new vocabulary items to meet the expanded communication challenges of its speakers. This new status has helped to tremendously improve the people’s attitude and solidarity towards NP.

2. Methodology and the Theoretical Framework Data for this work was obtained primarily through “naturally occurring casual speech” of the speakers of NP (Kadenge and Mavunga 2010). This was focused on the speech discourse of speakers of mainly Ikom Town and students at the Ogoja campus of the Cross River University of Technology. In Ikom town, focus was on Four Corners Ikom and the

IJALEL 2 (2):223-231, 2013 224 market where use of NP is quite prevalent. We mainly employed participant observation and initiated topical issues in Nigeria such as the current flood disasters in Cross River State and some other States of Nigeria including Bayelsa, Delta, Kogi, Anambra State.We also brought up the security challenges in Nigeria. We also asked students for standard NP words in use and their variations in their locality. The age range was quite wide, ranging from 16 years to 60 years of both male and female respondents. The theoretical assumption that underpins this works is the concept of the London school which had its inspiration from the British Linguist J.R. Firth which took the view that the meaning of a word could be equaled with the sum of its linguistic environment and that therefore, Linguists could essentially find out what they need to know about a word’s meaning by exhaustively analyzing its collocations. Firth’s general approach to the study of languages continues to have echoes in modern linguistics through the work of eminent heirs to the London school of tradition such as John Sinclair and Michael Halliday, (Singleton 2000). Bloomfield (1993)and Meillet (1921) were some of the earliest attempts to point out the indeterminacies about the notion of the word. A word could be “a minimal freeform” or “a unit of meaning “which may comprise elements that are smaller (e.g. morphemes) or larger than the word (e.g. phrase or idioms) whose meaning may not be apparent. Given the above discrepancies, linguists use the term “lexeme” or “lexical item” to denote an item of vocabulary with a single referent whether it consists of one word or more. The lexeme which one can equate to the form that one would look up in a dictionary encompasses the set of forms that may be used to realize the lexeme in various environments. Katamba (1993:17) refers to a “word” in this sense of abstract vocabulary item using the term “lexeme”. 3. THE LINGUISTIC MAP OF CROSS RIVER STATE 3.1 The indigenous Languages Cross River State is made up of politically of 18 Local Government Area (LGAs). This study focuses on Ikom to be found in the Central senatorial district of the state while Ogoja is found in the Northern senatorial district. Geographically however, both LGA’s are neighbouring LGA’s. Both LGA’s like most in Cross River State, speak a plurality of languages. Most LGA’s in the state do not have clear cut linguistic boundaries as there is linguistic overlapping (Ugot 2008). Udoh (2003) also points out that homogenous LGA’s include LGA’s which have one language in the whole area and these LGA’s are limited to Akpabuyo (Efik) Bekwarra (Bekwarra) Bakassi (Efik) Boki (Bokyi) Etung (Ejagham) Obubra (Mbembe) and Yala (Yala) out of the 18 LGA’s. Of the remaining 11 heterogenous LGA’s, they are divided into 2 categories. One group is made up of 2 or more languages co-existing in a kind of unbalanced asymmetry with one of the languages being more dominant. The dominant language gradually assimilates the others. Four LGAs have this kind of relationship. In Akamkpa, Odukpani and Calabar municipality the Efik language has almost assimilated the languages spoken in these areas. Some of the known moribund languages such as Kiong,Odot, Korop, Detop are spoken in those LGA’s. Even the Qua dialect of Ejagham, spoken in Big Qua in Calabar Municipality and Efut (in Calabar South) have almost been assimilated by Efik, though other towns like Ikom, Etung still speak Ejagham as one goes further north in the state. In Yakurr LGA, the Assigha and Lenyim towns form a minority in an otherwise homogenous Lokaa-speaking LGA. The two Agbo communities are separated from the rest of their kith and kin on the other side of Cross River. Lokaa is the lingua franca of the area and at present, these people are bilinguals of both Lokaa and Leggbo. Although the threat of assimilation is not very eminent it is expected as a consequence of language contact. Other heterogeneous LGA’s are made up of closely related two or more Upper Cross languages co-existing symmetrically with each other without any of them threatening the others beyond the normal shifts associated with languages in contact. Five LGA’s fall within this group Abi(Leggbo, Bahumono) Biase (Nne, Ubaghara, Umon, Mehu, Isaninyongo, Iyongiyong.) Obanliku (Obanliku, Bende) Obudu (Bette, Utugwang, Ukpe)Ogoja (Ishibori,Mbube, Afrike). The majority of Cross River State languages are threatened not by some foreign languages but by surrounding Nigerian languages, spoken by larger groups. Cross River State languages can be classified as minority languages and the linguistics situation is fairly complicated. There are over 30 languages and a network of dialects. The state has chosen the 3 languages of Efik, Bekwarra and Ejagham as the State languages. These languages are therefore used in the media and for news translation and some socio-political programmes. They are also used for advertisements. 3.2 Nigerian Pidgin (NP) Due to the proliferation of Languages in Cross River State as a whole and the Ikom and Ogoja axis in particular, the NP has become very popular especially among the urban populations such as in Ikom and Ogoja. It is likely to continue to be as popular as it has been raised to the status of a social language and is now the language of choice in many informal gatherings. It is widely used in politics, at home, in schools, in trade and the mass media. It is officially used in news casting by the state media apparatus. In Cross River State, the NP is used as an essential communication medium. Most communities in Cross River State understand NP and it competes with the indigenous languages spoken in the community. Ugot (2008) observes for example that NP competes with Efik as an L2 in Biase Local Government Area of the State. The NP spoken is most welcome in a multilingual pluralistic society as the Cross River State and the NP is highly versatile.

IJALEL 2 (2):223-231, 2013 225 3.3 The English Language Although the indigenous languages are spoken in Cross River State along with NP, the English language is the official language of the state as it is in Nigeria. The language is used in administration, in business, in education (as a medium of instruction) in the media and in religion. It is therefore spoken widely in Cross River State alongside the local indigenous languages 3.4 The Igbo Language Trade and proximity has brought about language contact between the Igbo at the borders of Cross River State in general and Biase in particular. Areas such as villages in Erei have all been influenced by Igbo and many Erei speakers are bilingual in Igbo. The Igbo language is one of Nigeria’s three major languages. Ugot (2008) points out that this contact is mostly with Abriba and Ohafia ofAbia State. The Igbo language competes as an L2 with Efik and NP in these communities. 4. Social Profile of NP Historical sources of the origin of Pidgin and its evolution point towards Calabar, in the present Cross River State and the first administrative capital of Nigeria where first contact with Portuguese trading merchants brought about a Portuguese based pidgin known as “Negro Portuguese “in the18th century (Mensah 2011). The arrival of the British as trading partners andlateras missionaries and colonial administrators further increased the demand for communication in NP which had metamorphed into English based within the passage of history. Emenanjo (1985) recognizes NP as one of the four commonly spoken languages in Nigeria, competing with the country’s so called national languages of Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. Nigeria’s national Languages are based on population as these three languages boast the largest groups in Nigeria. Their languages have therefore been adopted as national languages and are widely used in the media, in education as a medium of instruction at mostly the primary level and all three languages are offered in some secondary schools curricula. Based on the criterion of population some languages are state languages while others are LGA languages in status .NP witnessed a series of transformations given the degree of contact with its superstrate(English) and substrate (Indigenous languages) sources. During the pre and post independence era in Nigeria, the attitude towards NP was overwhelmingly negative and degrading. It was regarded as “broken English”, “unruly jargon”, “vulgar” and “corrupt” form of expression. It was outlawed in schools and Government circles. The language was mainly associated with peasants, artisans and the low-income population. In spite of the antagonism towards NP, it continued to hold sway, growing in prominence and utility. It is no longer seen as the restricted mode of interlingual communication with limited lexicon but as a language with its own vitality and essence. Mufwene (2008) maintains that

…as the pidgins communicative functions increased (such as the cities that emerged from erstwhile trade factors) these contact varieties became structurally more complex and regularity of use gave them more stability. These additional characteristics changed them into what is known as expanded pidgins like Tok pidgin and Nigerian pidgin English’’.

Although the NP is predominantly a spoken language which is very versatile and dynamic various unsuccessful attempts have been made to commit it into writing by devising a standard orthography for it. The social conditions of the Nigerian environment have placed greater demands on its use and functions. Many Linguists (Essien 1993, Egbokhare 2003, Emenanjo 1983etc)have called for the adoption of NP as the national language in Nigeria while others (Marchese and Schnukal 1982) have called for its recognition as an indigenous Nigerian language as a result of its simplicity, popularity and neutrality. It serves as a more acceptable alternative to a lingua franca, given the constant rivalry among three major languages. It is politically, socially and ethnically detached. Its sound system word formation strategies and sentence structure are devoid of complexity that could be encountered in learning any Nigerian language. The reviewed role of NP in the electronic media such as in news translation, drama, public enlightenment, mass mobilization and education promotes its sustenance as a language that bridges ethnic gaps and forges a badge of identity, (Mensah 2011). It is used in the Nigerian music scene particularly with the emerging Nigeria pop culture (Ugot 2009).NP issued within the religious domain in church sermons, songs, testimonies and as a medium of prayers.(Ugot forthcoming). A number of literary genres such as drama, poetry and prose have been published in NP. NP has been identified as a language with its own unique linguistic structure and identity. It evolved within a known and specified time-frame and undergoes stages of growth to attain some level of linguistic refinement. Some of the known varieties of NP include Ikom, Calabar, Warri, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, and Ajegunle among others. The Warri variety is fast expanding towards creolization of their lexical items. This study is concerned with the variety of NP that is spoken in the Ikom-Ogoja axis of Cross River State. 5. PIDGINIZATION AND THE LEXICON IN THE IKOM-OGOJA AXIS The use of the NP in the Ikom-Ogoja axis of Cross River State is very strong because of the heterogeneous nature of the area. There has therefore been a steady consistent use of the NP for communication. Certain factors are responsible for the peculiar variety of NP lexicon to be found in this axis of Cross River State. The vocabulary is basically the same as the wider NP spoken in Nigeria but certain expressions of NP in Nigeria are peculiar to certain areas and may arise as

IJALEL 2 (2):223-231, 2013 226 an NP slang until they gain currency and are used widely. Some of them are first of all influenced by contact with the local indigenous language or the English language. This could be seen as in 5.1 Borrowing English constitutes the superstrate source of borrowing for NP while other languages such as Portuguese, French, Nigerian English, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba etc are among the substrate sources. See table 1 showing superstrate and substrate influence on NP. Some borrowing from the indigenous language is not lifted directly but is translated and used in NP. Eventually such directly translated words become current in usage in NP. This phenomenon is very strong in Nigerian English Ugot (2005). Examples of directly translated words infused in Ikom-Ogoja NP include the following

1. NP Source Gloss a) tie face Regular NP ‘Sulk’ b) now Regular NP ‘Immediately’ c) go come Regular NP ‘Bye bye’ d) die me body Ikom-Ogoja ‘Shocked/surprise me’ e) woman hand Ikom-Ogoja ‘Left hand’ f) man hand Ikom-Ogoja ‘Right hand’ g) get belle Regular NP ‘Be pregnant’ h) hand Regular NP ‘Tight fisted/stingy’ i) finger foot Ikom-Ogoja ‘Toes’

Table 1. Super-strate and substrate influence on NP Lexical Source NP NP Meaning

2a) English veks maintain remote control

Vex Be calm Witchcraft

b) Portuguese palava pikin sabi

Trouble Child Know

c) French boku rundevu pantalum

Plenty Meeting Bogus pair of trousers

d) Nigerian English go slow machine houseboy

Traffic Motorbike Male servant

e) Igbo okoro ogbanje biko

An Igbo man A re-incarnated birth Please

f) Hausa aboki kaya nama

Friend Luggage Meat

g) Yoruba tokunbo ajebota ashawo

A fairly used item Rich spoilt kid Prostitute

h) Warri slang tomashanko yawa kolo

Locally brewed gin Trouble Mentally deranged

i) Calabar slang chairman bros eboi

A boss Clipped form of brother A wayward child

j) Ikom-Ogoja slang palinki bogde nga

Tall and lean Prostitute Girlfriend

These forms may or may not readily make sense to speakers of other varieties of NP. Input from slang may come from one variety but gradually gain currency among others. In other words, NP slang are contributory and may be characteristically short-lived within certain sociolinguistic space In the Ikom-Ogoja axis borrowing is also done from the surrounding local languages. Such NP words include:

NP Gloss 3. a)bogde ‘Prostitute’

b)abrosh ‘Prostitute’

IJALEL 2 (2):223-231, 2013 227 c)nyongo ‘Witch, witchcraft’ d)obrosho ‘Prostitute’ e)kponyo ‘Vagina’ f)agogo ‘breast’ g)simkpok ‘Crippled’ h)mbui/Ishi ‘Stupid person’ i)agologo ‘Tall person’ (This is a corrupt form of the Igbo word ‘Ogonogo

‘A tall man’’) 5.2 Reduplication In the Ikom-Ogoja variety of NP, there is reduplication as found in other varieties or the more conventional varieties. The only category of reduplication found in NP is complete total reduplication (Mensah 2011). In table 2 some reduplicated equivalents of conventional NP words are listed

Table 2. Reduplicated variants in Ikom-Ogoja NP

Conventional NP Ikom-Ogoja Gloss 4a) Kpengele Meremere ‘Weakling’

b) Tinkini Biribiri ‘Tiny’

c) Kpatakpata Kpetekpete ‘Completely’

d) Talktalk Kwarikwari ‘Quarrelsome’

e) Katakata Grigri ‘Confusion’

The equivalent expressions in conventional NP may also be reduplicated as in (4c)(4d) and (4e). (4a) however is a product of derived duplication as mere-mere is from mere ‘weak’. (4b) and (4c) are frozen reduplication which is basically non-derived reduplication. In other words the reduplicating constituent does not have a meaning in isolation but a meaning is obtained from their combination. Reduplication can be used for emphasis, usually with pragmatic relevance as in 5. a) talktalk and

b) kwarikwari ‘quarrelsome’ c) pispis ‘bed wetter’ Reduplication functions here in (5a) and (5b) to denote duration or length of the action described by the verb, expressing modal action. It also introduces a personal, friendly or affectionate touch into a situation as in (5c) which is used to describe a child who constantly wets the bed. 5.3 Metaphorical Extension According to Robins (1984:345) metaphorical extension is a productive word formation process in which

…the correspondence of meaning of two or more words is used and understood in a related and recognized way.

The lexical items from the super-strate source denote entirely different meanings from those conveyed in NP in an analogical sense. Although NP vocabulary is less extensive than that of SE, it can convey similar types of information with fewer words often expressing abstractions by means of metaphorical extensions of basic vocabulary items like belly, eye and hand (Ugot and Ogundipe 2011).

6. a) Get belle ‘Be pregnant’

b) Sharp eye ‘Be observant’ c) Shine your eye ‘Be vigilant’ d) taihan ‘tight fisted’

Ugot & Ogundipe 2011 Others include: 7. a) Water don pass garri ‘A bad situation’

b) Tokunbo ‘A fairly used item’

Metaphors are used to extend the meaning of words and forms as single symbolic formation. In Water don pass garri Mensah 2011 explains that garri represents a staple meal in Nigeria and its preparation is such that it must be done properly and not be submerged by too much water. If this were to happen, the meal becomes too sticky and unpalatable. In NP, this expresses a hopeless and helpless situation. Tokunbo on the other hand is a Yoruba name given to a male or female child born in the diaspora. The concept is metonymically linked to any goods ranging from electronics to clothes, cars, shoes, bags etc. that are imported fairly used in to the country, popularly called second hand goods. In Ikom-Ogoja NP expressions such as those listed below are also metaphors and metaphorical extensions.

IJALEL 2 (2):223-231, 2013 228 8. a) drop engine ‘A woman who has given birth’

b) ogoja bye bye ‘Periwinkle’ c) chopbelleful ‘Get pregnant’ d) sekon nu ‘A fairly used item’ e) alaska ‘Ice cream’ f) dry die ‘HIV/AIDS’ g) money get dada ‘Money has been spent randomly on different things’

In (8a) a woman who has given birth is described as having “dropped engine”. This is a comparison to a car whose engine has been dropped, analogically implying that it is no longer brand new or ‘virgin’. Ogoja bye bye is the name given to periwinkle which is used to cook a particular type of vegetable soup. It came as a result of Ikom-Ogoja men who married Efik/Ibibio women and followed them to their homeland never to return. The women were said to ‘colonize’ them. The sound made in the sucking of the periwinkles is considered as the sound of the car horn taking the men to Calabar, from where they will never return. Chop belleful implies that the woman has ‘eaten’ and is now very full from whatever she has ‘eaten’. Sekon nu is an Ikom-Ogoja variant for tokunbo. Ice cream is called alaska because it is a foreign concept and is presumed to be from Alaska, ’the coldest place in the world’. Dry die is a reflection of what someone infected with HIV/AIDS becomes. In (8g) money get dada, dada is like dreadlocks, twisted hair that appears scattered in many directions all over the head. In regular NP, the expression is money don waka. 5.4 Euphemisms Euphemisms are linguistic devices that are used to handle words and expressions forbidden by social conventions. Taboo words which are considered as vulgar and desecrating constitutes a part of the linguistic repertoire of speakers of NP. Euphemisms accord the society a source of decency and improve communication, within the social intercourse. It promotes politeness, which constitutes a vital aspect of the norms of linguistic communication crucial to the formation and maintenance of social relationship (Ugorji 2009). The data below show some taboo forms and their corresponding euphemism in regularized NP and Ikom-Ogoja variations.

Table 3. Taboo forms

9 Taboo Form Regular NP Ikom-Ogoja Variant Gloss a) Fuck Hama Nakkanda ‘Sexual intercourse’

b) Ashawo/Donatus cash & carry Obrosho ‘Prostitute’

c) Toto honeycomb Toto pikin ‘Clitoris’

d) Die kpeme/Kpai Meng ‘Die/pass on’

e) Shit download Empti belle ‘Defecate’

f) Period Flow Woman siksik Fly flag/ Sell oil

‘menstrual period’

g) Prick brokus/koko Brakoss ‘Penis’

These taboo forms pertain to expressions which relate to sex, the body, excretion and death and the restriction placed on their use serves as the conventional expression of respect and etiquette that is significant to the social order. The creation of euphemism is simply one way the speech community protects its members from the embarrassment of taboo forms and expressions. 5.5 Coinages and Neologisms NP also uses coinages and neologisms or nonce formations. These new forms can be defined as new complex and coined words by a speaker/writer on the spur of the moment to cover some immediate need. It ceases to be a nonce formation when accepted by speakers as a term they have heard before (Bauer 1983).Such expressions include: NP Gloss 10. a) How far? How are you?/ What’s going on?/ How are things?

b) Na wa o! A versatile expression that denotes disdain, shock, annoyance, teasing, disbelief, depending very much on the situation at hand.

Ugot 2011

Coinages and nonce formation are also used to name previously non-existent objects or phenomenon that result from cultural contact or the situation at hand. Such words eventually gain currency. Ugot (2009) says such expressions include words that have recently been used in the genre of music for instance.

IJALEL 2 (2):223-231, 2013 229 11. a) kelekele ‘Secret, underhand’

b) shokoribobo ‘Someone who has money’ c) yahooze ‘Internet fraudster’ d) sengemenge ‘Smoothly’ e) yoriyori ‘An endearment, a softly beating heart’ f) nakakpako ‘Make love, have sex’

Most nonces and coinages emerge from the Warri axis of NP where the language has almost completed the creolisation process. These forms are started as slangs and gradually gain currency into the lexicon of NP through regular use. The Warri variety is usually the source of these socially invented meanings from where they spread to other varieties of NP. Marchese and Schnukal (1982; 218) remark that in Warri “NP has become the recognized lingua franca and the primary language of a great number of children, if not the majority”. This is why it is considered to be the most versatile and dynamic of all the varieties of NP in Nigeria. The following expressions and forms are of the Warri NP.

Warri NP Gloss 12. a)yawa ‘Trouble ,problem’

b)yawa don gas ‘There’s troubling brewing’ c) kasala ‘Trouble, problem’ d) gallant ‘Strong, of physical strength’ e) nakakpako ‘have sex’ f) karishoulda,Show body ‘proud’

g) maga ‘Someone being duped/used’ h) mugu ‘Complete idiot’ i) baff up ‘To dress up’ j) butty ‘From Ajebota ‘a rich kid’’ ) shoddy ‘babe, girlfriend’ l) tank ‘Drink’ m) para ‘Vexing’ n) Why you deypara? ‘Why are you vexing?’ o) shegbele ‘Behave’ p) chicala ‘Girlfriend’ q) pale ‘Father’ r) male ‘Mother’ s)form ‘Pose’

‘You dey form boss’, You are acting like a boss’. Other areas such as Lagos have produced some nonce forms.

From Lagos NP Gloss 13. a) no lele ‘No problem’

b) carry go ‘Go ahead’ c) chassis ‘Its okay, correct’ d) no dulling ‘Be sharp, lively’ e) shekpe ‘Alcohol’ f) blau ‘Marijuana’

From Calabar NP Gloss 14. a) kukere ‘Don’t worry’

(This is borrowed directly from the language) b) etighi ‘Name of a dance’ c)mfunaIbagha ‘No problem’ All three expressions are from the genre of music

From Ikom-Ogoja NP 15. a) josef (bro) ‘Jealous persons’

b) karibodi ‘Proud’ c) ishi/Mbui ‘Stupid person’ d)agologo/Alongo/Bambu ‘A very tall person’ e)repe ‘Father’ f)reme ‘Mother’

IJALEL 2 (2):223-231, 2013 230 Most NP words originating from Calabar and the Ikom-Ogoja axis are derived from the local languages. Language contact therefore has had a role to play in the local NP. Repe and Reme are borrowed from a source close to Cameroon. 5.6 Variants in Word Classes The NP of the Ikom-Ogoja axis is as rich in word classes as the regular NP. Words in a particular class in NP may represent another in a different class in the same position or environment. For instance, nouns can be made to function as verbs and generally lose their nominal properties and weaken aspects of their original meaning. In NP, just like in English, the class of words is determined by their syntactic and morphological distribution.

16 Regular NP Ikom-Ogoja NP Word

Class Gloss

a) oyinbo Moukala Noun ‘Whiteman’

b) amebo Korikosa/join maut Noun ‘Gossip’

c) shayo Mimbo/manya Noun ‘Alcohol’

d) winsh Nyongo Noun ‘Witch/witchcraft’

e) olokpa/AK /Black maria/Popo/ Black mamba

Akelebe/wetinyoukari/black people. Adv ‘Police’

f) Kill Peme Verb ‘Kill’

g) put maut Put leg Verb ‘Intercede’

h) Kiss Chop maut Verb ‘Kiss’

i) kpengele Kpanla/mere Adj ‘Weak’

j) lepa Ichanga/drai skin Adj ‘Skinny person’

k tranga/kakaraka Tranga, Karanka/grigba Adj ‘Strong’

l) kpatakpata/samsam Siam/fiam Adv ‘Completely’

m now now/ today today Kpamkpam Adv ‘Immediately’

n) nyafunyafu Nyafunyafu/brekete/fufule/plentity Adv ‘Plenty’

o) wayowayo/wuruwuru Konikoni/Ntumentume/Wayowayo Adv ‘Dubiously’

P) wellwell/bad bad Bad bad Adv ‘Very’

These usages are not strictly limited to the Ikom-Ogoja axis as the conventional usage is also applied. Sometimes an adverb such as ‘very’ may be coined differently, depending on the context. For example:

17. a) I dey hungry sotey belle gum ground ‘I am very hungry’ b) I veks for you plenti ‘I am very angry with you’ In Ikom-Ogoja NP, the pronoun wi ‘we, us, our’ is used repeatedly in a sentence Mekwikomot for wihaus go wi farmgo do wi work wey papa send wi ‘Let us leave the house and go to the farm to work as papa has sent us to Regularised NP Mekwikomot for haus go farm go do work wey papa send us

6. Conclusion This paper discusses the phenomenon of NP variations as found in the Ikom-Ogoja axis of Cross River State. It highlights the enormous communication demands placed upon NP as a developing language and the constant need for new vocabulary and expressions. This motivation is anchored in borrowing, reduplication, metaphorical extensions, coinages, neologisms and euphemisms etc. The language adopts new forms to suit the locality and these are eventually introduced into mainstream NP. NP is obviously dynamic from any of the variants spoken in Nigeria. It is changing and could fill the gap for the need of a medium of discourse in Nigeria and a language of state and national consciousness. References Bloomfield, L. (1933). Language New York :Holt.

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