The Effect of Different Online Planning Conditions on EFL Learners' Writing test Performance in...

Iranian EFL Journal 1

The Iranian EFL Journal August 2013 Volume 9 Issue 4

ISSN On-line: 1836-8751

ISSN Print: 1836-8743

The Iranian EFL Journal

August 2013

Volume 9

Issue 4

Chief Editors

Dr. Paul Robertson

Dr. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh



Publisher

Dr. Paul Robertson

Time Taylor International Ltd.

Senior Associate Editor


Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Mashhad, Iran

Dr. Roger Nunn The Petroleum Institute

Abu Dhabi UAE

Dr. John Adamson Shinshu Honan College

Japan

Professor Dr. Z.N. Patil

Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages

Hyderabad, India

Senior Statesmen

Professor Rod Ellis

University of Auckland New Zealand


Associate Editors

Professor Dr. Dan Douglas Iowa State University

USA

Dr. Reza Pishghadam Ferdowsi university of

Mashhad Mashhad, Iran

Dr. Behzad Ghonsooly Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Mashhad, Iran

Prof. Dr. Rana Nayar Panjab University

India

Dr. Abdolmahdy Riazi Shirza University

Iran

Dr. Mahmood Reza Atai Tarbiat Moallem University

Tehran, Iran

Editorial team

Dr. Pourya Baghaii Islamic Azad University, Mashhad

Branch, Iran

Dr. Zohre Eslami Rasekh Texas A & M University

USA

Dr. Azizullah Fatahi Shar-e Kord University

Iran

Dr. Mohammad Reza Hashemi Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Mashhad, Iran

Dr. Parvaneh Tavakoli University of Reading,

Humanities and Social Sciences Building Whiteknights England

Dr. Seyyed Ayatollah Razmju Shiraz University

Iran

Dr. Shamala Paramasivam University of Putra

Malaysia

Dr. Manizheh Yuhannaee University of Isfahan

Iran

Dr. Antony Fenton Soka University

Japan

Dr. Esma’eel Abdollahzadeh Iran University of Science and

Technology Iran

Dr. Ingrid Mosquera Gende Bettatur University College of

Tourism Tarragona, Spain


Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad, Iran

Dr. Christopher Alexander University of Nicosia

Cyprus

Dr. Robert Kirkpatrick Shinawatra International

University, Thailand

Dr. Abbas Zare’ee Kashan University

Iran

Dr. Masoud Sharififar Shahid Bahonar University

of Kerman Kerman, Iran



The Iranian EFL Journal Press A Division of Time Taylor Publishers QC Pavilion Cebu http://www.Iranian-efl-journal.com [email protected] This E book is in copyright. No reproduction may take place without the express written permission of the Iranian EFL Journal No unauthorized copying All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Iranian EFL Journal. Chief Editor: Dr. Paul Robertson Senior Associate Editor: Dr. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

ISSN On-line: 1836-8751 ISSN Print: 1836-8743



Table of Contents

Foreword: Dr. Paul Robertson and Dr. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh 7 - 8

1- An Investigation of Speaking-associated Problems from Students and Instructors Perspectives Alireza Hojati and Akbar Afghari 9 - 31 2- Consciousness-Raising on Preposition-Stranding Jabar Mirani and Khosro Soleimani 32 - 41 3- Writing Skill in ESP Classes and Genre-based Approach Nayereh Bedad Fard 42 - 51 4- The Effect of Gender on EFL Achievement Testing Pre-university Schools in Iran Gholamreza Akhoondali 52 - 70 5- Contrastive Analysis of English Language and Persian Language Prepositions Farzaneh Aminzadeh Arkhodi 71 - 82 6- A Student-Centred Literature Class: A Step towards a Less Stressful Literary Experience in Language Classes Parviz Birjandi and Sarvenaz Khatib 83 - 93 7- A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis of Thematic Structure of Dissertation Abstracts Saleh Arizavi, Hossein Shokouhi and Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi 94 - 112 8- English Globalization Issues, Impacts and Challenges as to Culture and Language in Islamic contexts especially Iran Abbas Paziresh, Fereshteh Shojaie and Rana Shokrollahi 113 – 126

9- Epistemic Modality in Academic Discourse: A Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Disciplinary Study Motahareh Sameri and Manoochehr Tavangar 127 - 147 10- On the Relationship among Language Learning Attitude, Academic Motivation and language Proficiency of Iranian EFL learners Jahanbakhsh Langroudi and Nasibeh Amiri 148 - 166 11- The Effect of Different Text Types on Cognitive and Metacognitive Listening comprehension Strategy Use among Iranian EFL Learners Anis Behzadi 167 - 183 12- Text Linguistics and Systemic Functional Grammar: Platforms of Reform in Literacy Maryam Eftekhari 184 - 193 13- The Effects of Brain Compatible Vocabulary Learning Strategy Instruction on EFL Students Seyed Mahdi Araghi and Alireza Navid Moghaddam 194 - 206



14- Sacrificed Elements of TEFL in Secondary Education of Iran Fatemeh Poorebrahim and Mohammad Reza Talebinejad 207 - 219 15- The Use of Annotations and Pictures in Storytelling Classes and Their Impacts on Critical Thinking and Writing Abilities of Young Iranian EFL Learners Mojgan Rashtchi and Samaneh Gorji 220 - 240 16- A Comparative Genre Analysis of English and Persian Business Letters Moharram Sharifi and Ali Sharifi 241 - 258 17- A Study of Low and High Proficiency EFL Learners’ Preferences for Teacher Talk Mojtaba Soleimani Karizmeh and Mahdi Taherkhani 259 - 279 18- Process-Product Approach to Writing: the Effect of Sampling on EFL Learners' Writing Performance, Measures of Complexity and Fluency Parastou Gholami Pasand 280 - 286 19- The Role of Cultural Nativization in Comprehension of Short Stories in Intermediate EFL Learners Farzaneh Emadian Naeini and Razie Alishvandi 287 - 298 20- The Relationship between Verbal Creativity and Speaking Skill of IELTS Candidates Samira Baghaei and Mohammad S. Bagheri 299 - 310 21- The Effect of Task Types (Static and Dynamic Contexts) on Listening Comprehension in an Information Processing Perspective among Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners. Anis Behzadi and Gholam Reza Haji Pour Nezhad 311 - 324 22-The Effect of Different Online Planning Conditions on EFL Learners' Writing test Performance in Terms of Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency: The Concept Mapping Strategy in Focus Najmeh Farshi, Mansoor Tavakoli and Saeed Ketabi 325 - 345 23- Translation of Idiomatic Expressions in Subtitling Sima Ferdowsi 346 - 365 24- A Survey of Definite Article Usage Errors among Faculty Members of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Marjan Gholami and Maryam Gholami 366 - 382 25- The Relationship among EFL Learner’s Critical Thinking, Tolerance of Ambiguity and Reading Comprehension Nasim Shangarffam and Hedyeh Hosseinnejad 383 - 397 26- Translation of English Epistemic Modals in Orwell’s Animal Farm Habibollah Mashhady and Masoumeh Yazdani Moghadam 398 – 411



Foreword

Welcome to volume nine and the fourth edition of 2013. Statistically, readers of our journal are coming from

almost eighty countries; and The Iranian EFL Journal has had strong growth over the last few years with a

monthly readership now exceeding 2500 readers. For a journal examining the topics of EFL/ESL, Literature and

Translation studies, the growth and readership has been pleasing. The bi-monthly Iranian EFL Journal has

attracted many readers not only from the Middle East but also from different parts of the world and in this way;

the number of our reviewers has also increased. We have increased the number of our reviewers and now, more

than ninety five reviewers are cooperating with the journal and evaluate the articles. In this edition, we have

presented twenty six articles, discussing different issues of EFL/ESL, literature and translation studies. In the

first article, Alireza Hojati and Akbar Afghari present an investigation of speaking-associated problems

from students and instructors perspectives. In the second article of the issue, Jabar Mirani and Khosro

Soleimani have studied consciousness-raising on preposition-stranding. In the third article of the issue,

Nayereh Bedad Fard presents writing skill in ESP classes and genre-based approach. In the next article, the

effect of gender on EFL achievement testing pre-university schools in Iran is presented by Gholamreza

Akhoondali. In the fifth article of the issue, Farzaneh Aminzadeh Arkhodi presents contrastive analysis of

English language and Persian language prepositions. The next article which is about a student-centred

literature class: a step towards a less stressful literary experience in language classes is done by Parviz

Birjandi and Sarvenaz Khatib. In the seventh article of the issue, Saleh Arizavi, Hossein Shokouhi and

Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi have presented a cross-disciplinary analysis of thematic structure of dissertation

abstracts. In the eight article of the issue English globalization issues, impacts and challenges as to culture

and language in Islamic contexts especially Iran is done by Abbas Paziresh, Fereshteh Shojaie and Rana

Shokrollahi. In the next article, epistemic modality in academic discourse: a cross-linguistic and cross-

disciplinary study is studied by Motahareh Sameri and Manoochehr Tavangar. In the tenth article of the

issue, Jahanbakhsh Langroudi and Nasibeh Amiri have studied on the relationship among language learning

attitude, academic motivation and language proficiency of Iranian EFL learners. In the eleventh article of the

issue the effect of different text types on cognitive and metacognitive listening comprehension strategy use

among Iranian EFL learners is studied by Anis Behzadi. In the twelfth article of the issue, text linguistics and

systemic functional grammar: platforms of reform in literacy is presented by Maryam Eftekhari. In the next

article, Seyed Mahdi Araghi and Alireza Navid Moghaddam have presented the effects of brain compatible



vocabulary learning strategy instruction on EFL students. In the fourteenth article of the issue, sacrificed

elements of TEFL in secondary education of Iran is studied by Fatemeh Poorebrahim and Mohammad

Reza Talebinejad. In the fifteenth article of the issue, Mojgan Rashtchi and Samaneh Gorji present the use

of annotations and pictures in storytelling classes and their impacts on critical thinking and writing

abilities of young Iranian EFL learners. In the next article, a comparative genre analysis of English and

Persian business letters is studied by Moharram Sharifi and Ali Sharifi. In the seventeenth article of the

issue, Mojtaba Soleimani Karizmeh and Mahdi Taherkhani have presented a study of low and high

proficiency EFL learners’ preferences for teacher talk. The next article which is about process-product

approach to writing: the effect of sampling on EFL learners' writing performance, measures of

complexity and fluency is presented by Parastou Gholami Pasand. In the next article of the issue Farzaneh

Emadian Naeini and Razie Alishvandi have presented an article entitled the role of cultural nativization in

comprehension of short stories in intermediate EFL learners. In the twentieth article of the issue, the

relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill of IELTS candidates is presented by Samira

Baghaei and Mohammad S. Bagheri. In the next article, the effect of task types (static and dynamic

contexts) on listening comprehension in an information processing perspective among Iranian

intermediate EFL Learners is done by Anis Behzadi and Gholam Reza Haji Pour Nezhad. In the next

article of the issue Najmeh Farshi, Mansoor Tavakoli and Saeed Ketabi have studied the effect of

different online planning conditions on EFL learners' writing test performance in terms of complexity,

accuracy and fluency: the concept mapping strategy in focus. In the twenty third article of the issue,

translation of idiomatic expressions in subtitling is presented by Sima Ferdowsi. In the next article,

Marjan Gholami and Maryam Gholami have presented an article entitled a survey of definite article usage

errors among faculty members of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. In the next article of the issue,

the relationship among EFL learner’s critical thinking, tolerance of ambiguity and reading

comprehension is presened by Nasim Shangarffam and Hedyeh Hosseinnejad. In the last article of the

issue, translation of English epistemic modals in Orwell’s Animal Farm is studied by Habibollah

Mashhady and Masoumeh Yazdani Moghadam.

We hope you enjoy this edition and look forward to your readership.



Title

An Investigation of Speaking-Associated Problems from Students and Instructors Perspectives

Authors

Alireza Hojati (M.A)

Amin Higher Education Institution, Fouladshahr, Iran.

Akbar Afghari (Ph.D) Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan, Iran.

Biodata

Alireza Hojati M.A in TEFL and is currently a lecturer at Amin Higher Education Institution, Fouladshahr, Iran. He has taught reading comprehension, ESP, teaching methodology and grammar courses at university level. His research areas include error analysis, euphemisms and critical discourse analysis. Akbar Afghari Ph. D in applied linguistics, and is currently an associate professor at Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan, Iran. He has taught various courses at under-graduate and post-graduate levels. His areas of research interest include language testing, pragmatics, discourse analysis and sociolinguistics.

Abstract The skill of speaking in English as a non-native language is arguably an important

and challenging one which is affected by a substantial number of linguistic and

non-linguistic factors. This study sought to elicit and compare perspectives of a

group of Iranian EFL students from three Iranian universities and their professors

teaching them an advanced lab course on some linguistic problems facing students

in lab classes. To this end, a number of data-collection tools including open-ended

and close-ended questionnaires were employed by the researcher. Having

collected the data, the researcher reported them in percentage terms, tabulated and

then analyzed them based on statistical figures. The comparison of opinions of the


two groups revealed notable points, including the convergence of professor and

student opinions on one linguistic area, i.e. grammar, and the divergence of

opinions of the two groups on other linguistic areas. To further investigate the

linguistic area on which opinions were convergent and collect some objective data

on it, a standardized test of grammar and IELTS interviews were administered to

one-third of the students. The exam results were analyzed with the help of two

TEFL professors and a statistician. The analysis revealed that, while some scores

were notably high and some notably low, most scores were close to the average

score. The speaking interviews were conducted using topics and questions of

previously-administered IELTS tests and their contents were rated by two

professors. The agreement between the two raters was calculated using Kendall's

Coefficient of Concordance, which yielded the figure 0.40. The interview results

illustrated that most students were either limited or modest in their English

speaking skills.

Keywords: EFL Speaking Problems, Learner/Instructor Perspectives

I. Introduction

1.1. Background

Speaking is arguably one of the elemental ways of communication between human

beings and plays a crucial role in maintaining social bonds between people inhabiting

the Earth. Levelt (1993) has summed up the importance of speaking as an often taken-

for-granted entity as follows; "Talking is one of our dearest occupations. We spend hours

a day conversing, telling stories, teaching, quarreling … and, of course, speaking to

ourselves. Speaking is, moreover, one of our most complex cognitive, linguistic and motor

skills" (1993, p. xiii).

The position of the English language in the modern era in a unique one. One

recurring theme around which many debates on the status of English revolve is the

global spread of English. This theme is so outstanding that a good deal has been

written about it. For instance, Seidlhofer (2003), Ferguson(2006), Cummins and Davison

(2007), Goss(2009) and McKenzie(2010) have dedicated substantial portions of their

recently-published books to the transformation of English into a global language.

There are different linguistic and non-linguistic factors which influence learners’

speaking


in English as a non-native language. Each factor can constitute a facilitating factor or

a problem for learners’ speaking in English. Different learners from different

geographical entities and linguistic backgrounds face different problems in their efforts

aimed at achieving a measure of proficiency in the skill of speaking in English.

Farsi-speaking EFL learners and students in the Iranian context face their own

unique set of linguistic and non-linguistic problems while striving to come to grips

with English language skills, including the skill of speaking. In the area of grammar,

Yarmohammadi (2005) , in an apparent critique of the status of English language

education in Iran, has suggested that Iranian high school graduates entering Iranian

universities have numerous problems in different areas of grammar including gerunds,

infinitives, conjunctions, subordinations, relatives, prepositions and affixes (2005, p.13).

Also, Golshan and Karbalaei (2009) have reported the existence of a large number of

both major and minor grammatical errors falling into the categories of prepositions,

articles, tenses, verb groups, word order, tense sequences, incorrect use of plural

morphemes, parts of speech, Persian constructions and relative clauses in the

compositions produced by subjects of their study, all of whom undergraduate students

of English in the Islamic Azad University.

2.1. Purposes of the Study

The primary purpose of the study was the elicitation of the views of both EFL

students and their university instructors in relation to speaking-related problems in order

to have two separate sets of accounts which can then be juxtaposed and compared with

each other. Another purpose of the study was determining the extent to which the

most frequently- cited speaking-associated problem reported by student participants of

the study is serious and in need of academic attention.

3.1. Research Questions

1. What is/are the most frequently-reported linguistic problem/s facing Iranian EFL

student participants of the study from their own perspective?

2. What is/are the most prevalent and frequently-reported linguistic problem/s facing

the student participants of the study from the perspective of their Lab(4) professors?,

3. How deep is one of the most frequently-cited linguistic problems facing participants

of the study?,

4. What level of English speaking proficiency do the participants of the study have?,

5. How do the views of students and professor participants in the study compare?


2. Methodology

1.2. Participants

1.2.1.Student Participants

A total of 120 Iranian students specializing in TEFL in three universities of Isfahan

Province were randomly selected and included in the initial phase of data collection. The

vast majority of the participants, 102 out of 120, were females. All the participants were

sophomores taking lab courses entitled ‘Language Laboratory(4), rendered into Persian

as ‘(۴) گفت و شنود’ , in English departments of their affiliated universities during the

second semester of 1389-90 academic year. The three universities from which subjects

were selected were Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan University and the Islamic Azad

University of Najafabad. As relates to the institutional affiliations of participants, 40

students were selected from each of the above-mentioned universities.

With regard to the level of English language proficiency of participants, one

criterion, the length of exposure to English at the tertiary level, viz. roughly three

semesters and two months, was taken into account. 90 students, who had completed

and delivered their copies of the open-ended questionnaire to the researcher, were

included in the second phase of data-collection. 30 students, 27 females and 3 males,

from among the 90 participants were randomly selected and included in the third phase

of data elicitation. 8 of the randomly-selected students were from Isfahan University, 13

of them were from Sheikhbahaee University and the remaining 9 students were from

the Islamic Azad University of Najafabad.

1.2.2. Professor Participants

Five EFL professors from the above-mentioned universities participated in the study.

Two of them were affiliated with the Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, one

of them with Sheikhbahaee University and another two with Isfahan University. All the

five professors in question were females and were engaged in the teaching of the

course ‘Language Lab(4)’ to student participants of the study during the second

semester of 1389-90 academic year.

2.2. Materials

2.2.1. Questionnaires

Three types of questionnaires, one open-ended and two close-ended, were used in the

study. The following sub-section gives detailed data on the questionnaires constructed

and used in the research.


2.2.1.1. Open-ended Questionnaire

The open-ended questionnaire was designed and used by the researcher as a tentative

instrument for eliciting data from student participants. Prior to his embarking on the task

of preparing the questionnaire, the researcher had hoped he would find a validated and

standardized open-ended questionnaire for his initial data-collection. But, having failed

to find a questionnaire meeting the necessary standardization and validation criteria, he

started the task of preparing the questionnaire himself.

2.2.1.2. Close-ended Questionnaires

Data derived from the open-ended questionnaire were subjected to statistical analysis and

the frequencies of responses to questionnaire items were reported in percentage terms.

After analyzing the percentages, the researcher noted that six questionnaire items had

frequencies of less than 30%. Having consulted a statistician, he decided to remove

items with frequencies of less than 30% from the questionnaire. After eliminating low-

frequency items, the format of the open-ended questionnaire was changed in order to

develop close-ended questionnaire.

2.2.3. Grammar Sub-test of Oxford Placement Test

In order to objectively examine and document some of the problems reported by the

student participants, the researcher used the trusted and recognized grammar sub-test of

Oxford Placement Test(OPT) as another tool with which to collect relevant data.

2.2.4. IELTS Interview Topics

Another set of data-elicitation tools used in the research was a group of 20 IELTS

interview topics and related questions. Given the unreliability of some commercially

developed test materials, the researcher used speaking topics and questions of some

previously-administered IELTS examinations published by Cambridge University Press.

2.3. Procedures

2.3.1. The Administration of Questionnaires

2.3.1.1. Administration of Open-ended Questionnaire

Having developed the open-ended questionnaire, 120 copies of it were produced and

then distributed to 120 students with the institutional affiliations cited in the

‘Participants’ sub-section of this chapter. In two out of the three universities from

whose students data was collected, viz. Isfahan University and the Islamic Azad

University of Najafabad, the questionnaire copies were given to students between the

10th and 15th of Esfand, 1389 (1th and 6th of March, 2011). In Sheikhbahaee University,


however, the distribution of open-ended questionnaire was delayed till the 15th of

Farvardin, 1390 (4th of April, 2011).

All the students receiving questionnaire copies were asked by their lab(4)

professors to complete them and then deliver them in a week’s time. However, most

of them, particularly those of Sheikhbahaee University, failed to deliver questionnaire

copies on time and the researcher had to wait for two more weeks to receive the

questionnaire copies from them.

2.3.1.2. Administration of Student Version of Close-ended Questionnaire

The student version of the close-ended questionnaire, which had 21 items, was

distributed to 90 students between the 5th and 11th of Ordibehesht, 1390 (25thApril and

1th May, 2011). Given that, unlike the open-ended questionnaire, answering items of the

close-ended questionnaire did not take a lot of time, the researcher asked the

respondents to complete their questionnaire copies within 30 minutes.

2.3.1.3. Administration of Professor Version of Close-ended Questionnaire

Copies of the close-ended questionnaire developed for eliciting data from professors

were submitted to the five professors between the 7th and 11th of Ordibehesht,

1390(27th April and 1th May, 2011) during their office hours. The researcher asked the

professors to deliver questionnaire copies to him at the earliest possible time. Three of

the professors delivered the completed questionnaire copies to him less than three

hours after receiving them. Two of them, however, cited their being busy dealing with

affairs relating to mid-term examinations at that time and delivered the completed

questionnaire copies to the researcher roughly a week after receiving them.

2.3.2. Administration of Grammar Sub-test of OPT

In an attempt to objectively examine whether grammar was a common and notable

source of speaking-related problems facing student respondents, the researcher

administered the grammar sub-test of grammar to his sample of 30 students. The

examination was conducted on three separate occasions as it was not possible for the

researcher to bring all the 30 students with three different institutional affiliations

together in one place for the exam. The test was administered in the presence of the

researcher in English Departments of Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan University and

the Islamic Azad University of Najafabad on the 20th, 24th and 27th of Ordibehesht,

1390(10th, 14th and 17th May, 2011) respectively.

2.3.3. The Use of IELTS Interview Topics


In order to have objective data on the overall speaking ability of the 30 students

included in the third phase of data collection, the researcher conducted interviews with

them using twenty IELTS speaking topics included in ‘Cambridge IELTS 3-7’ books.

Given the practical difficulties of the task of conducting a 14-minute interview with

each of the 30 sample members, the researcher conducted the interviews during a two-

week period commencing on the 31th of Ordibehesht (21th of May).

3. Results

Table(1). Cross-tabulation of students’ and professors’ responses to items of close-ended questionnaires Insufficiency of students’

vocabulary knowledge for

speaking

Item(1) Total

1 2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

2

40.0%

3

60.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

3

3.3%

17

18.9%

59

65.6%

11

12.2%

90

100.0%

Total Count

3

3.2%

17

17.9%

61

64.2%

14

14.7%

95

100.0%

Students’ problems relating to

speaking about some vogue topics

Item(2) Total

2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

1

20.0%

4

80.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

9

10.0%

25

27.8%

56

62.2%

90

100.0%

Total Count

9

9.5%

26

27.4%

60

63.2%

95

100.0%

The failure of students to retrieve

needed vocabulary items

Item(3) Total

1 2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

1

20.0%

1

20.0%

3

60.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

32

35.6%

21

23.3%

25

27.8%

12

13.3%

90

100.0%

Total

Count

32

33.7%

22

23.2%

26

27.4%

15

15.8%

95

100.0%

Students’ confusing of words with

spelling, semantic and

phonological similarities

Item(4) Total

1 2 3 4


G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

2

40.0%

3

60.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

25

27.8%

23

25.6%

31

34.4%

11

12.2%

90

100.0%

Total Count

25

26.3%

23

24.2%

33

34.7%

14

14.7%

95

100.0%

Problems with the past and past-

participle forms of some irregular

verbs

Item(5) Total

1 2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

0

.0%

5

100.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

6

7.3%

15

18.3%

42

51.2%

19

23.2%

82

100.0%

Total Count

6

6.9%

15

17.2%

42

48.3%

24

27.6%

87

100.0%

Problems with complex

grammatical structures including

relative clauses and phrases

Item(6) Total

2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

5

100.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

8

8.9%

54

60.0%

28

31.1%

90

100.0%

Total Count

8

8.4%

54

56.8%

33

34.7%

95

100.0%

Problems associated with English

tenses, specially progressive,

continuous and perfect ones

Item(7) Total

3

4

G 1.00 Count

1

20.0%

4

80.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

22

24.4%

68

45.6%

90

100.0%

Total Count

23

24.2%

72

75.8%

95

100.0%

Problems with English articles

and prepositions of high

frequency

Item(8) Total

2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

5

100.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

10

11.1%

15

16.7%

65

72.2%

90

100.0%


Total Count

10

10.5%

15

15.8%

70

73.7%

95

100.0%

Problems with type(3)

conditionals

Item(9) Total

2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

5

100.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

6

6.7%

15

16.7%

69

76.7%

90

100.0%

Total Count

6

6.3%

15

15.8%

74

77.9%

95

100.0%

Problems with countable and

uncountable nouns

Item(10) Total

2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

1

20.0%

1

20.0%

3

60.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

16

17.8%

28

31.1%

46

51.1%

90

100.0%

Total Count

17

17.9%

29

30.5%

49

51.6%

95

100.0%

Problems with English causative

constructions

Item(11) Total

3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

5

100.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

26

28.9%

64

71.1%

90

100.0%

Total Count

26

27.4%

69

72.6%

95

100.0%

Problems with indirect questions Item(12) Total

3 4

G 1.00 Count

1

20.0%

4

80.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

19

21.1%

71

78.9%

90

100.0%

Total Count

20

21.1%

75

78.9%

95

100.0%

Problems with the assignment of

primary word stress

Item(13) Total

1 2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

1

20.0%

1

20.0%

3

60.0%

5

100.0%


2.00 Count

4

4.4%

10

11.1%

23

25.6%

53

58.9%

90

100.0%

Total Count

4

4.2%

11

11.6%

24

25.3%

56

58.9%

95

100.0%

Problems with the pronunciation

of words whose spelling and

pronunciations vary significantly

Item(14) Total

2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

5

100.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

18

20.0%

29

32.2%

43

47.8%

90

100.0%

Total Count

18

18.9%

29

30.5%

48

50.5%

95

100.0%

Problems with the pronunciation

of consonant clusters

Item(15) Total

1 2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

1

20.0%

1

20.0%

3

60.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

6

6.7%

40

44.4%

16

17.8%

28

31.1%

90

100.0%

Total Count

6

6.3%

41

43.2%

17

17.9%

31

32.6%

95

100.0%

Problems with the observing of

intonation patterns of English

sentences

Item(16) Total

2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

1

20.0%

4

80.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

32

35.6%

21

23.3%

37

41.1%

90

100.0%

Total Count

32

33.7%

22

23.2%

41

43.2%

95

100.0%

The negative influence of Farsi

on students’ pronunciation of

English words and sentences

Item(17) Total

1 2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

1

20.0%

4

80.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

58

64.4%

14

15.6%

11

12.2%

7

7.8%

90

100.0%

Total Count

58

61.1%

14

14.7%

12

12.6%

11

11.6%

95

100.0%

Halting the flow of speaking Item(18) Total


when facing a linguistic problem 2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

5

100.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

13

14.4%

22

24.4%

55

61.1%

90

100.0%

Total Count

13

13.7%

22

23.2%

60

63.2%

95

100.0%

Making short pauses which last

2-3 seconds when speaking

Item(19) Total

1 2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

0

.0%

0

.0%

0

.0%

5

100.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

10

11.1%

38

42.2%

31

34.4%

11

12.2%

90

100.0%

Total Count

10

10.5%

38

40.0%

31

32.6%

16

16.8%

65

100.0%

Making long pauses which last

more than 3 seconds when

speaking

Item(20) Total

2 3 4

G 1.00 Count

2

40.0%

2

40.0%

1

20.0%

5

100.0%

2.00 Count

6

6.7%

25

27.8%

59

65.6%

90

100.0%

Total Count

8

8.4%

27

28.4%

60

63.2%

95

100.0%

Table(2). Scores of 30-student sample on grammar sub-test of OPT(0-100) and their frequencies

Scores Frequencies

43 1

44 1

45 1

46 2

47 1

48 1

49 2

50 1

51 2

52 2

53 1

54 2

55 2


56 1

58 1

59 3

60 2

62 1

64 1

65 1

68 1

Table(3). Mean, standard deviation and range of scores on the grammar sub-test of OPT

Mean Standard Deviation Range

53.80 6.58 25

Table(4). Scores given to 30-student sample on IELTS interviews by the first rater and their

frequencies Scores Frequencies

4 7

4.5 8

5 7

5.5 6

6 2

Table(5). Mean, standard deviation and range of scores given to students by the first rater


4.8 0.62 2

Table(6). Scores given to 30-student sample on IELTS interviews by the second rater and their frequencies

Score Frequency

4 4

4.5 6

5 11

5.5 5

6 3

6.5 1

Table(7). Mean, standard deviation and range of scores given to students by the second rater


5 0.64 2.5


Graph(1). Scores of the 30-student sample on grammar sub-test of OPT(0-100)

Scores70.00 65.0060.0055.0050.0045.0040.00

5

4

3Frequencies

1

0


Graph(2). Scores of the 30-student sample on IELTS speaking interview by the first grader

Scores6.50 6.005.505.004.504.003.50

Frequencies

10

8

6

4

2

0


Graph(3). Scores given to 30-student sample on IELTS interview by the second rater

4. Discussion and Conclusions

This chapter focuses on answering the above-presented questions by invoking

statistical data presented in the preceding chapter. Regarding the first research question,

as Table (1) indicates, student participants of the study reported having problems with

all the four categories of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and fluency. However,

notable differences can be observed in the percentages of responses which correspond

to different problems falling into different categories.

As Table (1) indicates, the most frequently-reported problems in the area of

vocabulary were those associated with the insufficiency of lexical knowledge for having

flexible oral communication, and the inadequacy of lexical knowledge for speaking

about a number of vogue topics such as environmental issues. As relates to the first

problem, 65.6% of the respondents indicated they partly agreed they had the problem

and 12.2% strongly agreed they faced the problem. Regarding the second problem,

62.2% of respondents strongly agreed it was a problem facing them and 27.8% of the

them partly agreed it constituted a vocabulary-related problem facing them.

Scores7.00 6.005.004.003.00

Frequencies

12

10

8

6

4

2

0


Table (1) also shows that the majority of student respondents reported having

problems with all the grammatical points included in the close-ended questionnaire.

51.2% of respondents partly agreed that they had problems with the past and past

participle forms of some irregular verbs, and 23.2% of them strongly agreed they had

such problems. As relates to the area of complex grammatical structures, 60% of

respondents partly agreed they had problems with such structures and 31.1% of them

strongly agreed complex structures were problematical for them. With regard to

countable and uncountable nouns, 51.1% of respondents strongly agreed they had

problems with countability and 31.1% of them partly agreed they had problems with

the countability of nouns.

As relates to other grammar-related points included in the questionnaire, the

frequencies of responses provided by student respondents were notably higher than

those of previously-cited grammar points. 75.6% of respondents strongly agreed that

they had problems with English tenses and 24.4% of them indicated they partly

agreed they had such problems. Regarding the area of prepositions and articles, more

than two-thirds (72.2%) of respondents strongly indicated they had problems with

English articles and prepositions and 16.7% of them partly agreed they had problems

with them. Further, 76.7% of student respondents strongly agreed they had problems

with type(2) and type (3) conditional sentences and 16.7% of them indicated their

partial agreement with having problems with the foregoing English conditionals. In

relation to English causative structures, 71.1% of student respondents strongly agreed

that they found them problematic and 28.9% of them partly agreed they faced

problems with such structures. With respect to the last grammar point included in the

close-ended questionnaire, as Table(1) shows, 78.9% of respondents strongly agreed that

they faced problems with indirect questions and 21.1% of them partly agreed they

found them problematical.

In relation to pronunciation-associated items of the questionnaire, Table (1) shows

that the most frequently-reported problem falling into this category was the assignment

of primary stress to English words. As the table indicates, 58.9% of the student

respondents strongly agreed they had difficulty with the assignment of primary stress

and 25.6% of them partly agreed they had problems corresponding to the foregoing

point.

Another frequently-reported problem in this category was the pronunciation of

words with challenging orthographies which are sharply different from their


pronunciation. Roughly half of the respondents (47.8%) indicated they strongly agreed

having problems with such words and roughly a third of respondents (32.2%)

indicated they partly agreed they had problems with them. Regarding the last

category of questionnaire items, viz. fluency, figures presented in Table (1) illustrate that

the most frequently-reported problems were those relating to halting one’s flow of

speech when coming across a linguistic problem and making long pauses of more than

three seconds while speaking. Figures in Table (1) indicate that roughly two-thirds

(61.1%) and roughly a quarter (24.4%) of respondents indicated their strong and partial

agreement with the point respectively. In relation to making long pauses, 65.6% and

27.8% of respondents indicated their strong and partial agreement with the point

respectively.

As Table (1) and the enumeration of high-frequency responses presented above

reveal to us, all grammar-related items of the close-ended questionnaire were reported

by the majority of student respondents as problematic points. This illustrated to the

researcher the need to devote particular attention to his linguistic area by examining

the responses of students’ lab professors and administering a credible test of English

grammar to students. In regard to the second research question, it has to be noted

that the responses provided by professor respondents were more or less convergent on

most questionnaire items.

The most frequently-reported vocabulary-related problem of students reported by

professor respondents was the insufficiency of students’ lexical knowledge as relates to

a number of vogue topics commonly talked about in lab classes. Table (1) shows that

80% of professor respondents strongly agreed with the point and 20% of them partly

agreed with it.

In the area of grammar, the convergence of professors’ opinions is striking. As

Table(1) illustrates, all the professors unanimously agreed that their students had

problems with the past and past participle forms of some irregular verbs, complex

structures including clauses and phrases, tenses, prepositions and articles, type(2) and

type(3) conditionals and causative structures. Moreover, broad agreement can be

observed in professors’ responses to items relating to countability and indirect

questions. The responses elicited indicate that 80% of professors strongly agreed the

foregoing points were problematic for their students and the rest of them partly agreed

they were troublesome for their students.


In the area of pronunciation, opinions were to some extent divergent on

mostitems. However, complete agreement can be observed between professors’ opinions

as relates to the pronunciation of words whose pronunciation and orthographies vary

considerably. Further, broad agreement can be observed in professors’ opinions on

students’ problems with English intonation patterns and the role of their mother

tongue in giving rise to pronunciation-related problems. 80% of professor respondents

indicated their strong agreement with the above-cited points and 20% of them

indicated that they agreed with them up to a point. As to the area of fluency,

professor respondents had complete agreement on two problems facing their students,

namely halting one’s oral communication to ask for help from professors and

classmates, and making short pauses lasting less than three seconds.

As relates to other fluency-related points, however, as table(1) shows, professor’s

opinions were sharply divergent. With respect to the third research question, as

Graph(1) and Tables(2) and(3)illustrate, the mean of students’ scores on the test of

grammar was 53.8 and the standard deviation of scores was 6.5. What these two

figures tell us is the average performance of students on the grammar test was neither

too good nor too bad as the mean,53.8 , indicates that, on average, more than half of

the questions were answered correctly by most students. They also tell us that the

mathematical distance between the mean and most scores was substantial with some

scores notably lower than the mean and some notably higher than it. Further, as

Graph(1) indicates, half of the scores were below the mean and half of them were

above it. Therefore, it can be said that the distribution of scores around the mean was

even. One noticeable point touched on earlier is the mathematical distance between the

scores achieved by students. The distance between the lowest score,43, and the highest

one, 68, which is 25, shows that the distance between some scores is appreciable and

this point deserves more academic attention. The following paragraph focuses on the

examination of the foregoing point.

As Table (2) shows, the lowest scores achieved on the test of grammar were 43,

44 and 45 and the highest scores were 64, 65 and 68. The numerical distance between

these figures 25, the range, 21 and 19 respectively, can highlight the existence of a

substantial distance between the lowest and highest scores. What this point and the

ones presented above serve to draw attention to is that in order to have a truly

interpretative picture of the performance of students on the grammar test, we need to


pay attention not only to the mean of their scores, but also to their standard deviation,

range and the distance between them.

The final point regarding the third research question is that, although most scores

achieved by students on the test of grammar were not very high and only four out

the total of thirty scores were above sixty out of one hundred, we need to take into

account the level of English language proficiency of students before being tempted to

leap to the conclusion that, broadly speaking, students’ level of grammar knowledge

was not very high. The fact of the matter is that, as far as the researcher is aware,

more than three quarters of students were doing an advanced-level grammar course

during the second semester of the 1389-90 academic year, when the grammar test was

administered to them, and, therefore, they were not expected to score very high on the

test. Their lab professors also predicted that students’ scores on the grammar test

would not be very high and indicated to the researcher that they would regard scores

higher than 55 as satisfactory.

However, scores lower than 50, namely 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49, illustrate that

roughly one-third of students were weak in the area of grammar. Bearing in mind that

all students had done two grammar courses prior to taking the grammar test of OPT,

it can be cautiously stated that grammar-related problems facing one third of students

were serious and in need of academic attention. In relation to the fourth research

question, as stated earlier, two raters graded the speaking test and, therefore, there were

two separate sets of scores which ought to be examined here.

The scores given to the 30-student sample by the first rater ranged from 4 to 6

out of nine. As Graph(2) and Tables(4) and (5) show, score 4.5 had the highest

frequency, viz. 8, and score 6 had the lowest frequency, viz. 2 among the scores.

Further, scores 4 and 5 had the second highest frequency, namely 7, and score 5.5 had

a frequency of 6. Further, as Graph(2) illustrates, the mean of scores given to students

by the first rater was 4.8 and the standard deviation of scores was 0.62.

The mean of scores shows that most students were modest in their English

speaking skills, whilst five of them were notably weaker than the rest in their

speaking and another two were notably stronger than the rest with respect to their

speaking. The standard deviation and range of scores, 0.62 and 2.5 respectively, show

that most scores hovered around the mean, while some were relatively distant from it.

The scores given to the thirty students by the second rater ranged from 4 to

6.5. As figures presented in Graph(3) indicate, score 5 had the highest frequency, while


score 6.5 had the lowest frequency among scores given to students by the second

rater. Also, as the graph illustrates, scores 4.5 and 5.5 had frequencies of 6 and 5

among respectively and score 6 had a frequency of 3. As Tables (6) and(7) show, the

mean of this batch of scores was 5, which is slightly higher than the mean of the

first batch of scores. Likewise, the table shows that the standard deviation of the

second group of scores, viz. 0.64 is slightly higher than that of the first group of

scores.

Given the subjectivity involved in the scoring of the speaking test, something the

above-mentioned figures attest to, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance formula was

used to mathematically determine the degree of agreement between the two raters. The

calculation yielded the figure 0.40. What the figure shows is that the degree of

agreement between the two raters was relatively low, though the two sets of scores,

their means and standard deviations were not widely different from each other.

As to the qualitative analysis of speaking scores, score interpretation information

presented on the official website of IELTS and in books ‘Cambridge IELTS 3-

7’indicates that the band score 4 on the speaking test of IELTS shows the candidate

is a “limited user” of English, the band score 5 shows the candidate is a “modest

user”, the band score 6 shows the candidate is a “competent user” and the band

score 7 shows the candidate is a “good user”.

Invoking the above-presented interpretation-related data, it can be stated that the

scores given the 30-student sample by the first rater illustrate that 7 students were

limited users, 8 were between limited and modest levels, 7 were modest users, 6 were

between modest and competent levels and 2 were competent users. Further, it can be

said that, based on the scores given to students by the second rater, 4 students were

limited users, 6 were between being limited and modest users, 11 were modest users, 5

were between being modest and competent levels, 3 were competent users and only

one was between being a competent and a good user.

As Graphs (2), (3) and explanations presented earlier show, most participants were

neither limited nor competent users and were either modest users or between levels of

being limited-modest/competent users. The point which must be borne in mind is that,

although both sets of scores relating to the speaking ability of students tell us the

vast majority of them did not have highly developed speaking skills, one should not

be tempted to jump to the conclusion that they were necessarily weak in speaking.

The reason is that all the students were in the fourth term of their studies and some


of them, who had failed to pass one advanced grammar course, were doing a grammar

course during the second semester of 1389-90 academic year, when they took the

speaking test. Therefore, realistically speaking, there were not expected to achieve high

scores on the speaking test and their professors believed the score of 5.5 should be

seen as a good one for most of them. However, it has to be noted that given that

students were doing the last lab course of their BA programme and were expected to

be able to deal with more advanced courses from the fifth term on, their speaking

needed to be given more attention and emphasis in the lab class.

As to the fifth and final research question, responses provided to the first and

second research questions help us discern and statistically compare areas of

convergence and divergence of opinions of student and professor participants of the

study. In the area of vocabulary, as Table(1) illustrates, while student and professor

opinions had a large degree of convergence on the first two questionnaire items,

namely the insufficiency of students’ vocabulary in for speaking in general and for

speaking about a number of vogue topics in particular, they were sharply divergent on

other items, viz. the confusion of words and the failure to remember needed lexical

items.

The point which deserves more attention in relation to convergent responses is

that the opinions of students and professors were more convergent on the inadequacy

of students’ lexical knowledge for speaking about trendy topics than they were on the

overall insufficiency of students’ lexical knowledge. What this point highlights is that

the speaking problems of students relating to speaking about vogue topics such as

environmental ones need to receive more attention by lab professors and lexical items

needed for speaking about them ought to be brought together by consulting different

sources and presented to students.

Another notable point regarding the area of vocabulary is that opinions of students

and professors were least convergent on the failure of students to retrieve needed

lexical items. Admittedly, the complex and somewhat murky nature of the problem in

question and its multiple possible causes contributed to the low degree of concordance

of responses to this point. What this divergence suggests is that this point can be

picked over and scientifically examined by other researchers involved in memory

research. As relates to the area of grammar, both student and professor respondents

believed that all the points included in their questionnaires were problematical for

students in lab classes. In this relation, the unanimity of professors’ opinions on five


out of eight points is particularly notable. The comparison of percentages corresponding

to responses of students and professors in the area of grammar reveals that opinions

were more convergent on questionnaire items 7, 8, 9,11 and 12, which dealt with

English tenses, prepositions and articles, type(2) and type(3) conditionals, causative

structures and indirect questions respectively.

One other point relating to the area of grammar is that student and professor

opinions were least convergent on the fifth questionnaire item, which dealt with

problems relating to English irregular verbs. While there was unanimity on the part of

professor respondents that students had problems with some irregular verbs, student

respondents were far from unanimous in their responses with less than a quarter of

them completely agreeing with the point, roughly half of them partially agreeing with

it and roughly a quarter of them disagreeing with it.

In the area of pronunciation, as Table(1) shows, student and professor opinions

were notably divergent on many points included in the questionnaire. The most

convergent opinions of the two groups related to the assignment of primary stress to

English words, while the most divergent opinions were related to the role of students’

mother tongue in both facilitating and impeding the pronunciation of English words

and sentences. In relation to the most convergent opinions, 60% of professors and

58.9% of students strongly agreed with the point respectively. Further, 20% and 25.6%

of professor and student respondents partly agreed with the point respectively. As for

the most divergent opinions, while 80% of professors strongly agreed that students’

mother tongue was both beneficial and detrimental to their English pronunciation, only

7.8% of students gave their strong backing to this point. Further, while 20% of

professors partly agreed with the same point, 12.2% of students gave their partial

backing to it. What the variance of opinions of two groups on the role of mother

tongue in relation to pronunciation indicates is that more research is needed in order

to delve into some of the reasons behind the differences of opinion on this point.

In the area of fluency, notable differences between student and professor opinions

can be observed. The most convergent opinions were the ones dealing with the halting

of speech and asking for help from lab professors and classmates by students, while

the most divergent opinions dealt with the making of short pauses by students while

speaking in the lab class. Regarding the most convergent opinions, all professor

respondents strongly agreed that their students stopped their flow of speech in the

face of a linguistic problem. 61.1% of student respondents agreed with the same point


and 24.4% of them partially agreed with it. In regard to the most divergent opinions,

while all the professor respondents strongly agreed that their students made short

pauses in their speech, only 12% of students strongly agreed with the same point and

34.4% of them partially agreed with it. Given the sharpness of difference between

professor and student opinions regarding short pauses, this point requires more

academic attention and the researcher hopes that other researchers will pick over it.

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Title

Consciousness-Raising on Preposition-Stranding

Authors

Jabar Mirani (Ph.D candidate) Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

Khosro Soleimani (Ph.D candidate)

Payam Noor University, Javanroud, Iran

Biodata

Jabar Miran is a Ph.D. Candidate of General Linguistics at Tehran University, Tehran, Iran and has an M.A in TEFL from Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran. His research interests include TEFL studies, phraseology, dialectology, cognitive linguistics, and discourse analysis. Khosro Soleimani is a Ph.D. Candidate of TEFL at Payam Noor University, Javanroud, Iran. His research interests include psychology of language learning, TEFL studies, and biolinuistics.

Abstract

Within the framework of UG model, Consciousness Raising (C-R) as a technique

through form-focused instruction or error correction has been suggested and

sometimes experimentally tested. Therefore, based on recent communicative and

cognitive approaches and returning to fashion of grammatical teaching, it was the

main concern of this study to experimentally examine the technique of C-R

regarding focusing students’ concentration toward the similarities and differences

of unmarked and more acceptable preposition stranding (P-S), marked and less

acceptable pied-piping(P-P) of wh-question movements and lexical knowledge of

some verbs subcategorized for special prepositions in English and Persian. 57

basic science and engineering students were chosen and assigned randomly to two

groups; 29 students in the experimental group and 28 students in normal grammar

practicing class as control group. A .81-index reliable test was administered to

them as a pre-test which showed no significant difference between them at the

beginning of the study. After the presentation of the treatment, the results

indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups

on P-S and lexical knowledge to the advantage of the experimental group. Thus


C-R as a tactic for teaching language points such as P-S and phrasal verbs can be

utilized by teachers in their classrooms.

Keywords: Consciousness-raising, Wh-question movements, Preposition

stranding, Pied-piping

1. Introduction

Grammatical points have been taught through various schools of thoughts in applied

linguistics including the traditional, structural, functional and recent cognitive approaches.

However, the current paper puts a particular stress on the cognitive approach to grammatical

instruction, known as grammatical consciousness-raising. Like other theories or models, it

has both its supporters and opponents, whose arguments are presented. Ellis (1997) defines

grammar consciousness-raising tasks as ‘arising tasks (in) pedagogic activity where the

learners are provided with L2 data in some form and required to perform some operation on

or with it, the purpose of which is to arrive at an explicit understanding of some linguistic

properties of the target language". Rutherford and Sharwood Smith (1986, p. 274), in their

attempt to define C-R, stated, "by consciousness raising we mean the deliberate attempt to

draw the learners’ attention specifically to the formal properties of the target language".

Following the ‘anti-grammar movement’ of the 1980s, the place of grammar in language

teaching changed from habit formation into grammar awareness activities and there was a

major theoretical shift from ‘how teachers teach grammar’ to ‘how learners learn grammar’

(Celce-Murcia 1991). Other researchers and theorists like Ur (1988), Nunan, (1991), Ellis

(1993), Hopkins and Nettle (1994), Cook (1996), Kao (2001), Nitta, R. and Gardener, S

(2005), Bursztyn, M. A. and Klepadski G. A. (2008) have suggested or experimentally

showed the usefulness of C-R on teaching grammatical points in learning foreign or second

languages. In this line, the current study aimed generally to investigate the impact of raising

the student's consciousness toward the similarities or differences between their first language

and English to set and learn more acceptable P-S cases and lexical knowledge. Thus, the

findings of the present study would be useful for the foreign or second language teachers in

teaching grammatical aspects similar to those of this study.

2. Review of Related Literature

Ellis (1993) stated that the popularity of grammar practice is generally supported by the belief

that more practice leads to greater proficiency; nonetheless, his criticism is that due to


psycholinguistic constraints, practice does not necessarily contribute to autonomous ability to

use the structure in real contexts and he challenges the conventional wisdom that ‘practice

makes perfect’ in favor of a series of C-R tasks including grammar consciousness-raising

tasks, interpretation tasks, and focused communication tasks. Hopkins and Nettle (1994)

argue against Ellis's position and say Ellis’s consciousness-raising activities does not meet

the student's expectations and they are not something new. Based on Ellis (1993), there are

five types of form-focused tasks including consciousness-raising tasks, interpretation tasks,

focused communication tasks, grammar exercises, and grammar practice activities. The first

three types are based on the concept of C-R, taking into account the nature of language

development as, "an organic process characterized by backsliding, leaps in competence,

interaction between grammatical elements, etc." (Nunan, 1991). The fourth, a traditional type

of grammar task, is called ‘grammar exercises’. The last type, as exemplified by Ur (1988), is

a communicative grammar practice. In contrast to C-R features in the first three tasks, these

last two types are categorized as practicing tasks.

Teachers can expect formal linguistics to contribute to this sort of pedagogical grammar

hypothesis (PGH). Thus, in this regard, contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) made its

contribution and there are a lot of pedagogical grammars (PG) written in the framework of

CA. However, what the current linguistic theory has to offer to language pedagogy is rather

different and it has been put forward under the term of C-R. C-R is a sort of PG which results

from UG principles and parameters theory and its corollaries like markedness theory. There

are many suggestions for the inclusion of Consciousness Raising Tactic in teaching

grammatical rules. Sharwood Smith (1981) recommended that in certain conditions, C-R

increases the rate of learning a second language. Rutherford (1980) also pointed to the role

which C-R plays in language acquisition. In addition, Cook (1996) put it forward as a

pedagogical technique for helping learners set parameters in a second language. Also White

et al (1991) studied input enhancement on question formation with three experimental classes

of French students learning English within a two-week period. Wh-movement occurs in

marked question forms in French. But its occurrence is unmarked in English. Therefore, this

may result in negative transfer in learning English by French students. Thus, it should be

unlearned by providing positive evidence in English. In White et al (1991) the students’

attention was focused on explanations and examples that this form is present in French, and

this leads to inappropriate construction in learning it in English. In this way, their

consciousness was raised toward the inaccuracy of this form in English. At the end of the

experiment, they tested their participants on a preference task and other means of examining


wh-question formation in English. They found that the C-R group statistically outperformed

the uninstructed group. They finally concluded "instruction on the formation of questions had

an immediate impact on syntactic accuracy" (p. 428).

Kao (2001) highlights the effect of formal instruction on the learner's performance on

preferred structures such as P-S compared to marked P-P in the second language. That being

the case, Nitta, R. and Gardener, S (2005) analyzed and reviewed some standard textbooks

focusing on grammar teaching; they concluded that although there are more theoretical

arguments in favor of C-R usefulness than against it, the well-known English language

textbooks involve more practice parts than C-R communicative based tasks. They state that

most general ELT course books currently include grammar tasks, suggesting a common view

in ELT that learners benefit from form-focused tasks to improve their L2 accuracy. To

investigate the nature of such tasks, they developed a framework of consciousness-raising

and practice task types, applied it to nine contemporary ELT course books, and thus

identified a number of current trends. All of them included more presentation and practice

parts introduced through both inductive and deductive grammar practicing approaches and

less C-R tasks. Moreover, according to Bursztyn, M. A. and Klepadski G. A. (2008),

grammar teaching called " gramticography" as a part of the language teaching process has

returned to fashion and is discussed under the name of the technique of grammatical

conciousness-raising with due attention to the role of comprehensible input in second

language acquisition.

Following the aforementioned trends, since there are no studies conducted on acquiring

grammatical points such as P-S and lexical knowledge of English in Iran, the purpose of this

study is to investigate the impact of raising the student's consciousness toward the similarities

or differences between their first language and English to set and learn more acceptable P-S

cases and lexical knowledge in the following ways:

1. It examines lexical knowledge of some special verbs requiring some strict prepositions as

their complements such as wait for as shown in the following example (i):

(i). The young girl is waiting for the school bus now.

2. It deals with the corresponding wh-question movement of the statements like (i) above in

two forms of less acceptable pied-piping parameters as (ii) and more acceptable preposition

stranding parameters as (iii) in the following:

( ii). For which bus is the young girl waiting now?

( iii). Which bus is the young girl waiting for?


Therefore, in the case of Iranian L2 learners of English, students’ attention must be

focused on two kinds of contrasts between their native language and English in wh-question

movement conditions:

(i)The L2 allows P-S parameter more acceptably than PP.

(ii)It is not a non- movement language, i.e. wh-question stays in situ.

3. Method

The 57 participants in this study were chosen out of 122 basic sciences and engineering

students in Kurdistan University. Later on, they were randomly assigned to two groups, 29

students in the experimental C-R group and 28 in the normal grammar practicing control

group. The instrument used for this study is a 40-item Grammaticality Judgment Test (GJT)

and Grammatical Correction Task (GCT) constructed and adapted following Klein (1995b).

The test included 20 items based on wh-movement question parameters (pied-piping and

preposition-stranding) in English and 20 statements including verbs which are necessarily

subcategorized for their specific prepositions. Pied-piping is set in Iranian languages but

preposition stranding does not exist. Participants judged a sentence as correct or incorrect

with GJT; however, with the GCT, they rewrote the correct form of incorrect items. The

reliability of the test was calculated through the split-half method in a pilot study which was

carried out before the real study at Shiraz University. It thus showed a 0.81 index of

reliability. Furthermore, the questionnaire included a question to check the participants'

previous knowledge of English before the study.

In this study, the test was given to a group of students assigned randomly to an

experimental C-R group and a normal grammar practicing control group. Their test scores

were subjected to SPSS independent t- test analysis. The result indicated a t- value which

meant that there were no statistically meaningful differences between the experimental C-R

and control group at the onset of the study. The result of this test was considered as the pre-

test of the study for both experimental and control groups. After a week interval,

experimental group was given C-R treatment for an hour in three sessions in every other day

during a week. A week later, both control and experimental groups judged the items of the

instrument of the study as the post- test of the study within just 40 minutes.

The students’ correct judgment of the P-S items, correctly subcategorized verbs and

correctly rewritten items received one point. In the case of incorrect judgment (P-P and null-

prep) or not answering the item, they got no points. Based on the results of the participant’s


judgments, their scores were collected in the form of interval data and subjected to statistical

analysis. Therefore, an independent t-test was run to compare the results of the experimental

C-R and normal grammar practicing control groups’ correct judgments to support or reject

the hypothesis of the study at 0.05 level of significance.

4. Results and Discussion

The participants’ performance on the instrument of the study was analyzed using the SPSS

package for windows. The results of an independent t-test presented in table 1 compares the

experimental C-R group with a control group on GJT and GCT. It thus tries to find out

whether C-R treatment was effective for learning (setting) the parameters of P-S which is an

unmarked and more acceptable property in English and lexical knowledge of some special

phrasal verbs.

As can be found in the following table, the experimental C-R group exhibited a t-value of

9.89 which means that there is a significant difference between the means of the two groups

on P-S and lexical knowledge to the advantage of the experimental group (P< .05).

Table 1 The analysis of t test for the comparison of control and experimental group on P-S & lexical

knowledge

Variables No. Mean SD DF t-value a p-value

Control 28 9.28 3.90 27 9.89 0.5

Experimental 29 16.28 2.09

a p value for independent t test comparing the two groups

After the presentation of the C-R treatment, as the above table indicates, treatment has

increased the amount of correct and appropriate responses and decreased the amount of null-

prep and P-P occurrences in the experimental group.

Consciousness raising as a way of life is the foundation for all kinds of learning and

knowledge of human beings especially in pedagogy. Therefore, this study aimed to examine

whether C-R has any impact on correct judgment on preposition stranding and lexical

knowledge on the part of the EFL learner. As the results showed, the experimental group

outperformed the control group on P-S parameter and lexical knowledge, and this leads to the

conclusion that C-R is a helpful tactic used by the English language teachers to improve the

students' performances on grammatical and lexical knowledge in situations like the present

study. Further, these results are in line with Rutherford and Sharwood Smith (1986) in

claiming that the learners will trigger the parameters of a second language if they are exposed


to enough input which may be in explicit (conscious), or implicit (unconsciousness) form in

that language. In the same way, it provides further support for White et al (1989) and (1991)

who applied C-R experimentally and reported successful results in ESL situations.

Accordingly, the findings also complies with Kao (2001) who cites suggestions for the vital

role of formal instruction, Nitta and Gardeners (2005) and Bursztyn and Klepadski (2008)

who suggested that C- R in the form of exposure to L2 parameters can influence the course or

the rate of learning language forms such as P-S setting and lexical knowledge.

5. Conclusion

The experimentally significant results and positive findings of this study provide further

support for theoretical background underlying C-R technique in the fields of cognitive

pedagogy and applied linguistics. Furthermore, as the implications of this study, the

following conclusions and suggestions can be arrived at:

C-R tactic can enhance the participants' performance in lexical knowledge and P-S

parameter; hence it is suggested that teachers utilize this technique in teaching these

structures and other similar grammatical points in EFL situations.

C-R technique should be experimentally tested for teaching other parameters in different

languages and with other better instruments.

The results cannot be generalized beyond the situation of this study until more studies are

done with improved instruments in other conditions.

References

Bursztyn, M. A. & Klepadski, G. A. (2008). Grammatical Consciousness Raising and Grammar

Typology. Studio Anglica Resoveus

Celce-Murcia, M. (1991). Grammar pedagogy insecond and foreign language teaching. TESOL

Quarterly 25/3, 459–80.

Cook, V. J. and Newson, M. (1996). Chomsky's Universal Grammar: An Introduction. Blackwell

Publishers

Ellis, R. (1993). ‘Talking shop: second languageacquisition research: how does it help teachers? An

interview with Rod Ellis’. ELT Journal 47/1: 3–11.

Ellis, R. (1997). SLA Research and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hopkins, D. and M. Nettle. (1994). ‘Second language acquisition research: a response to Rod Ellis’.

ELT Journal 48/2: 157–61.


Kao, R. (2001). Where have the preposition gone? A study of English prepositional verbs and input

enhancement in instructed SLA. International Review of Applied linguistics

Nitta, R. and Gardener, S. (2005). Consciousness Raising & Practice in ELT Coursebook. ELT

Journal 59(1).

Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology: ATextbook for Teachers. New York: Prentice

Hall.

Rutherford, W. and Sharwood Smith, M. (1986). Consciousness Raising and Universal Grammar.

Applied Liguistics6(3):274-281.

Rutherford, W. (1980). Aspects of Pedegogical Grammmar. Applied Linguistics 1(1):60-73.

Sharwood Smith, M. (1981). ‘Consciousness-raising and the second language learner’ [in:]

AppliedLinguistics 2, pp. 159–168.

Ur, P. (1988). Grammar Practice Activities. Cambridge: Cambridge

White,L., Spada,N. Pasty, M.& Rantal, L. (1991). Input Enhancement and L2 Question Formation.

Applied Linguistics 12(4):416-432.

Appendix

Name: Major of Study: Dialect: Farsi Turkish Kurdish Luri Baluchi Arabic How many semesters have you studied in an English institute? Choose each sentence as good (syntactically correct) or bad (syntactically wrong. If you choose a sentence as bad, correct it in the space provided. 1. The young girl waited the school bus yesterday morning.

a)good b) bad ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2. Which bus did the young girl wait yesterday morning? a)good b) bad …………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. The girls are sitting on the park bench now.

a)good b) bad …………………………………………………………………………………………………

4. On which bench are the girls sitting now? a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………....................... 5. The tall nurse worked the doctor last year.

a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………………

6. Who(m) did the tall nurse work last year? a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………………….…

7. The man is knocking on the kitchen door right now. a)good b)bad

……………………………………………………………………………………………

8. Which door is the man knocking on right now?


a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………

9. This small boy sleeps this cradle every day. a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………………

10. What does this small boy sleep every day? a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

11. The children are looking at the tall trees right now. a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………………

12. Which trees are the children looking at right now? a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………………

13. The little boy danced his friends in the hall yesterday. a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………………….

14. Who(m) did the little boy dance in the hall yesterday? a)good b)bad

……………………………………………………………………………………….

15. The small boys are laughing at the funny pictures now. a)good b)bad

……………………………………………………………………………………

16. At which pictures are the small boys laughing now? a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………………….

17. The small girls are playing the yellow doll now. a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………….

18. Which doll are the small girls playing now? a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………………

19. The two friends talked about the film last night. a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………….

20. About what did the two friends talk last night? a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………………

21. The boys are reading in the school library now. a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………………

22. Which library are the boys reading in now? a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………………….

23. My best friend are coming a small village near the city. a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………………………

24. Where are your best friends coming? a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………………

25. The children went after their mother into the room. a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………………

26. After whose mother did the children go into the room?


a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

27. The English students listen the B.B.c news every night. a)good b)bad

……………………………………………………………………………………….

28. What do the English students listen every night? a)good b)bad

……………………………………………………………………………………

29. The English students worried the difficult test last night. a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………

30. Which test did the English students worry about? a)good b)bad

……………………………………………………………………………………………

31. My brother is teaching in a new school this year. a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………………

32. In which school is your brother teaching this year? a)good b)bad

…………………………………………………………………………………………

33. The students pointed the world map yesterday. a)good b)bad

……………………………………………………………………………………………

34. What did the students point yesterday? a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………………………

35. They spoke to the young man yesterday afternoon. a)good b)bad

……………………………………………………………………………………………

36. Who(m) did they speak to yesterday afternoon. a)good b)bad

……………………………………………………………………………………………

37. The mother was looking her lost child last night. a)good b)bad

………………………………………………………………………………………… 38. Which child was the mother looking last night?

a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………… 39. These students are thinking their lessons right now.

a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 40. What are these students thinking about right now?

a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………………


Title

Writing Skill in ESP Classes and Genre-based Approach

Author

Nayereh Bedad Fard (M.A student) Islamic Azad university, Shahreza Branch, Esfehan, Iran

Biodata

Nayereh Behdad Fard is TEFL MA student at Islamic Azad university of Shahreza, Esfehan, Iran. She is an English teacher and has a TESOL certificate. Her research interests include teaching issues and metadiscourse and genre analyses.

Abstract

Writing is the most difficult skills learners are expected to master. An ability to

write appropriately is a task that ESL learners faced in spite of the years spent

learning their writing skills. Writing is complex and multifaceted in nature.

Tribble (1996, p.57) posed a question pertaining to writing, “What makes one

piece of writing more acceptable than another?” Hopefully, through the

understanding of genre-based approach, taking the communicative purpose as the

key characteristic feature of a genre, this question can be answered. Learners use

language purposefully by using model text designed for specific professional

context which is referred to as modeling is investigated in this paper. It is a

common technique used for teaching genre where learners are presented with a

model text that can be imitated while they are writing their texts through

modeling; learners duplicate the defining characteristic of its genre but using a

different content. Writing for professional purposes presents many challenges to

learners because it involves many different areas of knowledge and skills.

Learners who have average proficiency of the English language still perform

poorly in their writing tasks, and most of them exhibit difficulties in expressing

themselves in writing. In writing, it is essential that learners do not just know how

to write grammatically correct text but also know how to apply their knowledge

for particular purposes and contexts. A focus on genres in writing instruction can

provide the learners with a frame that enables them to interpret particular

communicative events. A genre-based approach aims to make the learners more


aware of the concept of genre and the way it affects texts and increase their ability

to differentiate their language and text structure through the use of greater

linguistic choices.

Key words: Writing skill, Genre approach, Genre process approach

1. Introduction

L2 writing researchers have recently begun to emphasize the relevance of the concept of

genre to L2 writing and to argue that the generic properties of different texts written by

members of different discourse communities are to be mastered by L2 writers before they can

write successfully in their second language (Hyland,2004). Writing is now viewed as a social

activity because of the influences from such recent notions as communicative competence in

linguistics, social constructionism in philosophy, and situated learning in education

(Canagarajah,2002). Because of the social nature of writing, second language writers need to

learn to participate and function in different speech communities. In the genre-based

approach, “each group constructs discourses that suit its social practices, historical

experiences, and interests” (Canagarajah, 2002, p. 36). Such a view acknowledges the

dynamic nature of interpersonal interactions where people can have multiple community

memberships in social life. In this relatively new approach, writing is seen as conforming to

the norms of a discourse community. By gradual exposure to and involvement in a new

academic discourse community, students try peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating,

reporting, concluding, and arguing which define the discourse of that community and thereby

learn to write through collaborative (student-student) apprenticeship, tutor-tutee

apprenticeship, and direct engagement with the broader academic community (Warschauer,

2002). In the genre-based approach to L2 writing, the conventions of discourse and properties

of written language in different contexts of use play a central role. Atkinson (1990) regards

conventionalized properties of written language as important for the better understanding of

the writing process. To him, conventions of written discourse are socially ratified solutions to

past or present coordination problems of written communication.

Genre study within English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a field that bridges linguistic

and rhetorical traditions. Positioned within the overarching category of Language for Specific

Purposes (LSP), English for Specific Purposes focuses on studying and teaching specialized

varieties of English, most often to non-native speakers of English, in advanced academic and

professional settings.ESP is often used as an umbrella term to include more specialized areas


of study such as English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English for Occupational Purposes

(EOP), and English for Medical Purposes (EMP). Although ESP has existed since the 1960s

and although ESP researchers began to use genre analysis as a research and pedagogical tool

in the 1980s, it was John Swales’ groundbreaking book Genre Analysis: English in Academic

and Research Settings that most fully theorized and developed the methodology for bringing

genre analysis into ESP research and teaching. It is largely due to Swales’ work and the

research it has inspired over the last twenty years that ESP and genre analysis have become in

many ways synonymous.

Research on teaching writing in a second language was initiated in the late 1960s, and

most early efforts were centered on techniques for teaching writing. These efforts led to the

process approach, which helps students to work through several stages of the writing process.

Later, more attention was paid to the nature of writing in various situations. This then brought

popularity to the genre approach, which focuses on models and key features of texts written

for a particular purpose. In the process approach, a teacher typically has students follow the

steps of prewriting, writing, revising, and editing before achieving the final product, and this

sequence teaches students how to write. In the genre approach, samples of a specific genre

are introduced, and some distinctive characteristics of the given genre are pointed out so that

students notice specific configurations of that genre. Next, students attempt to produce the

first draft through imitating the given genre.

2. Genre-based instruction in L2 context

Henry & Roseberry (1998) examined the effect of explicit genre instruction on first-year

management students’ acquisition of tourist information genre. The instruction was primarily

based on analysis of genre moves by reading a variety of text models. The results indicated

that the treatment group did show significant improvement in motivation and texture

(cohesion and coherence) scores and their gain scores were significantly higher than the

control group. Interestingly, students who have received explicit instruction on genre moves

showed no significant improvements in this variable in their pre-/post-tests, although they did

make certain progress. Furthermore, they also failed to gain significantly higher gain scores

in the move variable than the control group who were asked to read the model texts in the

absence of any explicit explanation. However, their research indicated that exposure to model

texts in the absence of explicit instruction did not help students acquire genre knowledge

since there were no differences in the pre-/post-tests move scores among the control group. It


is still unknown why explicit instruction on genre moves failed to yield any significant

progress in move scores for the experimental group. Hyon’s study (2002) assessed the effects

of an EAP genre-based reading course on building genre knowledge and developing L2

reading ability. The instructional focus was primarily a text-based analysis of rhetorical

moves, language style and discourse purpose. Based on post instructional naming tasks and

interviews, the findings indicated that the course facilitated a better understanding of texts’

rhetorical elements but failed to provide all skills essential for effective L2 reading, such as

reading strategies and vocabulary knowledge. In a follow-up study on the long-term effects of

this course, Hyon (2001) found out that one year later after the course, the L2 graduate and

undergraduate students were able to recognize specific genre features taught in the course.

Yet, some participants over-generalized and misapplied some prototypical genre features.

Hyon’s studies showed that genre instruction can help L2 students acquire L2 reading-related

abilities to a certain extent and may need to incorporate other complementary instruction to

be an effective approach to L2 reading training.

2.1. Genre-based instruction for ESP

Research in language education includes new or improved forms of instruction for the four

skills. One of these is genre-based instruction (GBI).Students pursuing a university degree

require competency in both written and spoken language to handle academic discourse and to

excel in the programme.Academic or professional discourse or genre is a specialist discourse

with specific rules and conventions (generic structure) which can vary across genres.

Students who are linguistically proficient may still not be able to handle specialist genres and

require the assistance of the ESP teacher. GBI is teaching language based on results of genre

analysis. Genre analysis is the study of how language is used within a particular setting

(Swales 1990) and is concerned with the form of language use in relation to meaning (Bhatia

1993). Genre analysis is a tool to examine the structural organization of texts by identifying

the moves and strategies, and to understand how these moves are organized in order to

achieve the communicative purpose of the text. Genre analysis also examines the text

patterning or textualisation in genres to show statistical evidence of a particular linguistic

feature in a specific genre and the specific features of the genre that the evidence textualises.

Finally genre analysis examines the lexico-grammatical features of genres to identify the

linguistic features chosen by expert users of the genre to realize the communicative purpose,

and to explain these choices in terms of social and psychological contexts (Henry &

Roseberry, 1998). Other considerations in genre analysis include the communicative purpose

of the target genre, the roles of the writer and the audience, and the context in which the


genre is used. The results from analyzing a genre serve as the instructional materials in

GBI.Based on the model by Cope and Kalantzis (1993), there are four stages in GBI

including modeling, guiding, practicing and finally independently writing the genre.GBI is

actually an integration of the product approach and the process approach resulting in a

process-genre approach(Badger and White, 2000) Genres inform the organizational structure

for the skills and activities in teaching ESP and therefore deserve a clear and perhaps even

critical understanding on the part of the teacher (Mavor and Trayner, 2001). For teachers to

be effective ESP practitioners, particularly in universities offering interdisciplinary academic

programmes, they need to be well-versed in the requirements of the disciplines and to

understand the discursive practices of the professions at the receiving end of the academic

programmes. To understand the discursive practices of the disciplines or the profession is

first of all to acquire knowledge of the code (Bhatia, 1997). This knowledge requires the

teacher to know the repertoire of genres used in a profession and the occasions when they are

used. Assuming that a person who has linguistic competence is able to naturally acquire

knowledge of the code is totally wrong as research has shown that there are fundamental

differences in the use of lexico-grammatical, semantic pragmatic and discoursal resources

between everyday language and specialist language Secondly, one needs to acquire generic

competence or at least some genre knowledge in the profession in order to participate in a

specialist communicative event. Generic knowledge includes understanding the

communicative purpose(s) of genres and the communicative goal-oriented purposes

associated with the specific use of these genres. Knowledge in the discursive practices of the

profession and knowledge in the generic structure of target genres will be a powerful

pedagogic tool for teachers and will definitely benefit students. In this respect, teachers play

an important role in acquiring genre knowledge and then imparting that knowledge to the

students. GBI prepares students for real world writing (Mansfield, 1993) which will

consequently create interest in the ESP classroom and provide students with the confidence to

handle specialist genres. This has prompted many ESP practitioners to embark on this

procedure within both the ESL and the EFL contexts (Henry and Roseberry, 1998; Mavor

and Trayner, 2001). Students also benefit from genre knowledge. Students need to know the

discursive practices in their profession because understanding the genres of written

communication in their field is necessary to professional success. By being able to examine

the pattern of the structural organization of a genre, students will acquire the specialist culture

(Bhatia, 1997). By being able to identify the obligatory and the optional moves of that genre,

students can characterize the typical or conventional textual features of the genre and


understand the rationale behind such characteristics. Students are also able to study the

institutionalized context, including the system and methodology in which the genre is used

and the rules and conventions, such as the social, academic and professional conventions that

govern the use of language in such settings. Finally, with genre knowledge, students can

manipulate and exploit the moves to construct the genre based on their creativity.

Genre approach to teaching writing since the mid-1980s, considerable attention has been

paid to the genre approach to teaching writing. In terms of writing in a second language, The

Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning has defined the genre approach

as “a framework for language instruction” (Byram, 2004, p. 234) based on examples of a

particular genre. The genre framework supports students’ writing with generalized,

systematic guiding principles about how to produce meaningful passages. Swales (1990)

identified a genre as “a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set

of communicative purposes”

2.2. Differences between the Process Approach and the Genre Approach

In the process approach, the steps or stages are illustrated and practiced from the generation

of ideas and compilation of information through a series of activities for planning, gathering

information, drafting, revising, and editing (Campbell, 1998, p. 11). This sequence of

activities typically occurs in four stages: “prewriting, composing/drafting, revising, and

editing” (Badger & White, 2000, p. 154).

However, none of the process writing procedures of the past sufficiently dealt with

linguistic knowledge, such as grammar and the organization of content, as much as necessary.

Even though the final stage of editing addressed some mechanical features of language, they

were mainly concerned with the skills of processing ideas like planning and drafting.

Furthermore, the process approach has a very restricted view of writing, in that the approach

presumes that writing proficiency takes place only with the support of the repeated exercise

of the same writing procedures. In the genre approach, on the other hand, the knowledge of

language is intimately attached to a social purpose, and more focus is on the viewpoint of the

reader than on that of the writer. Writing is mostly viewed as the students’ reproduction of

text based on the genre offered by the teacher. It is also believed that learning takes place

through imitation and exploration of different kinds of models. Accordingly, learners should

be exposed to many examples of the same genre to develop their ability to write a particular

genre. Through exposure to similar texts, students can detect the specialized configurations of

that genre, and they also can activate their memories of prior reading or writing experiences

whenever they encounter the task of creating a new piece in a familiar genre (Badger &


White, 2000, pp. 155-156). Proponents such as Kay and Dudley-Evans (1998) have argued

that the genre approach is more effective for learners to advance their writing skills in a

second language than the process approach since the model helps free students from their

severe worries over writing.

Students generally appreciate the models or examples showing specifically what they

have to do linguistically. Studying a given genre also provides them with an understanding of

why a communication style is the way it is through a reflection of its social context and its

purpose. Swales (1990) pointed out how rhetorical instruction plays as pivotal a role in

writing improvement as prior knowledge (p. 83). In this context, the genre approach is very

beneficial because it brings together formal and functional properties of a language in writing

instruction, and it acknowledges that there are strong associations between them. As Bhatia

(1993, as cited in Kim &Kim, 2005) recommended, it is meaningful for writing instructors to

tie the formal and functional properties of a language together in order to facilitate students’

recognition of how and why linguistic conventions are employed for particular rhetorical

effects (p.6). If the rhetorical structure of content is analyzed by students in the genre

approach, some common patterns can be identified in each genre. Naturally, these patterns

will form a kind of background knowledge students can activate in the next learning

situation.

Eventually, the prior knowledge will make it easier for students to produce acceptable

structures in their writing tasks. Therefore, an assigned genre seems to serve as an influential

tool for both the learning and teaching of writing [for both students and teachers]. The genre

approach encourages students to participate in the world around them, to comprehend writing

as a tool that they can utilize, and to realize how writers manage content to promote logical

organization. It also allows students to become more flexible in their thinking and eventually

to realize how authors organize their writings.

Despite genres’ beneficial roles in helping learners to produce written work with

confidence, there are two concerns about the genre approach. One is that it underestimates the

skills required to produce content, and the other concern is that it neglects learners’ self-

sufficiency (Byram, 2004, p. 236). The genre approach not only places too much emphasis on

conventions and genre features but also is less helpful for students in discovering the texts’

true messages due to the targeted aspects of the specified genre. Likewise, if teachers spend

class time explaining how language is used for a range of purposes and with a variety of

readers, learners are likely to be largely passive. Thus, the genre approach is blamed for

limiting learners’ creative thoughts about content and is criticized in that it overlooks natural


processes of learning and learners’ creativity (Badge & White, 2000, p.157). Finally,

Bawarshi (2000) pointed out that, at its best, it helps learners to identify and interpret literary

texts, while at its worst; it interferes with the learners’ creativity (p.343). This concern means

that students may end up writing genres as meaningless reproductions.

2.3. Process _ genre approach

Due to the weaknesses of the genre approach noted above, Badger and White (2000)

experimented with using the genre and process approaches together as an alternative in a

model called the process genre approach. Through this research, they affirmed that this dual

approach works well if the writing cycle begins with models, description of the key linguistic

features, discussion of the social situation in which it happens, and analysis of the

recommended rhetorical patterns of each genre. Student writing is then subjected to the

sequence of drafts in the process approach (p. 157).

For instance, when a university student creates an advertisement describing his or her

used laptop in order to sell it, the following should be considered: this writing is intended to

sell the laptop; it should be attractive to some people who are interested in buying it; it must

consist of certain information; and it should follow traditions in which laptop descriptions are

offered. Then, the person should follow several procedures such as drafting, revising and

editing as well as using rhetorical language skills best suited to this genre (Badger & White,

2000, p. 158).This demonstration shows how the process-genre approach embraces teaching

the appropriate language along with using a set of revision processes by which a final draft

can be produced. As illustrated in the laptop example, this combined approach ensures that

the writing task is reviewed from both the viewpoint of the writer and of readers at the same

time.

3. Conclusion

Genre analysis is a powerful pedagogic tool for ESP teachers and is beneficial for students as

knowledge of the generic features of any type of genre provides insight into the working of

the genre. Understanding the structural patterns of the target genre by identifying the

structural moves and the strategies the writers use to achieve their communicative purpose

and being able to identify the occurrence of obligatory and optional moves and the sequence

in which these moves occur provides the opportunity for students to manipulate the moves

based on their understanding of the specialist culture and on their creativity. At the same

time, teachers are able to teach these genres more effectively. It is a theory of genre in which


generic meanings are construed between and across texts. This theory not only tries to

describe linguistic characteristics of actual texts and the genre concerned, but also attempts to

reveal how the genre has been produced and consumed in relation to its sociocultural context.

That is, it aims to capture the dynamic and 'stabilized-for-now' status of the genre in different

social contexts. The genre approach is not a rigid, formulaic way of constructing texts.

Instead, students can learn through the process of writing by knowing what the end product

should look like. , It is good to view genre-based approach as an additional approach to

teaching learners to write better in a shorter period.

References

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Applied Linguistics, 11, pp. 57-76.

Badger, R. & G. White. (2000). A process genre approach to teaching writing. ELT Journal,54:2.

Oxford. Oxford University Press.

Bawarshi, A. (2000). The genre function. College English, 62(3), 335-360.

Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Setting. London. Longman.

Bhatia, V. K. (1997). Applied Genre Analysis and ESP. In T. Miller (ed). Functional Approach to

Written Text: Classroom Applications. Washington D.C. United States Information Agency.

Byram, M. (2004). Genre and genre-based teaching. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Language

Teaching and Learning (pp. 234- 237). London: Routledge.

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Heinle.

Canagarajah, Suresh. (2002). Multi-lingual writers and the academic community: towards a critical

relationship. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 1, pp. 29-44.

Cope, B. & M. Kalantzis. (1993). The Powers of Literacy: A Genre Approach to Teaching Writing.

London: Falmer Press

Dudley-Evans, A. (1997). Genre Models for the teaching of academic writing to second language

speakers: advantages and disadvantages. In T.Miller (ed). Functional Approach to Written Text:

Classroom Applications. Washington D.C. United States Information Agency.

Ellis, R. (1990). Instructed Second Language Acquisition: Learning in Classroom. Oxford: Blackwell

Henry, A. & R. L. Roseberry. (1998). An Evaluation of a genre-based approach to the Teaching of

EAP/ESP writing. TESOL Quarterly, 32: 1

Hyland, K. (2002). Genre: Language, Context and Literacy. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics,

22: 113-135.

Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing. London:

Longman.


Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and Second Language Writing. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of

Michigan Press.

Hyon, S. (2001). Long-term effects of genre-based instruction: A follow-up study of an EAP reading

courses,’ English for Specific Purposes 20: 417–38.

Hyon, S. (2002). ‘Genre and ESL reading: A classroom study’ in A. M. Johns (ed.): Genre in the

Classroom: Multiple Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Kay, H & T. Dudley-Evans. (1998). Genre:What teachers think. ELT Journal 52(4): 308-14

Kim, Y., & Kim, J. (2005). Teaching Korean University writing class: Balancing the process and the

genre approach [Electronic version]. Asian EFL Journal, 7(2), 1-15.

Mansfield, M. A. (1993). Real World Writing and the English Curriculum. College Composition and

Communication, 38:184. Mavor, S. and B. Trayner. 2001. Aligning genre and practice with

learning in higher- education: an interdisciplinary perspective for course design and teaching.

English for Specific Purposes, 20: pp 345-366.

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Purposes, 1, pp. 45-48.


Title

The Effect of Gender on EFL Achievement Testing Pre-university Schools in Iran

Author

Gholamreza Akhoondali

Shiraz University, Iran

Biodata

Gholamreza Akhoondali M.A. in TEFL from Shiraz University. He has been teaching English language for about 21 years, and is presently teaching English at different high schools, language institutes, and universities in Ahvaz, Iran. His research interests include methodology, testing, linguistics and discourse analysis.

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of gender on English as a foreign language (EFL)

achievement test at the end of the second semester in Ahvaz in 2010-2011. The

aim of this study is to determine whether students’ gender can affect learning

English as a foreign language in Ahvaz. Participants were 480 pre-university

school students (240 males and 240 females) selected from four educational

regions of Ahvaz. This study employs quantitative methods of analysis and makes

use of descriptive analysis, pair t-test, and the effect size. The results of the

statistical analyses indicate that EFL learning is to some extent, gender-related,

and it has a significant effect on the achievement test. The findings of this study

help instructors to select their instructional strategies more effectively related to

gender.

Keywords: Gender, Foreign language, Achievement Test

1. Introduction

In recent years, evidence shows that while both boys and girls have improved their

performance, girls are achieving higher grades than boys in EFL learning. Gender has been

regarded as an important affective factor that plays a role and influences second language

acquisition. Remember that the title of John Gray’s book (1992), Men are from Mars, Women

are from Venus. Of course it is a metaphor or conceit, but there are objective differences


between the language of men and that of women, and no education or social conditioning can

wholly erase these differences. A gender difference is a disparity between male and female

humans. According to gender role theory, prevalent gender stereotypes are culturally shared

expectations for gender appropriate behaviours. Females and males learn the appropriate

behaviours and attitudes from the family and overall culture they grow up with, and so non-

physical gender differences are a product of socialization (Eagly, 1987; Eagly & Karau,

2002). From the biological viewpoint, females and males also differ fundamentally in terms

of cognitive ability and learning style. These differences derive both from basic physiological

differences, such as differences in the development of brain, and from differences in higher-

level cortical functions. Males and females have somewhat different patterns of lateralization,

with males being more left-hemisphere dominant than females.

No matter what gender differences are primarily culturally or biologically determined,

educational research in the last several decades has proven that the gender differences

manifestly influence students’ academic interests, needs, and achievements (Halpern, 1986;

Collins, Kenway & McLeod, 2000; Swiatek & Lupkowski-Shoplik, 2000). However,

different educational domains have different claims to the gender issue. The theorists of

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) believe that female learners show possible superiority

in their second language learning process (Burstall, 1975; Boyle, 1987; Ehrlich, 2001).

Therefore, whether ESL students learning English with CALL programs will gain or

counteract the learning efficiency due to their gender difference has become a significant

issue of ESL instruction. As Bernhardt’s (1991) model predicted that studies revealed

significant gender differences in comprehension with different passages at early stages of

acquisition, but not at more advanced stages. It has also been suggested that researchers study

how beliefs differ across language learners, particularly in terms of individual differences

such as gender, age, learning styles, and personality type (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2005;

Wenden,1999; Horwitz,1999; Rifkin,2000).

The purpose of this study is to find out an answer to this question that whether or not

females are better English language learners than males specifically, in achievement test in

pre-university schools. To do so, a number of males and females have been chosen from

Ahvaz. Its aim is to re-examine the identity of gender and learning English language in four

educational regions of Ahwaz. It conducts a quantitative statistical analysis and raises the

following questions:

A. Do females outperform males in their EFL achievement tests?


B. Is there any significant difference between the mean of males and that of females in their

scores?

C. How big the difference between the means is? In case there is a difference.

The significance of gender warrants further investigation. By examining the effect of

students’ gender on their achievements, it will be possible for instructors to be more careful

about the important role of students’ gender in their performances.

2. Review of the Related Literature

Gender is an issue with important theoretical and pedagogical implications in L2 learning. A

good number of studies have found that gender can have a significant effect on how students

learn a language. A large number of researches have worked on a wide range of topics about

gender, including language learning ability, motivation, teacher perceptions, learning styles

and strategies, classroom interaction, teaching materials, testing, learner identities,

masculinities, and pedagogies. Many studies that examined gender as a variable in the use of

language learning strategies (LLS) reported that significant gender differences almost always

occurred in a single direction, showing greater use of LLS by females (see for instance,

Green, 1992; Green & Oxford, 1995; Noguchi, 1991; & Oxford, 1993). Politzer (1983)

reported that females used social LS significantly more than males. Ehrman and Oxford

(1989), using the LLSL with both students and instructors at the U.S. Foreign Institute came

to the conclusion that compared to males, females reported significantly greater use of LLS in

four areas of general study strategies, functional practice strategies, strategies for

communicating meaning, and self-management strategies. Oxford and Nyikos (1989) looked

at the strategies used by university students and concluded that gender differences had a

“profound influence” on strategy use. They also found that female learners used formal rule-

related practice strategies, general study strategies and conversational input elicitation

strategies more frequently than did male learners. Green and Oxford (1995) found similar

results in a study of students at the University of Puerto Rico, and concluded that females

significantly used strategies more often than males. Hismanoglu (2000) maintains that factors

like age, gender, personality, etc. affect the way in which language learners learn the target

language. Catalan (2003) summarized the results of a study on sex differences in second

language vocabulary learning strategies, and confirmed that males and females differ in both

the number and range of vocabulary strategies reported. Peacock and Ho (2003) also

investigated the learning strategies used by 1006 Chinese students of English. They noticed


that females reported significantly higher use of all six strategy categories. They also reported

a much higher use of nine individual strategies, seven of which are also associated with

higher proficiency. Similarly, Chang (2004) finds males and females different in several

aspects including their strategy use. He notes that men and women are not only biologically

different but they are also brought up in different ways with different social expectations. As

a result, men and women behave differently so that these behavioural differences are

reflected in academic aptitudes. Rua (2006) explored the role of the sex variable in foreign

language learning success by reviewing and connecting data gathered from several tests and

studies. She confirmed the hypothesis that girls’ achievement in FLL is enhanced by the

interaction of neurological, cognitive, affective, social and educational factors. Each factor is

activated in a different way for boys and girls; with the result that boys and girls are equipped

with different systems of variables and these variables build a network of influences which is

posited to be eventually responsible for girls’ FLL success.

Contrary to the above-mentioned positions, some research studies consider no significant

role for gender in LLS use. Kim (1995) investigated the use of LLS of Korean adult English

learners and found no significant differences between males and females in the use of

strategies. Furthermore, Oh (1996) conducted a study involving Korean English learners and

found that gender difference did not affect the use of strategies. In another study, Tran (1988)

discovered that Vietnamese women use fewer LLS than men. The same result was found in

Tercanlioglu (2005) with Turkish university student participants. The results showed

significant gender differences, characterising males with more strategy use.

The area of gender differences in motivation has long been explored, partly in an effort to

explain gender differences in achievement and career choice in the fields of math and

science. In general, despite research findings that show females outperform males (see Linn

and Hyde, 1988); female students have lower self-perceptions of ability than male students

(Wigfield et al., 1996). Especially in math and sports, males show higher self-perception

whereas females show higher self-perception in English (Eccles, 1983; Eccles et al., 1989;

Meece et al., 1990; Wigfield et al., 1991). Wigfield et al. (1996) also found that males have

higher self-ratings for physical appearance, physical ability, and math while females have

higher self-ratings for verbal and reading tasks. In terms of the value which students attach to

subjects, Wigfield and Eccles (1992) also found differences between male and female

students: males value math more, whereas females value English more.

In second language acquisition (SLA), researchers have found some evidence implying

the existence of gender differences in motivation and attitudes (e.g., Bacon and Finnemann,


1992; Burstall et al., 1974; Clark and Trafford, 1995; Gardner and Lambert, 1972; Ludwig,

1983; Goldberg Muchnik and Wolfe, 1982). Although most of the research in mainstream

psychology mentioned earlier was carried out with elementary school students or adolescents

studying in their native language, if the same patterns apply to university students studying

English, one might assume that females have higher self-perception for and/or attach greater

value to English. As a matter of fact, this assumption is congruent with findings of some

foreign language studies that indicate greater motivation and more favourable attitudes in

female students (Burstall et al., 1974; Pritchard, 1990; Williams et al., 2002; and Jones,

1997). Following the general trend in motivational research in second language learning,

many researchers focused on the instrumental and integrative types of motivation first

proposed by Gardner and Lambert (1972). Those researchers (for instance, Bacon and

Finnemann, 1992; Gardner and Lambert, 1972; Goldberg Muchnik and Wolfe, 1982; Sung

and Padilla, 1998) also found female students have greater motivation and more positive

attitudes toward studying a foreign language than male students, although the distinction

between instrumental and integrative motivation in these studies was found to be ambiguous

(summarized in Chavez, 2001).

Although gender was not the focus of their studies, both Do¨rnyei and Clement (2001),

reported possible gender differences in motivation. According to Do¨rnyei and Clement,

female students scored significantly higher than male students on the scales of all of the

seven motivational dimensions in most of the target languages. Those motivational

dimensions include Direct Contact with L2 Speakers, Instrumentality, Integrativeness,

Vitality of L2 Community, and Cultural Interest.

A number of studies conducted in various contexts have confirmed the presence of

gender-related differences in verbal ability and language use (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974;

Thorne et al., 1983; Tannen, 1990). The consensus seems to be that females are superior to

males in general verbal ability (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974; Denno, 1982; Cole, 1997), but

there is disagreement about which types of verbal ability shows gender differences. This is

especially true when it comes to different language skills. Hyde and Linn (1988) conducted a

comprehensive meta-analytical study investigating gender differences in verbal ability.

Among the 56 vocabulary studies included, six reported a significant difference in favour of

males, while eight reported significant differences in favour of females. Generally the meta-

analysis demonstrated no significant gender difference in vocabulary, although there was

significant heterogeneity in the effect size.


In terms of reading comprehension, five out of the 21 studies reported a significant difference

in favour of males, while ten found significant differences in favour of females. Generally,

females were found to have slight advantages in reading, speaking, writing, and general

verbal ability, but the differences were so small that Hyde and Linn argued that gender

differences in verbal ability no longer existed. Statistics from ACT of 2001 also showed no

significant sex differences in English or reading, although the means of females were slightly

higher than those of males (Zwick, 2002). In contrast, a gender study recently conducted by

the Educational Testing Service (ETS) yielded completely different results. This

comprehensive study (Cole, 1997) involved 400 tests and millions of students. It was

reported that a language advantage for females had remained unchanged compared with 30

years ago. Female superiority in verbal ability ranged from noticeable differences in writing

and language use to very small differences. At the same time, however, evidence also

suggests that males are superior in listening vocabulary, that is, comprehension of heard

vocabulary in both first and second language contexts (Brimer, 1969; Boyle, 1987). In

general, despite the female advantage in general verbal ability, there seems to be no

agreement as to whether and to what degree gender differences exist in different types of

verbal ability. Since the gender effect has been dealt with through different aspects by

different researchers and also because much time and space is required to be paid to these

different and extensive aspects; narrowing down the topic to a specific aspect that is, EFL

achievement test, seems legitimate.

In the context of second language proficiency testing, gender differences have been

examined only to a limited degree. Generally, little differential performance by gender has

been found. According to Ryan and Bachman (1992), the TOEFL did not demonstrate gender

DIF. When means of subtests were compared, no significant gender differences were found

in listening, structure and written expression, or vocabulary and reading. Wainer and Lukhele

(1997) also reported that the reading comprehension tests of TOEFL showed essentially no

differential functioning by gender.

In this term that is , the effect of gender on the performance of EFL male and female

language learners’ achievement test, there have been conducted various studies. Angela

Rammouz (English education consultant Lebanese International University) in English

Intermediate Cycle (Brevet) Official Examination Results, for the Regular Session of

Examination Results, for the Regular Session of 2002-2003, according to Regions and

Gender, clearly showed that the percentage of success of females was higher than males in all

regions of Lebanon in EF learning. For instance, the percentage of success among females


was 76.33%, 57.52%, 55.89%,73.14%, 55.38% and 55.42% in Beirut, the North, the South,

Mount Lebanon, Nabatiyé and the Bekaa respectively, while it was 63.61%, 52.11%, 52.52%,

67.09%, 54.64% and 53.15% among males for the same regions. Thus it is evident from the

given data that females performed better than males in the Intermediate Cycle official

examinations (2002-2003) in all regions.

Hard evidence of any differences, especially in the specific L2 environment, can be

useful for further development of linguistic theory as well as applicable in today's EFL

classroom. As Sy (1995) points out, "A longitudinal study, together with quantitative and

qualitative analyses of data, may also shed light on sex differences and Language Learning

Strategies." This study, therefore, is intended to examine the effects of gender on EFL

achievement test and a comparison between males’ and females’ scores as well.

3. Method

3.1 Participants

The participants in this study were pre-university school students (240 males and 240

females) who were selected at random from four educational regions of Ahvaz. They

attended the English language classes in the second semester of the year 2010/2011 and

participated in the final English achievement test at the end of that semester. Out of 240 male

students, 120 were majoring in science and 120 in art and humanities; and it was the same for

240 female students. In order to ensure that the participants shared similar characteristics,

such as language skills, only those participants, who had previously passed the first semester

final exam, were included in this study. They all were from different classes of society. The

age of the participants was between 17 and 18, and they all had 7-9 years of experience in

English language learning.

3.2 Instrument

One instrument was used for this study. It was the raw scores of the students’ English

achievement test which administered at the end of second semester. The test paper included

four parts: vocabulary, grammar, sentence function, and reading comprehension. The items

contained fill in the blank, matching, multiple- choice, and jumbled sentence questions which

intended to assess students’ overall ability in language use. To ensure the effectiveness of the

test, a nationwide English test was chosen. A sample of the test has been provided at the end

of the paper in appendix section.

3.3 Data collection


The raw scores belonged to the participants who were in science and humanities majors.

They were collected from four educational departments in Ahvaz.

3.4 Data analysis

SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 16.0 has been employed to analyse the data.

Firstly, descriptive analysis has been performed to compute the means, and standard

deviations to see the mean differences of two groups (males and females). Secondly,

Independent-Samples T-Tests have been employed to compare the differences among

different groups (between science male and female students, between humanities male and

female students, and between total of science and humanities male and female students).

Thirdly, the effect sizes (Eta squared) have been run to calculate the strength of association

and the relative magnitude of the differences between males and females.

4. Results

This study aimed to investigate if there were females’ outperformance rather than that of

males in their EFL achievement tests. The research questions were analysed by means,

standard deviations, independent-samples t-tests, and effect sizes.

As can be seen in table 1, the total average of the humanities female students (M=13.18) is

higher than that of males’ (M= 11.47). Humanities female students outperformed the

humanities male students. In this case, Female students have a standard deviation of 3.20

whereas males have achieved a standard deviation of 3.54 that shows the amount of variation

within female scores is smaller than males’.

Table 1 Humanities males’and females’ Mean and Standard Deviation

In table 2, the result of the independent-samples t-test indicates that there is a significant

difference between the scores of the two humanities groups. (P< 0.05, Sig= 0.00).

Table 2 Humanities males’ and females’ independent-Samples t- Test

GenderofHumanities

N Mean Std. Deviation

Scoresof Humanities male 120 11.4729 3.54470

female 120 13.1875 3.20979


Figurer1. Mean of humanities male and female scores

Here, the effect size was calculated in order to see the magnitude of the difference and the

strength of association in humanities males’ and females’ students. The calculated effect size

is 0.06, so it is concerned with a moderate effect between humanities males’ and females’

scores. Cohen (1988, as cited in Pallant, 2001: 175)

Table 3 indicates that the total mean of the science female students (M=16.01) is higher

than that of males’ (M= 15.20). In this case, female students outperformed the male students.

Female students have a standard deviation of 2.84 whereas that of males’ is 3.28. This shows

that the amount of variation within female scores is smaller than males’.

Table 3 Science males’ and females’ mean and standard deviation

As can be seen in table 4, the results also indicate that there is a significant difference

between the scores of two science groups. (P< 0.05, Sig= 0.04)

t-test for Equality of Means

t df

Sig. (2-

tailed)

Mean

Difference

Scores ofHumanities Equal variances

assumed-3.928 238 .000 -1.71458

GenderofScience N Mean Std. Deviation

Scores ofScience male 120 15.2083 3.28757female 120 16.0188 2.84863


Table 4 Science males’ and females’ independent-samples t- test

Figure2. Mean of science male and female scores

The result of the effect size obtained for the third question (d= 0.01) also shows that there is a

small effect of difference between science males’ and females’ students.

Table 5 indicates that the total mean of all female students (M= 15.59) is higher than that of

males’ (M= 12.33). Here, female students outperformed the male students. The standard

deviation of all females is 3.09 while all males have achieved a standard deviation of 3.48. It

reveals that females’ scores have a small amount of variation rather than males’.

Table 5 Total males’ and females’ mean and standard deviation

t-test for Equality of Means

t df

Sig. (2-

tailed) Mean Difference

Scores ofScience

Equal variances assumed -2.041 238 .042 -.81042

Gender of Total N Mean Std. Deviation

Total Male and Female Scores male 239 12.3316 3.48920

female 241 15.5985 3.09854


As table 6 shows, results of statistical analysis of independent-samples t-test also reveal that

the p-value is 0.00. (P< 0.05). This means that there was a significant difference between the

total mean males and the total mean females.

Table 6 Total males’ and females’ independent-samples t-test

Figure 3.Mean of total male and female scores

Here, the effect size was calculated for the third question in order to investigate the strength

and the magnitude of difference in total males’ and females’ students. It was equal to 0.19. It

also indicates that there is a small relative magnitude of difference between the total females

and the total males.

5. Discussion

This study aimed to investigate if there were females’ outperformance rather than that of

males in their EFL achievement tests. After running the SPSS program and observing the

results it was understood that the obtained findings were congruent with the previously

resulted findings. What emerged clearly from the analyses is the fact that female students at

t dfSig. (2-

tailed)

Mean

Difference

Total Male

andFemaleScores Equal variancesassumed -10.848 478 .000 -3.26696


both the humanities and the science majors outperform that of the male students. According

to Majors and Gender, it clearly showed that the success of the total females was better than

males in all regions of Ahvaz in their EFL achievement test. For instance, the means among

humanities and science females was 13.18, 16 respectively, while it was 11.47 and 15 among

males for the same majors. Again the total mean of females was 15.59 while it was 12.33 for

total males in Ahvaz. Thus, it is evident from the given data that females performed better

than males in the final exam (1387-1388) in all regions of Ahvaz. These results imply that

gender is a factor which is concerned with EFL learning. Gender was found to have

significant effect (P< 0.05, Sig= 0.00) on students’ EFL achievement test. The findings are

consistence with findings of Huebner (1995), Linn and Hyde (1989), Chaves (2001), and

Rammouz (2003) which suggested that females are better second language learners. These

findings however revealed a significant interaction effect of gender on students’ achievement

test, the effect sizes (humanities d= 0.06, science d= 0.01, and total d= 0.19) were relatively

moderate and small respectively. Again the results of this study are congruent with findings

of Rayan and Bachman (1992) who suggested that there was little differential performance by

gender, the TOEFL did not demonstrate gender DIF, Zwick (2002) who stated that the means

of females’ differences were slightly higher than those of males, and Rammouz (2003) who

suggested that the percentage of success among females was 76.33%, 57.52%, 55.89%,

73.14%, 55.38% and 55.42% in Beirut, the North, the South, Mount Lebanon, Nabatiyé and

the Bekaa respectively, while it was 63.61%, 52.11%, 52.52%, 67.09%, 54.64% and 53.15%

among males for the same regions. All the above findings showed that there was a small

effect size between males’ and females’ performances.

This study has some limitations. First of all, the number of participants was rather

limited; secondly, they were all from the same city. Caution should therefore be exercise in

generalising the current findings beyond this student population, or indeed to other wider

population. A bigger sample size might have yielded slightly different. The third limitation

which can be mentioned here is related to the final test used in the article. Much more time,

energy, and study are needed in order to prepare a more valid and reliable test.

It is important that EFL instructors be informed more with the gender effects. They need to

be more familiar with the differences between males and females. The findings of this study

help instructors to select their instructional strategies more effectively related to gender.

6. Conclusion


In view of the quantitative findings of this study, it is clear that female students in humanities

and science majors outscored that of the males’. The total female students outperformed the

total male students. This study indicates that however there is a significant difference

between males’ and females’ performance, the magnitude of the difference and the strength

of association between the total males and the total females is relatively small. Therefore,

gender could have a small effect on students’ EFL achievement tests.

For further research, this study is needed to be done in different Types of context

students. The effects of gender could be investigated more with treatment and control groups.

Some research with learners with different ages could be helpful to find the best answers to

the above research questions. Another interesting approach could be investigating whether it

is necessary to present the content of the curriculum of EFL classes in accordance with

gender.

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Appendix


Pre- university final exam


Title

Contrastive Analysis of English Language and Persian Language Prepositions

Author

Farzaneh Aminzadeh Arkhodi (M.A student)

Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e-Heydarieh Branch, Iran

Biodata

Farzaneh Aminzadeh Arkhodi M.A student at Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e-Heydarieh Branch (IAU), Iran. She is currently teaching English in a private school, Taybad, Iran. Her main interests are e-learning, language teaching and sociolinguistics.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate if Iranian intermediate EFL learners have

difficulty in using English prepositions after verbs. The differences between two

languages were considered. As prepositions are one of the most problem making

areas in language learning, the aim of this study is to show some of them. Since

the area of prepositions is so broad, the researcher has chosen those verbs which

have special prepositions and cause difficulty for EFL learners. For this purpose

two tests were administered to 40 intermediate students majoring in English. In

one of them, the learners were required to translate 30 Persian sentences into

English. The sentences have verbs with special prepositions. In the other test, the

learners were asked to read 30 English sentences and fill in the blank by using the

correct answer from the given options. To determine the level of difficulty a

hierarchy of difficulty was developed (Ziahosseiny, 1999). Then the number of

errors on both perceptive and productive tests was counted and the percentage of

errors on each verb was calculated. This essay is written on the assumption that

Persian as a first language interferes with English and causes prepositional

mistakes. By collecting and analyzing the data, L1 interference was clarified. The

pedagogical implications are applicable for researchers, teachers and learners.

Keywords: contrastive analysis, prepositions and prepositions after verbs,

interference


1. Introduction

Mastering a language is hard enough. Languages are great instruments in communicating

with another person, orally or written. English prepositions cause problems for learners of

English. It is one of the most problematic parts to learn. This problem also exists for Iranian

intermediate L2 learners. Even advanced learners of English find prepositions difficult.

Contrastive analysis (CA) will be used as a method to compare English language with Persian

language and find differences in the use of prepositions. Prepositions after verbs means those

verbs which have special prepositions and one should not confuse them with phrasal verbs

and also verbs which several prepositions come after them depending on the following nouns.

Many intermediate Iranian learners of English have problems in the proper use of these

prepositions. To diagnose such problems, CA as a branch of linguistic was a relatively sound

basis. A brief description of the field is given by Fisiak (1981: p. 1): “Contrastive analysis

may be roughly defined as a subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of

two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences

and similarities between them”. CA is effective for diagnosing learner's errors, if it focuses

on areas of slight relative difference which may cause due to transfer from the learners’ L1

(Lado, 1957). The level of difficulty in using English prepositions is indicated by Prator`s

hierarchy of difficulty. These verbs fall in the sixth level of hierarchy of difficulty that is

named split (Ziahosseiny, 1940).

The purpose of this paper is therefore to define the difficulties that Iranian EFL

learners face in the proper use of prepositions after verbs. It should be noted not to bring

phrasal verbs into play. The verbs whose prepositions cause difficulty were searched in the

Dictionary of English Prepositions translated and compiled by Behtash (1987). The verbs

were found alphabetically. So the verbs from a-f were included in the questionnaires of the

study and the rest of the verbs can be studied by another researcher.

This research tries to contribute the benefit as the following:

1. Practical Benefits:

a. The writer hopes that this study will help the readers understand the differences between

English and Iranian prepositions after verbs.

b. This research will give information to the next writers who want to analyze a related study.

2. Academic Benefits:

a. The research can be used to increase the understanding of English and Persian prepositions

after verbs.


b. This research can be developed as a reference dealing with English and Persian

prepositions after verbs.

1.1 Statement of the Problem

Prepositions constitute 14% of all tokens produced in most languages. They are reported as

yielding among the highest error class rates across various languages (Izumi et al, 2004). In

their analysis of a small corpus of advanced-intermediate French as a Second Language

(FSL) learner, Hermet et al. (2008) found that preposition choice accounted for 17.2 % of all

errors. Prepositions can be seen as the most problematic. After observing and experiencing

many difficulties on the part of using prepositions after verbs, the researcher has decided to

develop a paper about the differences in English and Persian prepositions after verbs.

1.2 Research Questions

To achieve the goals of the present study, the researcher has used the following questions:

1. Which source of errors has a more powerful role in the perception and production of the

prepositions after verbs?

2. Is there a difference between productive and perceptive knowledge of prepositions?

2. Literature Review

2.1 Prepositions

What is a preposition? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “1. One part of speech; an

indeclinable word or particle serving to mark the relation between two notional words. 2. Any

word or particle prefixed to another word. 3. The action of placing before; position of before

or after (rare)” (1956, p. 1571). The definition of prepositions according to Matthews (1997):

a word whose members come before a noun phrase and which indicates syntactic relations.

2.2 Contrastive Analysis

CA is effective in the diagnosis and remediation of learner's errors, if it focuses on areas of

slight relative difference which may tempt the learner to transfer from L1 (Lado, 1957).

Preposition and phrasal verb errors are of three kinds: a) omission, b) insertion, c) use

of the wrong preposition (Yarmohammadi, 1998). In this article, just the last one will be

considered. The problem with prepositions after verbs is a clear example of native language

interference. It can be linked to the strong version of CA. Strong version states that the degree

of difficulty depends on the degree of differences. One problem with prepositions is that in

English there are usually more prepositions than in Persian. It can be included in the sixth

level of hierarchy of difficulty named split. In Persian, for example, the preposition /?æz/ can


mean: from, in, by, over, of, through, than, by way of , because, out of, or belonging to. The

Persian preposition /be/ can mean: to, in, into, at, on, of, with, upon, for, from, and as. One

problem with these verbs is that they are learned as a unit, it means that they are used just

with these prepositions in English. For example, English believes in while Persian believes to;

English depends on while Persian depends to (Yarmohammadi, 1998). A number of problems

occur because the pupils think that there is a one-to-one relationship between English and

Persian where there is none.

2.3 Interference

Behavioristic psychology has suggested that the principle of transfer is at work in learning.

Transfer is of two basic types: positive or negative. Positive transfer occurs when the first

learning is similar to the second one which facilitates learning L2. Negative transfer causes

interference which happens when the first language is different from the second one.

Interference impedes learning L2, i.e. L1 inhibits L2 learning (Ziahosseiny, 1999). CA is

based on the assumption that second or foreign language learners transfer features of their L1

to their L2 utterances (Keshavarz, 2006). Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams (2003) claim our

native language cannot be suppressed – it is transferred subconsciously. When we do not

have strategies in L2 we turn to L1 for help.

3. Methodology In order to provide the quantitative data for the study, the before mentioned questionnaires

were given to 20 students majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). They

were both male and female and of similar educational background, i.e., all were students in

the third year.

So as to check their performance on English prepositions after verbs, the researcher

used two questionnaires, a perceptive test and a productive test. The receptive test consisted

of 30 English fill in the blank sentences with four options asking students to fill the blank

choosing the appropriate preposition (appendix A). The other test is the productive test

consisted of 30 Persian sentences requiring students to translate them in English (appendix

B). A table of new verbs and their translation was given (appendix C). These questionnaires

were sent to students via e-mail.

Twenty Iranian Intermediate EFL learners were included in the study. They had the

same educational background; all of them were in the sixth term of the university. Factors


such as age and sex were not taken into account. No special criterion was selected for

choosing them. They were chosen randomly.

3.1 Procedure

Two questionnaires were given to the participants, a perceptive test (appendix A) and a

productive test (appendix B). The perceptive test consisted of 30 English fill in the blank

sentences with four options asking students to fill the blank with the appropriate preposition.

The other test is the productive test consisted of 30 Persian sentences requiring students to

translate them into English. As some words might be unfamiliar to them, the verbs with their

meanings were put in a table at the end of the questionnaire and the participants were asked

to use that table instead of a dictionary (appendix C). These questionnaires were sent to

students through e-mail and they were asked not to use dictionary for answering the

questions. Clear instructions were given about how to answer the questions. Then the answers

were analyzed to find the error frequencies and their sources.

4. Results and discussion

The results from the questionnaires proved that Iranian pupils had more correct answers on

their perceptive knowledge of prepositions than on their productive knowledge, see figures 1

and 2 below. The figures also show that most errors which the learners commit are due to

their mother tongue interference. Where the learners have learned the prepositions after the

verbs, they made more less errors on both parts (appendix D). If the frequency of the correct

answers is decreased in both tests, the result will be 20.67. If the frequency of Persian

equivalents of prepositions is decreased in both tests, the result will be 24.66.

Students' perceptive knowledge of Students' productive knowledge of

prepositions prepositions

(1: correct- 2: Persian equivalent- 3: other) (1: correct- 2: Persian equivalent-

3: other)

Figure 1 Figure 2

0

20

40

60

1 2 3

0

20

40

60

1 2 3


The frequencies of correct answers in both productive and perceptive tests are shown in

figure 3. As it is clearly shown in this figure, the frequency of correct answers is higher in

perceptive test than that in productive test.

Figure 3: Frequency of correct answers in receptive and productive tests

Perceptive test

Productive test

These results are based on very few students and the percentage rate might have come out

differently if more students had participated. The fact that the pupils performed better in the

first test was not surprising since it is common to understand a word before it can be

produced. When learners lack knowledge they use their first language to fill in the gaps. Most

errors which the learners have committed are because of their mother tongue interference

called negative transfer. Sometimes transfer causes easiness and facilitates learning but on the

part of prepositions after verbs it is not so. The reason is that because these verbs have

especial prepositions, the learner should not use their mother tongue equivalents. When they

do so there will be problems with the prepositions although it creates no problem on the part

of understanding the massage. Students’ errors are more evident on the productive test which

represent the learners have more difficulty in producing the appropriate prepositions.

Production is more difficult than perception. The range of their correct answers has decreased

from 53.33%, on receptive test, to 32.66%, on productive test.

Learners had very few or even no difficulty in recognizing the prepositions they have

been familiar with in both tests which are very few in numbers. For example the preposition

after the verb ‘believe in’ is not mistaken as its Persian equivalent ‘believe to’ in the

perceptive test. The result also shows that although students may be familiar with the

required preposition, they may be unable to produce them correctly. The degree of errors

increases in producing the prepositions after the verbs when the learners are not familiar with

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29


the prepositions. In this case, they will use their mother tongue equivalents. For example

blush at, change for, deprive of, confer on, and brood on will be produced as blush from,

change with, deprive from, confer to, and brood over respectively. In very few cases the

sources of errors are something other than mother tongue interference e.g. guessing.

5. Conclusion

To solve this problem, many experts in the field of second language learning and teaching

have proposed solutions. To treat this problem appropriately, Krashen (1983) suggests that

massive amount of ‘language input’, especially through reading, is the only effective

approach to learning. Exposing learners to enough examples and texts will help them acquire

the proper prepositions after verbs.

English prepositions are difficult for Iranian learners like all other learners in the

world. Often There are some prepositions that are particularly frequent in errors: to, in, at, of,

for, from, about, on, by and with. The reason why they are confused with each other partly

has to do with mother tongue interference. A less advanced learner will use more L1

knowledge when there is a lack of knowledge in the L2. This strategy results in positive or

negative transfer depending on the similarities of the languages. Prepositions used in Persian

sometimes have two or more equivalents in English, which also contributes to the complexity

of the matter.

There was a significant difference between pupils’ productive and perceptive skills.

The results of the investigation proved that students performed better in the task that tested

their perceptive knowledge of prepositions than the one that tried their productive skills.

When learners had to produce a preposition in English that was unknown and unfamiliar they

often transferred the incorrect Persian equivalent instead of other possible options. It is

therefore necessary to expose learners to more input so that they can avoid collocational

mistakes and become aware of language. The aim should be to transfer their perceptive skills

to productive ones so the students can express themselves more accurately and with more

confidence ( Liane Blom, 2006).

References

Behtash, E. Z. (1987). Dictionary of English Prepositions. Amir-Kabir publication. Tehran.

Blom, L. (2006). Swedish Problems with English Prepositions. Handledare Patricia Jonasson.

Examinator Mari-Ann Berg.


Fisiak, J. (ed.) (1981). Contrastive Analysis and the Language Teacher. Oxford: The Pergamon

Institue of English.

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., and Hyams, N. ( 2003). An Introduction to Language. 7th ed. Boston:

Thomson – Heinle.

Hermet, M., Désilets, A., & Szpakowicz, S. (2008). Using the Web as a Linguistic Resource to

Automatically Correct Lexico-Syntactic Errors. In ProceEdings of the LREC'08. Marrakech,

Morroco.

Izumi, E., Uchimoto, K. & Isahara, H. (2004). The Overview of the Speech Corpus of Japanese

Learner English and Evaluation through the Experiment on Automatic Detection of Learners’

Errors. In LREC.

Keshavarz, M. (2006). Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis. Tehran: Rahnama Press.

Krashen, S. D. (1983). The Natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Oxford:

Pergamon Press.

Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics Across Cultures: Applied Linguistics for Language Teachers. University

of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor.

Matthews, P. H. (1997). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Oxford Dictionary. (1956). Oxford Dictionary Press. p. 1571.

Yarmohammadi, L. (1998). A Contrastive Analysis of Persian and English. Payame Noor University

publication.

Ziahosseiny, S. M. (1999). A Contrastive Analysis of Persian and English & Error Analysis. Tehran:

Nashr-e-Vira.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

Choose the appropriate preposition from the given options.

1. We will abide …… their decision.

a) at b) by c) to d) with

2. The jury acquitted him …… murder.

a) at b) from c) of d) on

3. We employ an expert to advice ….. new technology.

a) for b) on c) over d) about

4. His earnings are said to amount ….. 300000 $ per annum.

a) to b) on c) at d) with

5. He was beginning to get very annoyed ….. me about my carelessness.

a) from b) with c) for d) on

6. He assured himself ….. her safety.

a) from b) of c)for d) about

7. Guests are encouraged to avail ….the full range of hotel facilities.


a) of b) from c) with d) at

8. Many parents may balk …. the idea of paying 100$ for a pair of shoes.

a) for b) from c) at d) on

9. I do not believe …. hitting children.

a) at b) with c) to d) in

10. It was a title bestowed …. him by the king.

a) for b) to c) on d) at

11. She blushed furiously …. the memory of the conversation.

a) with b) from c) at d) for

12. He openly boast …. his skill as a burglar.

a) of b)to c) at d) for

13. You are not still brooding …. what he said, are you?

a) about b) over c) for d) to

14. She moved back home to care …. her elderly parents.

a) from b) at c) for d) to

15. We changed the car …. a bigger one.

a) for b) with c) over d) to

16. I do not feel I can comment …. their decision.

a) on b) about c) over d) for

17. An honorary degree was conferred …. him by the Oxford University in 1995.

a) to b) on c) at d) with

18. I congratulated them all …. their results.

a) at b) on c) with d) for

19. It would depend …. class size.

a) on b) to c) upon d) at

20. They were imprisoned and deprived …. their basic right.

a) from b) of c) over d) for

21. They would almost despair … ever having children.

a) from b) on c) to d) of

22. French differs …. English in this respect.

a) from b) with c) on d) upon

23. He divested himself …. his jacket.

a) from b) of c) on d) for

24. So you made a mistake, but there is no need to dwell …. it.

a) on b) around c) over d) about

25. He became embroiled …. a dispute with his neighbors.

a) in b) at c) on d) with

26. He never allows work to encroach …. his family life.

a) from b) in c) at d) on

27. You can exchange your currency …. dollars in the hotel.


a) around b) from c) with d)for

28. She wrote to expatiate …. second world war completely.

a) about b)over c) on d) in

29. She expanded all her efforts …. the care of home and children.

a) for b) on c) with d) at

30. Butterflies feed …. the flowers of garden plants.

a) with b) from c) to d) on

APPENDIX B

Instruction: Translate the below sentences into English. Use the verbs from the following table.

.د به يکديگر وفادار باشيمما باي .1

.پليس او را از دزدی تبرئه کرد .2

.والدينش او را درباره استفاده از کامپيوتر نصيحت کردند .3

.تومان در ماه شد3000000مخارج زندگی آنھا بالغ بر .4

.او آزرده شد از اينکه بايد متن را دوباره بنويسد .5

.اديمما به آنھا درباره تمام کردن به موقع کار اطمينان د .6

.بايد از امکانات به درستی استفاده کنيم .7

.احمد از جواب دادن طفره رفت .8

.من به تحسين کردن بچه ھا اعتقاد دارم .9

.جايزه نوبل توسط فدراسيون به او اعطا شد .10

.او شرمنده شد از کاری که انجام داده بود .11

.آنھا به مھارتھای فرزندشان می باليدند .12

.بود علی به تواناييھايش فکر نکرده .13

.او ھميشه از والدينش پرستاری می کند .14

.آنھا خانه شان را با يک خانه بزرگتر عوض کردند .15

.من درباره نحوه لباس پوشيدنت اظھار نظر نمی کنم .16

.به او اعطا شد 1870اين لقب در سال .17

.ما برای انجام کارھايمان به ديگران متکی بوديم .18

.دآنھا از بازی کردن با دوستانشان محروم شدن .19

.از رسيدن به آرزوھايم نا اميد شدم .20

.رفتار احمد با رفتار خواھرش فرق دارد .21

.او خودش را از انجام کارھی زليد خالصکرد .22

.بايد درباره پيشنھاد شما فکر کنم .23

.تولدش را به او تبريک گفتم .24

.پرنده در دام صياد گرفتار شد .25

.مردم نبايد از قوانين تخطی کنند .26

.زار کرد تابه تفضيل دربارھتورم سخن بگويداو اين سخنرانی را برگ .27

.شما ميتوانيد گندم ھايتان را فرش مبادله کنيد .28

.او نيمی از دارايی اش را برای فقرا خرج کرد .29

.گوسفندھا از علف تغذيه ميکنند .30


APPENDIX C Instruction: You can use this table as a dictionary.

APPENDIX D Results, perceptive test:

1. We will abide …… their decision.

a) at b) by (40%) c) to (60%) d) with

2. The jury acquitted him …… murder.

a) b) from (50%) c) of (50%) d) on

3. We employ an expert to advice ….. new technology.

a) for (10%) b) on (40%) c) over d) about (50%)

4. His earnings are said to amount ….. 300000 $ per annum.

a) to (70%) b) on c) at (30%) d) with

5. He was beginning to get very annoyed ….. me about my carelessness.

a) from (10%) b) with (70%) c) for (10%) d) on (10%)

6. He assured himself ….. her safety.

a) from (10%) b) of (50%) c)for (20%) d) about (20%)

7. Guests are encouraged to avail ….the full range of hotel facilities.

a) of (40%) b) from (30%) c) with (20%) d) at (10%)

8. Many parents may balk …. the idea of paying 100$ for a pair of shoes.

a) for (10%) b) from (30%) c) at (30%) d) on (30%)

9. I do not believe …. hitting children.

a) at b) with c) to d) in (100%)

10. It was a title bestowed …. him by the king.

a) for (20%) b) to (30%) c) on (50%) d) at

Abide : وفادار بودن Be annoyed … sth: آزرده شدن از کسی

Acquit : تبرئه کردن Assure: اطمينان دادن

Advise : نصيحت کردن Avail : استفاده کردن

Amount : بالغ شٮن بر -رسيٮن به Balk: طفره رفتن

Believe: اعتقاد داشتن به Blush: شرمنده شدن از

Bestow: اعطا کردن به Boast: باليدن به

Brood: فکر کردن درباره Change: عوض کردن با

Care: مراقبت کردن Comment: اظھار نظرکردن درباره

Confer:اعطا کردن به Congratulate: تبريک گفتن

Depend: متکی بودن به Deprive: محروم کردن از

Despair: نااميد شدن از Differ: فرق داشتن با

Divest: ردن ازمحروم ک -خالص کردن از Dwell: فکر کردن

Embroil: گرفتار کردن در Encroach: تخطی کردن از

Exchange: تعويض و مبادله کردن Expatiate: به تفضيل سخن طفتن يانوشتن ٮرباره چيزی

Expend: خرج کردن برای Feed: تغذيه کردن از


11. She blushed furiously …. the memory of the conversation.

a) with (30%) b) from (10% c) at (50%) d) for (10%)

12. He openly boast …. his skill as a burglar.

a) of (40%) b)to c) at (30%) d) for (30%)

13. You are not still brooding …. what he said, are you?

a) about (70%) b) over (20%) c) for d) to (10%)

14. She moved back home to care …. her elderly parents.

a) from (30%) b) at c) for (70%) d) to

15. We changed the car …. a bigger one.

a) for (30%) b) with (50%) c) over d) to (20%)

16. I do not feel I can comment …. their decision.

a) on (100%) b) about c) over d) for

17. An honorary degree was conferred …. him by the Oxford University in 1995.

a) to (50%) b) on (40%) c) at d) with (10%)

18. I congratulated them all …. their results.

a) at b) on (40%) c) with (20%) d) for (40%)

19. It would depend …. class size.

a) on (100%) b) to c) upon d) at

20. They were imprisoned and deprived …. their basic right.

a) from (30%) b) of (70%) c) over d) for

21. They would almost despair … ever having children.

a) from (30%) b) on c) to d) of (70%)

22. French differs …. English in this respect.

a) from (100%) b) with c) on d) upon

23. He divested himself …. his jacket.

a) from (50%) b) of (30%) c) on (20%0 d) for

24. So you made a mistake, but there is no need to dwell …. it.

a) on (60%) b) around (10%) c) over d) about (30%)

25. He became embroiled …. a dispute with his neighbors.

a) in (60%) b) at(20%) c) on (20%) d) with

26. He never allows work to encroach …. his family life.

a) from b) in (50%) c) at (10%) d) on (40%)

27. You can exchange your currency …. dollars in the hotel.

a) around b) from c) with (60%) d)for (40%)

28. She wrote to expatiate …. second world war completely.

a) about (60%) b)over (10%) c) on (30%) d) over

29. She expanded all her efforts …. the care of home and children.

a) for (40%) b) on (40%) c) with (10%) d) at (10%)

30. Butterflies feed …. the flowers of garden plants.

a) with (20%) b) from (30%) c) to d) on (50%)


Title

A Student-Centred Literature Class: A Step towards a Less Stressful Literary Experience in Language Classes

Authors

Parviz Birjandi (Ph.D)

Allameh Tabataba’i University

Sarvenaz Khatib (Ph.D candidate) Allameh Tabataba’i University

Biodata

Parviz Birjandi, professor holding a Ph.D. in English education; minor: Research methods and statistics from the University of Colorado. He is currently the Dean of the College of Foreign Languages and Persian Literature in the Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch. He has published a number of articles in the area of TEFL and is the author of English textbooks for high school and pre-university levels, five university textbooks and four practice textbooks. Sarvenaz Khatib is a Ph.D. candidate of TEFL at Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. Her research interests include the use of literature in EFL contexts, second language acquisition and intercultural competence.

Abstract

The present study attempts to examine the efficacy of a student-centred approach

to implementation of literature in EFL contexts. To this aim, 34 Iranian

undergraduate students, 24 girls and 10 boys, majoring in English Translation

Studies were selected to constitute the participants of this study. They attended an

English literature class in which 22 poems, 3 short stories and a play were read

and discussed. As the goal of the researcher was to observe the effect of the

reader-oriented literature teaching methodology in the learners’ anxiety levels, a

25-itwem anxiety scales was devised and administered once prior to the

experimentation and again after the completion of it. The statistical analyses

revealed a significant decrease in the mean of anxiety levels of participants after

the completion of the treatment, signifying the success of the introduced

methodology in lowering inhibition towards literary texts in learners.

Keywords: Student-centred class, Anxiety, Anxiety scale, EFL literature

contexts.


1. Introduction

In recent years the proponents of using literature as a teaching material in EFL/ESL contexts

have attempted to enumerate a number of advantageous outcomes of such a use in language

classes (Brumfit & Carter, 2000; Parkinson & Reid Thomas, 2000; Lazar, 1993). Collie and

Slater (1994), for example, list authenticity, language and cultural enrichment and personal

involvement as the most marked benefits teaching and reading literature in language classes

can bring about.

The truth is that disregarding all other peculiar aspects of literature, the cultural

familiarisation and heuristic readings of learners alone suffice to candidate literary texts as

eligible materials in the recurrent communicative methods of language teaching. In the

thriving field of Interlanguage Pragmatics, for instance, one of the subsets of pragmatic

learning of EFL learners is now known to be the sociopragmatic aspect, comprised of

knowledge of social and cultural norms and conventions of the target community (Kasper &

Roever, 2004). Scholars in the field of ELT are now viewing the inclusion of teaching

pragmatics in EFL contexts as indispensible. Soler and Martinez-Flor (2008) assert that

indispensability of attending to pragmatic aspect of language in developing learners’

communicative competence, known to be the core of language proficiency in recent theories

of language teaching/learning (Ellis, 2008). In such a context, literature can be used as a

means of revealing the cultural and social aspects of the target culture and hence, implicitly

familiarising learners with intricacies of the culture of the community the language of which

they are learning.

Moreover, as pointed by Lazar (1993), literature stimulates student inferences by

involving them in the process of reading. The multiplicity of layers embedded in literary texts

and their meanings require students to take part in a heuristic quest for interpretations and

meanings. It is evident how this personal involvement and mental engagement leads to

beneficial outcomes such as a more flourished critical thinking ability (Halpem, 1999) and an

extended application of metacognitive processing of the input.

However, in spite of all benefits that can be resulted from using literary texts as teaching

material in EFL classes, relevant studies in the field seem to fail in offering teachers a strong

incentive for such a use. A number of reasons can be thought of as effective in this rather

cold reception of literature by language teachers. Generally, factors affecting this disregard of


literature as a source of material in language classes can roughly be categorised as teacher-

related and student-related factors.

Most importantly, in many cases education systems and teachers have not been quite

successful in implanting a love for and appreciation of literature at schools; unenthusiastic

and mechanic approach of teachers towards literature in students’ native language has led to a

sort of resistance in appraisal of and communication with literary texts in a foreign language

as well. It is only evident that concentrating on a subject not necessarily ‘likable’ by students

can turn into an even more arduous task when done in another language. Amongst teacher-

related factors, lack of enough training and unawareness of appropriate methodologies and

approaches to the effective implementation of literary texts in language teaching contexts has

created reluctance in EFL teachers to consider literature as a fruitful material for language

teaching. The anxiety that reading and discussing literature gives to language teachers and

learners is one of the most influential psychological barriers to rethinking the role literature

can have in EFL syllabi (Showalter, 2003). With the rapid propulsion of Educational

Psychology as an area of study that focuses on social, emotional and behavioural parameters

in learners affecting learning, examining the nature and causes of anxiety as a remarkable

psychological factor in learning processes gains great significance (Child, 2004).

Anxiety is defined by Moreno (2010) as “a negative affective state that involves a vague,

highly unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension” (p. 354), high degrees of which

debilitates students and impedes the easy and natural flow of learning. Although anxiety can

be classified into different categories depending on its consistency of existence and degree,

the present study restricts its scope to an observation of state anxiety, concentrating on

situational anxiety experienced in literature classes only (Brown, 2007).

When it comes to reading and discussing literary texts in language classes, learners can

become uneasy or anxious by a number of different factors including tension of having a

correct interpretation of a text and being able to reach a full and acceptable understanding of

it. This psychological discomfort not only leads to a lack of orientation towards reading

literature, but also causes a considerable decrease in learners’ motivation for approaching

literary texts or establishing a personal relationship with them (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010).

Furthermore, anxiety has been proved to correlate with achievement in language learning

contexts, as well as in all other learning settings (Horwitz, 2001); this incompetency in

achieving the desired outcome can in turn set an even greater affective filter towards

literature in learners.


Congruent to the researchers’ firm belief in beneficial results of using literary texts in

EFL contexts, the present study was an attempt to examine a teaching methodology with the

hope of reducing the recurrently felt anxiety of students in literature classes. It was strongly

held by the researchers that application of a student-centred pedagogy can put learners in a

leading position where they can take charge of their own learning and thus lower the tension

they feel in subject-centred or teacher-centred learning situations, in which they feel obliged

to perform up to far-fetched criteria. In such an approach, ‘literary competence’ (Brumfit,

1989) was not dwelled upon as a prerequisite for excel at literature classes, but rather a type

of competence reachable by different students in their own terms and at different paces. In

addition, the proposed methodology relied in a belief that what lies in literature, particularly

important for language classes, is far greater than its mere literary qualities and that the

exploration of different linguistic, social, historical and cultural dimensions of literature is

only made possible through a close interaction of readers with literary texts.

Hence, this study put an effort in observing the efficacy of a student-centred approach to

teaching literature in reducing anxiety levels in EFL learners commonly experienced in

literature classes. In the case of lowered inhibition and apprehension in contact with English

literary texts as a result of the proposed methodology one psychological drawback of using

literature in EFL educational contexts, learner anxiety, can be securely eliminated.

2. Materials and Method

2.1. Participants

34 Iranian undergraduate university students, 24 girls and 10 boys, majoring in Translation

Studies at Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran constituted the participants for this study.

These students were between 20 to 25 years of age and were all in their fourth academic

semester. They had all been already acquainted, to some extent, with English literature since

the course in which the experiment was run, Introduction to Literature 1, was the fourth

course devoted to a study of English literary texts of different genres. Their prior experience

of and familiarity with English literature, along with the fact that all students were proficient

enough to carry out oral debates in English made them a suitable sample for this study. Thus,

through the procedures followed in this experiment the fluctuations in the level of anxiety

they customarily experienced in English literature classes could be comparatively observed.

As some of these participants failed to complete one or both of the questionnaires they were

excluded from the final statistical procedures, however, they continued to remain active


members of the group throughout the experiment. As a result, the attention of the researcher

was focused on the results obtained from 27 students, 19 girls and 8 boys, as defining in the

outcome of the study.

2.2. Instruments

Anxiety Questionnaire. To compare participants’ experienced anxiety in literature classes and

during their talking about English literary texts a 25-item anxiety scale was devised. This

questionnaire contained statements regarding the emotional pressure students underwent

while discussing ideas about literature, and they were asked to specify the degree to which

they agreed with the statement by choosing one of the 5 options ranging from Strongly Agree

to Strongly Disagree. This anxiety questionnaire was piloted and revised, and the final

version of it was calculated to have a reliability of .91. This questionnaire was administered

twice, one as a pre-experimental and the other as post-experimental instrument of measuring

the anxiety level in the participants prior and after the experimentation.

Literary Text. As the concern of this study was an observation of students’

experienced anxiety while reading and discussing English literature, literary texts of different

genres were chosen to be read and discussed in the class. To this aim, 22 poems, 3 short

stories and a one-act play were selected as the teaching material of this course. These literary

pieces were all written in English and their selection was because of their conformity to a

number of criteria of interest to the researcher: they were considered to be at the right level of

difficulty, enjoying intriguing themes and plots and were mostly open to in-class discussions

and exchange of opinions.

2.3. Procedure

As the aim of this study was an observation of EFL students’ anxiety fluctuations during

literature classes as a result of different teaching methodologies, the devised anxiety scale

was administered on the very first session of the course. As mentioned earlier, the

participants of this study had all been previously exposed to English literary texts in at least 3

of their prior courses, and therefore, the anxiety scale could estimate the approximate level of

anxiety they customarily felt in literature classes, impacted by the common teaching

methodologies.

The syllabus designed for this course was comprised of literary texts of different genres

of poetry, short story and play, and the exclusion of novels was due to class time constraints

only. As pointed by McKay (1986) and Brumfit (1989), using a literary text with highly

complex linguistic qualities or one reflecting remote cultural ideas and conventions from

what our EFL learners are familiar with leads to an unsuccessful and in vain application of


literature in language classes. Thus care was taken in selection of the literary texts in order to

ascertain their linguistic suitability regarding participants’ language proficiency level and

cultural relevance. Moreover, the chosen texts enjoyed a variety of themes and tackled with

different subjects including nature, love, death, art and others, a versatility that could stop the

class from turning into a monotone, tedious routine.

Because of the rich lexical density of literary texts, and the inherent complexity of

literature, poetry in particular, students were asked to read the texts at home and this provided

them with a chance to concentrate on unfamiliar vocabulary items and to proceed reading in

their own terms and paces away from the pressure of teacher evaluation and being compared

to more advanced or faster-reading classmates. They were also asked to write down their

perceptions and interpretations of every assigned literary text and this helped them think

about the text and have a something to say about it in the class already prepared; although

they were not required to read from their notes, the thought about and written points about the

texts helped them avoid the intimidation of delivering an improvised commentary. However,

after a few sessions the students observably showed more relaxed attitudes and presence in

the class, and therefore the instructor surprised them with unseen manageable literary pieces

in the class at times. In those occasions different strategies were employed, including asking

the students to go through certain paragraphs or lines at first and then try to foretell the

probable twists, chain of events and endings. They shared their view and opinions with other

classmates and the teacher and this exchange created interesting debates; the talk was carried

out after reading the text fully as well.

The class started by volunteer students talking about the literary text at hand by saying

what he had understood of it and how he liked or disliked it. Other students helped them

complete their provided summaries and paraphrases, agreeing or disagreeing with their

classmates’ interpretations and ideas. At first, students were encouraged to concentrate on

“global meanings” (Parkinson & Reid Thomas, 2000. only. Knowing that they are not

required to get involved in the literary technicalities of texts right away, even weaker students

felt more secure to talk about the general gist of the literary text and to express personal

opinions and guesses. Later, students were asked to voice the feelings and reactions aroused

in them by the text and shared viewpoints with the classmates. Meanwhile, the instructor

controlled the turn-takings and geared the pace and led the direction of discussions by posing

a variety of questions relevant to the literary text on different layers. It is noteworthy to

emphasise one of the peculiarities of this teaching methodology which caused a divergence of

this class from the students’ previously experienced literature classes: the participants were


assured that, within the context of their class, what they had to say about the text mattered

both to the teacher and their classmates and that it would not be disregarded as baseless or

unworthy just because they are not academically sound or literarily unscholarly.

Nevertheless, as the academic context of the class demanded for the study of literature as

content rather than a mere language enhancement tool, literariness of the texts needed to be

elaborated on as well. Therefore, in this phase of the class the teacher started clarifying the

complexities of the text by first unravelling the figurative meaning of the text (Lazar, 1993).

One of the focal concerns in this teaching methodology was an effort put in the development

of a close rapport between the students and the texts at hand in order to create maximum

involvement and engagement in them as readers of and ‘responders’ to literature. Elaboration

on extra-linguistic information and delicacies of the literary text they were required to read

was believed to enhance the clarity of the piece and thus lighten the burden of the students

throughout the task of communicating with the text. These clarifications about social,

historical, cultural and in some instances biographical information relevant to the text and the

author in turn paved the path of reading the texts for the students and modified the tension to

a noticeable degree.

The students were then asked to rephrase, modify or change the interpretations and ideas

they had initially expressed about the literary piece and to discuss vague points, unexpected

analyses and controversial viewpoints of that piece of literature (Carter & Long, 1990). The

teacher was ready to aid them in the cases of misunderstandings or when more explanation

was demanded by the students.

This methodology was maintained for 16 sessions and then the same anxiety scale

administered at the beginning of the course was employed again to examine if there had been

any changes in the anxiety level of students as a result of the newly introduced methodology

in their literature class.

2.4. Statistical Analysis

In order to observe possible differences in the anxiety level of the participants in literature

classes and when reading and discussing English literature as a result of the intervention, a

paired-samples t-test was conducted by SPSS software version 18.

3. Results

As demonstrated in Table 1 below, there was a statistically significant decrease in the mean

of anxiety levels of participants after the completion of the treatment. The means of anxiety


level prior and post-experimentation were 70.11 and 61.81 respectively. The mean decrease

in anxiety level was 8.29 with a 95% confidence interval. In order to find out the relative

magnitude of the differences between means, the eta squared statistics was calculated to be

0.25, indicating a large effect size.

Table 1: Paired Samples Statistics

Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error

Mean

Pre

Post 70.1111

61.8148

27

27

17.43854

18.48500

3.35605

3.55744

4. Conclusions

In spite of the promising findings of research on the fruitfulness of using literature in

language teaching, there are still hesitations in language educators for the inclusion of literary

texts in their EFL/ESL syllabi. The movement of communicative language teaching has

raised the significance of communicative competence to its apexin language teaching

methodologies. While many language instructors continue to seek for appropriate tasks and

curricula for incorporating communication in teaching/learning contexts, literature as a major

communication-triggering tool is still largely neglected as a suitable material to be

implemented in EFL contexts. The most conspicuous characteristic of communicative tasks is

that they can involve student in negotiation of meaning and establishments of effective

conversations. The unique lure of literature allows for a variety of different in-class

conversational tasks which can engage learners in collaborative development of

interpretations and active exchange of stances. Meanwhile, as stated by Collie and Slater

(1994) the general language proficiency of students can be enhanced as a result of encounter

with the rich abundance of lexical and grammatical items in a literary text. Therefore, even if

the rich literary content of these texts are not the target of learning, they can still be useful

material for elevating language proficiency of the EFL learners (Paesani, 2011).

Table 2: Paired Samples Test

Paired Differences

t df

Sig. (2-

tailed) Mean

Std.

Deviatio

n

Std.

Error

Mean

95% Confidence

Interval of the

Difference

Lower Upper

Pre - Post 8.296

30

14.37363 2.76621 2.61028 13.98231 2.999 26 .006


Furthermore, learning any language can turn into a more meaningful process once

students begin to become acquainted with exclusive or shared cultural conventions and norms

of the target community and its people. After all most of us do believe in the fact that

learning a new language is learning a new culture. Literature, as a partial mirror of a people’s

cultural and social behaviour, can act as a rout that hastens the familiarity of learners with the

target culture and norms by providing a real image of the flow of life in their society and the

apparent as well as concealed corners of cultural norms and agreements.

Owing to its indirect statement of themes and complex stylistics, literature can involve

readers in processes of critical thinking and thus empowers them to approach subject matters

logically and critically. The thought-provoking nature of literature can invite learners to

develop the ability of close observation and to be in quest of justifications ‘beyond the

surface’ (Bowel & Kemp, 2002).

In spite of all the beneficial qualities of literature, however, there are still a number of

arguments against using literary texts in language teaching contexts. One of them, on which

this study rests, is the psychological uneasiness that reading literature imposes on learners

who might find themselves unprepared or technically unequipped for such a demanding task.

This study examined the effect of a student-centred literature class teaching methodology to

find out whether the anxiety students commonly feel in contact with English literary texts

reduces as a result of the techniques applied in this class. Contrary to the teacher-centred or

subject-centred classes of literature, this methodology promotes the shift of control from the

teacher to the students as active participants and leaders of the course. The teacher acted as a

facilitator and conductor of the flow, while the students took charge of progression of

discussions about literary texts both before and after the teacher’s explanation of them. The

results of this study indicate a significant decrease in the level of students’ anxiety after the

completion of the experimentation.

A point to remember is that, in most cases, reading literature even in one’s native

language seems more demanding a task than tacking with non-literary texts; therefor, the

pressure of reading literary texts in a foreign language appears to be more intimidating to

EFL learners. It is of utmost importance for language teachers to take care in assuring

students that literature is not necessarily a subject that needs specialised information and

education to approach and thus out of their reach. In EFL contexts the primary use of literary

texts with the goal of involving students in active reading and oral production, and the task of

concentrating on literary aspects and analyses proceeds later as the secondary concern only.

Hence, the selection of appropriate material turns into a very focal issue once we decide to


implement literature in our language classes. As stated by Lazar (1993), students’ linguistic

proficiency, their cultural backgrounds and expectations and their literary backgrounds are all

relevant defining criteria to have in mind when teachers are looking for and selecting literary

texts targeted for their EFL learners.

In short, with an appropriate approach to learners as capable individuals whose ideas and

statements are worthy and well-heard, along with a careful choice of literary texts suitable to

the class’s and students’ needs and interests the ambience of our classrooms will naturally be

far less stressful and inhibiting to the learners, inviting them to take part in reading and

discussing the texts more willingly and comfortably.

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Title

A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis of Thematic Structure of Dissertation Abstracts

Authors

Saleh Arizavi (M.A)

Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran

Hossein Shokouhi (Ph.D) Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran

Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi (M.A)

Tehran Payam-e-Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Biodata

Saleh Arizavi M.A. in ELT from Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz, Ahwaz, Iran. His field of interest is applied linguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, teaching academic writing, and systemic functionalism. Hossein Shokouhi associate professor in Applied Linguistics at Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz, Iran. His research interest includes discourse and conversation analysis second language acquisition linguistics neuroscience of language teaching of English to speakers of other languages. He is currently a Lecturer in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Deakin University, Australia. Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi M.A. in ELT of Tehran Payame-Noor University, Tehran, Iran. His field of interest is applied linguistics, discourse analysis, gender differences in TEFL.

Abstract

The ways by which the academic texts are investigated differ from time to time

with legacies of each tradition influencing the subsequent approaches. One of the

approaches that has not lost its favor ever since it was established is the Australian

Systemic Functional tradition. Based on the descriptions provided by this

tradition, in this study, the thematic structure (Halliday, 1994) of the gap

indication move and the Introduction section (Swales, 2004) of 120 dissertation

abstracts from six disciplines was investigated at two levels, i.e. choice of theme

type and thematic progression. The simple topical theme was recognized as the

typical theme of the rhetorical units in focus across the six disciplines. With

respect to the thematic progression, the theme-reiteration and zig-zag patterns


were found to be the characteristic patterns. These results indicate that the

language of abstracts is remarkably factual and far from abstraction.

Keywords: thematic structure, thematic progression, dissertation abstracts, gap

indication move

1. Introduction

One way of analyzing academic texts is examining their functional meanings. One of these

functional aspects is examining the textual meaning (or ‘metafunction’ to use Halliday’s

(1994) term). In English, textual meaning is expressed by means of the order that constituents

are given in the clause. Textual meaning assigns two functional components, i.e. Theme and

Rheme. Theme is identified by first position in the clause. It should be noted that the first

position in the clause is not what defines the Theme; it is the means whereby the function of

Theme is realized in the grammar of English. To keep the readers of a specific field interested

in following the text we write, we should take account of the standards sanctioned by the

expert members of the target discourse community (D. C) One way of accomplishing this is

using the proper Themes in the proper positions in the clause. Studying the thematic structure

is a way of signifying the convoluted relations between Themes in a text, and a way of

reflecting the framework of the text (Jia-po & Bin, 2006:75). It is hypothesized that exploring

the thematicity might have a fundamental role in the identification of rhetorical units of the

dissertation abstracts.

Previous studies on abstracts have mainly focused on the rhetorical structure of abstracts.

Thus far, the link between the rhetorical moves (Swales, 2004) of the dissertation abstracts

and their functional linguistic realizations has not received much momentum. Pho (2008:232)

points out that there are a few studies that have investigated the linguistic features or the link

between the macro-structures and their linguistic realizations in the abstracts. Therefore, for

novice non-native writers of English to gain insight into a more comprehensive

understanding of writing an abstract, it is indispensable that we base our analyses on an

entrenched, functional, and multidimensional linguistic theory that can account for both

semantic and grammatical aspects of language. In this study, a functional approach, which

includes both semantic and linguistic accounts, will be pursued. Pertinent to this study is the

investigation of the thematic structure which is claimed to have been applied much less to the

analysis of written language than to the spoken language (Fries, 2009:11).

Except for Lorés (2004), other researchers who have attended to the linguistic features of


abstracts (Martín-Martín, 2003; Tahririan & Jalilifar, 2004; Samraj, 2005; Pho, 2008) have

scarcely based their linguistic analyses on a well-grounded functional linguistic theory along

with the investigation of the rhetorical structure. Lorés (2004) states that the function of an

abstract will determine both its global structure and its linguistic realization (p. 281).

Following this, we can hypothesize that there is an intricate interaction between the global

structure and its linguistic realization.

This study aims to shed light on the importance of the concepts of Theme and thematic

progression (TP) as two-fold guiding means for understanding and producing the purported

message of the texts. It has been observed (Fries, 1983:8) that different genres are structured

differently at the level of Theme. Alternatively, it is possible to discern that there is a

relationship between Theme types and TP, and the rhetorical units of a defined genre which

ultimately leads to the characterization of that genre. Particularly, the thematic structure of

the Introduction section of the abstracts following IMRC/D (Introduction, Methods, Results,

Conclusion/Discussion) structure and the rhetorical Move 2 of the abstracts, which indicates

a gap in the related literature, complying with CARS (Create A Research Space) structure

(Swales, 2004), are examined.

2. Theoretical background

In the Theme system, the clause is configured into two functional components: Theme and

Rheme. Specifically, one element in the clause is assigned as the Theme. This then combines

with the remainder (Rheme) so that the two parts together constitute a message. Halliday

(1994:39) conceptualizes Theme as a clause-initial, and Rheme as the development of Theme.

In other words, while the Theme is the element that functions as the “starting-point for the

message: it is what the clause is about” (ibid) and in this sense it typically conveys familiar or

given information, the Rheme is the part of the clause in which the message is developed and

“typically contains unfamiliar or new information” (Eggins, 1994, p.275).

According to Eggins (1994), one important system of the thematic structure is the choice

of type of Theme. Concerning this system, three different types of elements can get to be

Theme in a clause. They can be ‘topical’ (or experiential) elements, ‘interpersonal’ elements,

and ‘textual’ elements. Topical Theme refers to the element which occurs in first position in a

clause and to which a Transitivity function can be assigned. Interpersonal Theme also refers

to the fronted position clause element and to which a Mood label can be designated. Textual


Theme refers to the elements, which “do not express any interpersonal or experiential

meaning, but which do important cohesive work in relating the clause to its context” (p. 281).

Eggins (1994) also states that every clause has only one thematic element which must be a

topical Theme. However, it is common for a clause to contain a sequence of Themes, with

often several textual and/or interpersonal Themes occurring before the obligatory Theme. This

is labeled ‘multiple Themes’. Besides topical, interpersonal, textual, and multiple Themes,

there is also elliptical Theme which is not physically found at the thematic position of the

clause, but which has to be inferred and included in a grammatical analysis.

Another important system of thematic structure refers to Theme markedness which

depends on conflation of the Theme constituent with different Mood and Transitivity

constituents. This system includes unmarked and marked Themes. The former is when the

element that is a Theme conflates with the Mood structure constituents, such as: Subject,

Finite, Predicator and Wh-element. The latter refers to the conflation of the Theme with “any

other constituent from the Mood system”. The commonest type of marked Theme is when the

Theme conflates with a circumstantial Adjunct (Eggins, 1994, p. 296). Also, according to

Eggins (1994), the importance of choosing marked Themes relies on the effective signaling

the purpose of the clauses, therefore marked Themes add coherence and emphasis to the text.

In sum, the choice between marked and unmarked Themes contribute to the ‘thematic

structure of the text” (ibid.). Still, a third category distinguishes the predicated Themes from

the non-predicated Themes.

Besides the important aspects related to thematic Structure mentioned above, it is worth

mentioning the way Theme and Rheme are used to organize the information in the text. The

thematic development of a message can be perceived through the way thematic elements

succeed each other through the three main Theme patterns: a) Theme re-iteration pattern; b)

zig-zag pattern; c) multiple Theme. Eggins (1994) and Halliday’s (1994) categorization of

Theme types is adopted in this study since they afford space for the optional and obligatory

elements in the Theme position, leading to the construction of multiple Theme. This is

completely different from the European functionalism, for which any Theme type, except for

the topical Theme, in the initial position is regarded as marked Theme (Martínez, 2003, pp.

108-109).

3. Review of the literature


It was pointed out earlier that a number of researchers have analyzed the rhetorical structure

of RA abstracts; however, not many have attempted to analyze them based on the

descriptions of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Among this minority, Ghadessy (1999) and

Lorés (2004) have directly addressed the thematic organization of abstracts. Nevertheless, the

pioneering studies in this regard, as cited in Lorés (2004:289), are those of Nwogu (1990) and

Nwogu and Bloor (1991) in which they analyzed the TP of different sections of RAs. In these

studies, it was revealed that there is a tendency for abstracts to display both simple linear (the

zigzag) and constant (theme re-iteration) patterns.

Employing Halliday’s (1994) taxonomy of Theme/Rheme, Ghadessy`s (1999) analysis

revealed that although the writers used a variety of different linguistic forms for the

realization of the Theme of the clauses in their abstracts, a common method of development

was established through the Theme selection (p. 141). He also found that the writers mostly

tended to use simple and marked Themes in the clauses (p. 148). Ghadessy concluded that the

choice of appropriate points of departure for the clauses is a powerful and realistic way of

maintaining some of the essential characteristics of the texts that people may meet in their

professions everyday (150).

Lorés (2004), found three distinct types of abstracts: informative, indicative, and

informative-indicative (combinatory). In the second step, she analyzed the TP and the method

of development of the abstracts to reveal the textual mechanisms underlying the construction

of this genre. In this second end, Daneš (1974) and Fries (1983) models were employed

respectively. Applying thematic analysis, Lorés found distinct patterns of thematic

distribution and choice to the two types of structures (p. 298). Her findings confirmed the

previous results (Nwogu, 1990; Nwogu & Bloor, 1991), since the thematic progression of RA

abstracts was mostly the zigzag and reiteration patterns.

After reviewing the available literature, it was found that only Nwogu (1990), Nwogu and

Bloor (1991), Ghadessy (1999), and Lorés (2004) have unraveled the thematic organization

of the moves constituting the RA abstract on a functional basis. However, even in these

studies, except for Ghadessy (1999) there was a infinitesimal concern with comparisons

between disciplines. As a partial endeavor to create awareness and sensitivity to the specific

features of this genre, in this study, it is aimed at conducting a comparative study on the

method of development and thematic progression of the Introduction section of abstracts

following IMRC/D structure and the rhetorical Move 2 (establishing a niche) of abstracts

following CARS structure to shed light on the characteristic patterns utilized by the writers of

the six disciplines under study.


4. Methods

Considering the aim of this study which is to explore the thematic organization of

dissertation abstracts across different disciplines, a total of 120 English abstracts of ‘masters’

theses (M.A.) and ‘doctoral’ dissertations of six disciplines from Shahid Chamran University

of Ahwaz (Khouzestan province, Iran) were collected and analyzed. These included Persian

Language and Literature (15 M.A. +10 Ph.D.), Teaching English as Foreign Language (15

M.A.), Microbiology (15 M.Sc.), Veterinary Medicine (15 M.Sc. + 10 Ph.D.), Geology (15

M.Sc.), and Chemistry (15 M.Sc. + 10 Ph.D.) written by Shahid Chamran University students

from 2005 to 2009. These disciplines were considered as representatives of three major

branches of knowledge, namely, Language and Literature as a major branch of Humanities,

Health Sciences, and Hard Sciences. It is noteworthy to say that due to the restrictions in

offering Ph.D., only one of the disciplines of the nominated academic fields from each branch

was chosen for doctoral abstracts. The logic behind the selection of this corpus is that a wide

range of disciplines can be claimed to be covered in this study and a comprehensive

comparison can be made.

Method of development of Move 2 or the Introduction section of IMRC/D of the abstracts

is analyzed based on the definitions and classifications of Theme and Rheme provided by

Halliday (1994), Ghadessy (1999) and Eggins (1994). Move 2 has been reported to be the

shortest and the most concise Move of Swales’ model in terms of linguistic realization

(Swales, 1990; Lorés, 2004). Accordingly, the analysis of Themes of this Move is carried out

for both main and dependent clauses because, as indicated earlier, doing any thematic

analysis beyond the clause rank would be hardly possible. It is stated earlier that sometimes a

whole dependent clause may function as the theme of a bigger chunk [sentence]. Thus, the

principle of taking the clause as the unit of analysis for the second phase of the study is

sometimes manipulated in order for this principle not to be breached.

There were six Theme types found which were taken to be the characteristic and typical

themes in our corpus. Literally, these themes are as follows: Simple Theme, Multiple Theme,

Unmarked Theme, and Marked Theme, Predicated Theme, and Non-predicated Theme.

These Theme categories fall in three-dimensional network (Eggins, 1994:274). The network

includes three variables; a) the type of Theme: simple versus multiple Themes, b)

markedness: marked versus unmarked Themes, and c) predicativeness: predicated versus

non-predicated Themes. In our analysis, each of these variables was treated separately, and a


cross-disciplinary comparison was carried out. The second stage of this phase involves the

identification of the Thematic Progression (Eggins, 1994: Fries, 1983, 2009) of the same

clauses shaping the Move 2 and Introduction section of the dissertation abstracts. As

indicated in Chapter Two, there are three manifestations of TP. They are theme re-iteration,

zig-zag, and multiple-theme patterns.

The significance of the choice of Move 2 and, in other cases, the Introduction section of

the dissertation abstracts relies on the fact that by focusing on the inadequacy in previous

research, the writers would be able to justify his or her study and find space in current

literature.

Concerning thematicity in the clauses in focus, frequency of occurrence of each theme

type are computed and tabulated to show the differences of distribution across the nominated

disciplines. Chi-square procedure with a significance of p = 0.05 was also carried out to show

the significance of the differences among the disciplines with respect to the saliency of

different Theme types of the rhetorical moves of concern . The TP of the rhetorical moves

were identified and their frequencies were counted and tabulated.


5.1 Theme types in Introduction section and move 2 of abstracts

According to Eggins (1994), Theme analysis is best undertaken after analyzing the clause for

its Transitivity and Mood System. Therefore, we have carried out the analysis of these two

strands of meaning, the experiential meaning, realized through the analysis of Transitivity,

and the interpersonal meaning realized through the Mood system. Due to space constraints,

these analyses are not offered in this study. In what follows, the analysis of the Introduction

section and Move 2 of dissertation abstracts in terms of thematic structure at clause level is

presented.

(i) Multiple themes

The total number of the clauses shaping the Introduction section and Move 2 of the

dissertation abstracts from the six disciplines in this study was 326 clauses. What is evident

from the data obtained in the analyses of Theme types is that around 70℅ of the writers

preferred to use the simple (or topical) Theme type as the starting points of their clauses. The

highest number of occurrence of this Theme type (around 30℅ of the total number) was

found in Persian Language and Literature.


Table 1: Frequency of Theme types in the Introduction section and Move 2 of dissertation abstracts1

Fields of study

Theme types TEFL

M.A.

PL

M.A. Ph.D.

Geo.

M.Sc..

Chem.

M.Sc.. Ph.D.

Micbi.

M.Sc..

Vet.

M.Sc.. Ph.D.

No.

Clauses

Simple

(Topical) 23 41 28 24 14 22 32 25 19 228

Multiple

(a)

(b)

(c)

2

5

0

0 0

3 4

1 0

0

7

0

0 0

3 2

0 0

0

5

0

1 0

1 1

0 0

3

31

1

Unmarked 30 44 32 31 19 23 35 25 20 259

Marked

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

1

1

0

0

1

0

1

1 0

0 0

7 4

2 0

0 1

0 0

0 2

0

1

1

0

2

0

1

0 1

0 0

6 4

0 0

2 0

0 0

2 0

4

0

8

1

1

0

0

1 0

1 1

5 1

0 0

0 0

0 0

2 1

8

4

36

3

7

0

9

Predicated 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-predicated 34 54 39 36 29 28 49 34 23 326

About 11℅ of the clauses in the Introduction section and Move 2 of the abstracts were

multiple Themes. As it can be observed from Table 4, the second arrangement of the multiple

Themes, that is, type (b) of multiple Themes is the distinctive form of the multiple Themes.

In type (b) of multiple Themes, a textual Theme comes before the topical Theme of the

clause. Textual Themes fall into two groups. Some of them belong to spoken dialog and are

labeled as “Continuity Adjuncts” (Eggins, 1994, p. 281). In this group, we can find such

discourse markers as ‘oh, no, well, ok, yes’, etc. The other group includes “Conjunctive

Adjuncts” (1994) and, as the name implies, these linguistic elements are used to link clauses

or sentences together. Generally, in this latter group, the textual Theme may perform

temporal, adversative, additive, and causal functions.

1 Note: the letters (a), (b), and (c) under multiple Themes represent the three different arrangements of multiple Themes.

These are (a) interpersonal Theme^topical Theme, (b) textual Theme^topical Theme, and (c) textual Theme^interpersonal

Theme^topical Theme (the symbol “^” means ‘is followed by’). Also, the letters under marked Theme stand for the

following circumstantial Adjuncts: (a) Extent (duration and distance), (b) Cause, (c) Location (time and space), (d) Matter,

(e) Manner (means, quality, and comparison), (f) Role, and (g) Accompaniment (reason, purpose, and behalf) (Eggins,

1994:237-239).


Specifically, most of textual Themes in the present study (14 out of 31) were additive

elements that were used in clauses to add another clause without breaking the sentence into

two smaller sentences, or were sometimes used to connect similar or sequential processes.

Eleven textual Themes in the multiple Themes identified in the corpus were adversative

elements, which were mostly used to indicate a gap in Move 2 of abstracts complying with

CARS model. This small quantity of textual Themes in the clauses representing Move 2 in

the abstracts may hasten us to jump to the conclusion that gap indication step can be best

signaled by multiple Themes that begin with an adversative textual Theme. The remaining

six textual Themes were causal which signaled a turning point in the process of decision

making, where the writer announces taking action with respect to the foregrounding

information that was provided in previous clauses. Interestingly, none of the textual Themes

in the corpus was witnessed to perform the temporal function. Examples 1, 2, and 3 illustrate

textual Themes that signal adversative, additive, and causal elements in multiple Themes,

respectively, of the clause analyzed in this phase of the study. In sum, Table 2 shows the

frequency of different types of textual Themes, along with a number of examples of these

elements:

Example (1): “However, this relationship remains to be studied for alphabetic languages with

a more transparent orthography.” (written by a TEFL M.A. student).

Example (2): “Moreover, it was intended to highlight the effects of these feedback types on

different grammatical forms.” (written a TEFL M.A. student).

Example (3): “Hence, the removal of these dyes from water sources is a very important task.”

(written a Chemistry M.A. student).

Table 2: Frequency of conjunctive textual Themes (℅) in unmarked multiple Theme type (b) in Table 1

Textual Themes examples frequency (℅)

Temporal first, then, later, after that, afterwards (0.00℅)

Adversative but, however, nevertheless, yet, still (35.50℅)

Additive and, moreover, besides, furthermore (45.16℅)

Causal so, thus, therefore, accordingly (19.34℅)

There was an interesting point about one of the multiple Themes type (b) found in one of

the abstracts of Persian Language and Literature that had a causal textual Theme. In this

clause, the topical Theme precedes the textual Theme. This often happens in other modes and

uses of language too, but this does not violate the principle of having the topical Theme as

the border line between Theme and Rheme. This case can be explained by the use of

punctuation before and after the word that signal its optional use in the sentence. This is

demonstrated in example 4:


Example (4): “The main purpose of this research; therefore, is structuralist

narratology.”(written by a Persian Language and Literature Ph.D. student).

The other types of multiple Themes types (a) and (c) in Table 1 had a few occurrences in

the corpus. Only in two TEFL and one Veterinary abstracts were there instances of multiple

Theme type (a), which has an interpersonal Theme right before the topical Theme. To

highlight the term interpersonal Theme, a few preliminary words seem in order.

Linguistically speaking, Eggins (1994) believes that the following constituents can function

as interpersonal Themes: “the unfused Finite (in interrogative structures), and the four

categories of Modal Adjuncts, i.e. Mood, Polarity, Vocative, and Comment” (p. 278). From

among these constituents, only Mood and Comment constituents were found in the corpus. It

is worth pointing out that the other types have no place in genres like dissertation abstracts.

For one thing, these constituents are not typical of these genres. Another reason is that we

can rarely find any interrogative structure in genres like abstracts. Examples 5 and 6 vividly

show these types of interpersonal Themes that precede topical Themes in the construction of

multiple Theme type (a).

Example (5): “It appears that all studies on ulcer is limited to cattle.” (written by a

Veterinary M.A. student).

This example has a grammatical metaphor (the bold print part of the example) which

functions a mitigater element in the multiple Theme of the clause to lessen the writer’s

commitment to the claim stated. This grammatical metaphor lies in the category of

interpersonal Themes which are realized by Mood constituents.

Example (6): “Relatively, little research has been done on the effect of the type of text and

the use of metacognitive reading strategy use.” (written by a TEFL M.A. student).

In example (6), the word ‘relatively’ is the interpersonal Theme that precedes the topical

Theme ‘little research’ to form the multiple Theme type (a) of the entire clause. The word

‘relatively’ bears an attitudinal weight and establishes an interpersonal, subjective exchange

between the writer of the text and the readership.

Type (c) of multiple Themes is composed of a textual Theme followed by an interpersonal

Theme and finally by a topical Theme. This Theme type was only found once in the corpus

(see example 7). In example (7), the word ‘however’ is an adversative textual Theme that

occupies the initial position and prepares the reader to expect a challenging idea, but this

challenge if somewhat mitigated by the following interpersonal Theme ‘it seems that’, and it

finally extends to the topical Theme ‘mysticism’ which is the cut-off point between the

Theme and Rheme.


Example (7): “However, it seems that mysticism doesn’t occur in the contemporary poetry

in this epoch but by one general book.” (written by a Persian Language and Literature M.A.

student).

Up to this point, the analyses of Theme types suggest that the use of simple Theme in the

Introduction section and the Move 2 of dissertation abstracts is a distinctive feature of

abstracts. This means that there is a high agreement between the functional notion of Theme

and the grammatical subject in the initial position of the clauses. However, those clauses that

had multiple Themes in their initial positions can not be recognized as characteristic elements

in these rhetorical moves because they occurred in a small percentage (11℅) of the total

number of the clauses. Furthermore, most of these multiple Themes contained textual

Themes preceding the topical Themes, and only three of them included an interpersonal

Theme. Following Martínez (2003:119), who explicitly claimed that there is a high degree of

correlation between Theme types and the type of language in the ‘results’ and ‘discussion’

sections of RAs, it can be stated that the language of introductory and gap indication parts of

abstracts is factual and down-to-earth, rather than theoretical. This is appreciated by the

extensive use of simple Themes and type (b) of multiple Themes. Therefore, in writing

abstracts, building an interpersonal relationship with the readers is not recommended, rather

factuality is advised. From another perspective, it is possible to discern that the efficiency of

the language of the abstract is an issue that is handed to the reader to be judged and there is

no need for an exaggerated interpersonal language.

(ii) Marked themes

Sixty eight clauses (20.5℅) of the entire corpus had marked Themes, with the highest number

observed in M. A abstracts of Microbiology, and Persian Language and Literature. One way

by which writers thematize a segment of a clause and bring it to the readers’ attention is

through using marked Themes. These types of Themes normally appear in different positions

of a clause, except for the initial position. However, for one reason or another, writers

occasionally place them in the initial position of the clause. All things being equal, an

unmarked Theme is chosen to occupy the initial position. An unmarked Theme is a type of

Theme which takes one of the roles of Subject (in declarative clause), Finite (in an

interrogative), Predicator (in an imperative), or Wh-element (in a Wh-interrogative). These

four categories all belong to the class of Mood system. Naturally, marked Themes have to do

with Mood system. A marked Theme, then, is any type of Theme that fills the initial position,

but does not take any of the aforementioned roles of the Mood system. Eggins (1994) states

that the commonest type of marked Theme is the circumstantial Adjunct. This Theme takes


the position of a Wh-element in the clause. In addition to circumstantial Adjunct of Extent,

shown in the example (8), there are other expressions which can act as circumstantial

Adjuncts. These expressions include expressions of the Cause, Location (time or space),

Matter, Manner (means, quality, or comparison), Role, and Accompaniment (reason,

purpose, or behalf) (Eggins, 1994:237-239). Detailed description of these types of

circumstantial Adjuncts is beyond the scope of this study, and those interested in knowing

more about these linguistic means are recommended to refer to Eggins (1994, Ch. 7). Theme

predication is another way of composing a marked Theme. There was no instance of

predicated Theme in this study.

Example (8): “Since the introduction of linguistic politeness by Brown & Levinson 1987,

there has been a body of research on the politeness strategies used in the expression of

(dis)agreeing phenomenon.” (written by a TEFL M.A. student).

The underlined part of the sentence could have been placed in its original position, which

is the final position, because in English, expressions referring to time normally occur at the

end of the sentence. However, we see that this circumstantial Adjunct of Extent (temporal) is

placed initially. This is perhaps due to the fact that the writer intends to emphasize the origin

or, let us say, the history of the linguistic phenomenon at issue, or more conceivably due to

the influence of the writer’s first language (Persian). Parenthetically, in Persian,

circumstantial Adjuncts pertaining to an extent usually occur in initial position. Therefore,

the sentence could have had the form shown in the constructed example (I).

Constructed example (I): “There has been a body of research on the politeness strategies used

in the expression of (dis)agreeing phenomenon since the introduction of linguistic politeness

by Brown & Levinson 1987”.

(iii) Predicative themes

Interestingly, as stated earlier, no case of predicated Themes was observed in the clauses in

focus. This can be attributed to the heavy weight of this construction which is quite rare in

academic prose. This type of Theme is one of the strategies for creating marked Theme. The

linguistic realizations of predicated Themes are the cleft and pseudo-cleft sentences. These

sentences begin by the following expressions:

— It (to be verb) ……… that/who (main verb) ……..

— What ……….. (main verb) ………… (to be verb) …………

Two constructed examples are presented here to illustrate these constructions which

presumably function as marked Themes. In these examples the underlined parts are of

immense concern to the speaker/writer of the sentences. That is why these parts are


prioritized over any parts of the sentences.

Constructed example (II): “It was Peter who knocked at the door and escaped”.

Constructed example (III): “What the nation asks for is the immediate action of the

government to expatriate the immigrants from their homeland”.

5.2 Thematic progression

As it was said, Move 2 and the Introduction section of abstracts are the shortest rhetorical

moves in the abstracts, and doing any analysis of the TP on these moves was reported to be a

failure because these Moves do not extend more that one or two sentences. However, after

analyzing the rhetorical structures of the abstracts in the first stage of the study, it was

disclosed that carrying out thematic analyses beyond the clause level on these rhetorical

moves is possible since 68 (56.6℅) of them exceed two or three clauses. In some case, there

were eleven clauses found in the Introduction of the abstracts. However, as long as the

rhetorical Move 2 is concerned, the claim made by Lorés (2004:293), in which she claims

that this rhetorical Move is too short to be analyzed for thematic structure, holds true. It

should be pointed out that those rhetorical Moves that were composed of only one clause or

two clauses but not analyzable because of the absence of any TP were not considered in this

part. As indicated, three TP patterns have been recognized in the literature, and in this study,

they were investigated in the corpus. The results are tabulated as follows.

Table 3: Thematic Progression in Introduction section and Move 2 of abstracts across six disciplines

Thematic Progression patterns

Fields of study Re-iteration Zig-zag Multiple theme

TEFL M.A. 3 4 1

M.A.

PLL

Ph.D.

6

4

3

4

1

1

Geo. M.A. 5 4 1

M.A.

Chem.

Ph.D.

2

0

2

3

2

0

Micbi. M.A. 4 6 1

M.A.

Vet.

Ph.D.

4

1

2

3

1

1

Total 30 (44.11℅) 30 (44.11℅) 8 (11.78℅)

The results illustrated in Table 3 confirm the findings of previous studies (Nwogu, 1990

and Nwogu & Bloor, 1991 (cited in Lorés, 2004); Ghadessy, 1999; Lorés, 2004). They assert


that Theme reiteration and zig-zag (or what they call linear) patterns of TP are the

characteristic TP of abstracts. Two remarkable points; however, were identified in our

corpus. The first interesting point which falls in line with Lorés (2004) was that those

abstracts containing the rhetorical Move 2 did not constitute any TP because this move was

reported to be the shortest rhetorical Move of the abstracts. The second point is that, in this

study, around 12℅ of the abstracts were found to establish multiple Theme pattern. This TP

was recognized as the uncommon TP of abstracts in previous studies.

With regard to the application of TP patterns across the fields of studies, Microbiology

abstracts were found to possess the highest frequency of TP in the corpus. Chemistry

abstracts, on the other hand, had the least frequency of TP patterns in their Introduction

section. This may be because of the primary attention paid to of the ‘methods’ section in

these abstracts that makes most of the introductory parts of these abstracts rarely stretch

beyond two or three clauses, and, as a consequence, hard to be analyzed for TP. Our analysis

indicated that no significant difference was observed between the ‘masters’ and ‘doctoral’

abstracts in terms of frequency of occurrence of TP patterns. Also, it was found that in

‘doctoral’ abstracts the zig-zag pattern was used more than the other TP patterns. Examples

of each of TP patterns are presented below:

Example (9): “(1) This study focuses on writing chats of 100 university students majoring in

different fields of study. (2) It analyzes 400 chat samples ….. (3) The study also examines

humor and paralinguistic features based on …… (4) The research investigates nine kinds of

……” (written by a TEFL M.A. student).

Example (10): “(1) Orthobacterium rhinotracheale (ORT) is a pleomorphic, rod-shaped,

gram-negative bacterium associated with respiratory disease in poultry. (2) The poultry

industry has suffered significant financial losses because of …. infected with this organism.

(3) The bacterium primarily infects the trachea, lungs …. as a systemic disease …” (written

by a Veterinary Ph.D. student).

Example (11): “(1) Deafness is a heterogenic disorder which induced by genetical and

environmental factors. (2) Genetical deafness disorder is most common hereditary …. (3)

The environmental factors such as mutation are also responsible for deafness DFNB1

disorder …..” (written by a Microbiology M.A. student).

Example (9) clearly shows how the writer of this abstract has repeated the same Theme in

all the clauses. Although the exact wordings of the Themes are not alike, the endophoric

lexical substitution (Halliday & Hasan, 1976), a strategy for referring to the same entities in a

text, has been applied to signal the reiteration of the same Theme. What is evident in the


example (10) is that each Rheme in one clause is picked and placed in the Theme position of

the following clause, therefore, constituting the zig-zag pattern of TP. In example (11), the

Rheme of the first clause introduces two factors that need to be elucidated in subsequent

clauses. This is achieved by picking each of the bold print words or factors and placing them

in the Theme positions of the following clauses. This type of TP is called multiple Theme

pattern. This is shown by the italicized words in clauses two and three.

The results of the analysis of the thematic structure revealed interesting differences of

thematic choices at the clause level. At first, thematic choices were assigned to three

categories according to the multiplicity of Themes, markedness of Themes, and

predicatedness of Themes. The differences observed in the choice of Theme types can be

explained in relation to the rhetorical goals of the rhetorical units studied. Simple Themes

dominated the Theme position of most of the clauses of the Introduction section and Move 2

of the dissertation abstracts. These Theme types perform a descriptive function (Ghadessy,

1999:155) and lay no emphasis on the initial parts of the clauses. This is in harmony with the

acknowledged rhetorical goal of these units, which is setting or describing the scene and

announcing the purpose of the study. Conversely, multiple themes are known for their textual

and interpersonal interventions which they impose on the initial element of the clause. In our

corpus, textual Themes were used more significantly than the interpersonal Themes. This

indicates that establishing an interpersonal relationship in the Introduction section and Move

2 of dissertation abstracts is not the purported rhetorical goal. In addition, the textual Themes

found in the analysis mainly functioned as additive elements that add other parts to the

clauses, as shown in Table 2.

The second category included unmarked Themes which have the important function of

giving continuity to a text, and thus contribute to the identification of participants (Martin,

2001). The majority of the clauses analyzed in this study were of this type. This suggests that

the participants of the clauses (elements of the transitivity metafunction) could be easily

identified by their process, material, relational, and existential functions performed by

Themes. On the contrary, marked Themes are the means of signaling transition, and they do

not signal continuity (Martin, 2001). The rather small number of these Themes in our corpus

was exclusively realized by circumstantial Adjuncts. What was observed in the clauses

containing marked Themes was not the only indication of transition as Martin (2001)

proposes; however, these Theme types were mainly used to indicate emphasis, particularly to

signal the focus on the purpose of the studies or to signal insufficiencies in previous studies.

Predicated Themes, the third category of Themes, as one of the strategies to create marked


Themes, were totally absent in our corpus. This is because most of the writers of the abstracts

did not know the significance of marked Themes in general and the importance of predicated

Themes in particular so that they could produce clauses with ‘protruded’ or exaggerated

elements.

At the intersentential level, Theme analyses were carried out to reveal the TP of the

rhetorical units in focus. The results showed that re-iteration and zig-zag patterns of TP were

the typical patterns. However, there were cases in which both these patterns coexisted in

those abstracts that had lengthy Introduction units. The purpose of conducting this phase of

the study was to see whether there exists any relationship between the different patterns of TP

and the recognition of the boundary of the Introduction or Move 2 of the dissertation

abstracts. The results of the quantitative analyses suggest that there is a high degree of

agreement between the Theme types of these rhetorical units and their boundary

identification. Put another way, it can be said that transitional points of Theme types, where a

sudden shift is made through the use of a different Theme to mark the movement from one

rhetorical unit to another rhetorical unit, have types of Themes that do not belong to the TP of

the preceding rhetorical unit. By different Theme type, the use of alternative marked or

unmarked, simple or multiple, and predicated or non-predicated Themes is meant in which

the method of the development of the rhetorical units changes and different method is

pursued. For example, in experimental sciences, the Theme types that are used in the Theme

positions in the Introduction section of the abstracts may contain lexical elements that pertain

to the objects of the study, names of authors, indexical pronouns, or existential expletive

elements, but other Theme positions in other units may have totally different Theme types.

The Theme types used in theoretical areas of inquiry may contain lexical elements that bear

descriptive weight, such as adjectives and adverbs, which make the language of abstraction

dominating language of the introductory section of the abstracts. Another evidence for the

abstraction phenomenon is the frequent use of multiple Themes with additive textual

elements where the repetition of the same content in the Theme position is aimed by the

authors.

6. Conclusion

This study concerned the investigation of Theme types and thematic progression of the

Introduction section and Move 2 of the abstracts. The results of the Theme types indicate that

simple (topical) unmarked Themes are the common type of Themes in abstracts of all the


chosen disciplines. While a few cases of marked Themes were found in the rhetorical units

under investigation, no case of predicated Themes was observed in the corpus. The analysis

of the TP yielded interesting results too. It was found that theme reiteration, zig-zag patterns

of TP, and sometimes combinations of these two were the common patterns in the corpus.

These results confirm our perception that there are transitional points across the boundaries of

the rhetorical units in which not only the Theme types would change, but also the TP would

change. This shows that the change of Theme types and TP are not random but are purposeful

although it seems that most writers have used these mechanics of writing unconsciously.

Taking a functional perspective for analyzing the textual meaning of the abstracts may

unravel interesting connections between clauses and the upper level discourse in which they

are used. What is actually found in this study shows that different Theme types function

differently in clauses and their functions may have considerable effect on the development of

the text, and direct relationship with the formation of the genre. These results verify Fries’s

(1983:4-5) statement that “thematic content correlates with the method of development of a

text and with the nature of that text”.

The effort to determine what academic writing is and what EFL students need to know in

order to produce it has led to the development of a number of different approaches to the

teaching of writing. Genre-based instruction has been proved to be one of the most

recognized and popular approaches in this regard. Nowadays, raising awareness of the

rhetorical conventions of the fields of study and setting agendas for novice writers or the

would-be researchers is an undeniable practice in many fields of study around the world

(Mustafa, 1995; Skulstad, 1999; Martínez, 2002; Rowley-Jolviet & Carter-Thomas, 2005;

Afros & Schryer, 2009). Given these facts, register analysis and, at a more general level,

genre analysis from Systemic Functional tradition can tackle these types of errors due to the

great emphasis put on the system of choice.

Overall, in this study, it is proposed that being assured of the students’ knowledge of

grammar and lexis and focusing on an upper level, i.e. rhetorical structure, of organizing

texts, or the other way round is a hurried decision in an EFL context. Lack of essential

linguistic means for composing appropriate, grammatical clauses to convey the writers’

intended meanings is the immediately perceived deficiency in the writing of most EFL

writers surveyed in this study. The Mood system with its building blocks of Theme and

Rheme is an influential means by which both clause grammar and discourse grammar can be

guaranteed (Martínez, 2003). In brief, the choices at the level of the clause have direct

connection with how a body of text is structured at a higher organizational level. The


difficulties observed in the construction of the sections of the abstracts investigated in this

study involved problems in clause construction.

What was established in this study is that introducing linguistic means at the level of

clause accompanied by their defined functions can play a key role in enhancing genre

awareness and development. One area by which we can help ESP students acquire the rules

of the academic D. C. and the resources employed by its members, thus empowering them to

make cognizant decisions is providing them with those linguistic features that have helped

the successful writers of their fields. As it can be seen in the literature, the focus on the

linguistic features has always been the secondary concern of the researchers since researchers

take the learners’ lexical and grammatical knowledge for granted. Moreover, the researchers

do not elaborate on the function of the specific linguistic points they make out in their

studies.

The present study has raised a number of interesting differences across the disciplines

studied, but a larger corpus is needed to establish how far they can be generalized. It remains

our conviction that more descriptive and explanatory work needs to be done on the functional

linguistic means of abstracts, and that text analysis still has a place in this inquiry. This line

of inquiry can be extended and applied to other rhetorical units of abstracts or even to other

unexplored academic genres like RA Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. By the

same token, other strands of meaning within the Systemic tradition, i.e. Transitivity system

and Mood system, can be explored in these genres. Still, another possibility is conducting

contrastive analyses on different genres across different disciplines or across different

languages with regard to the two dimensions investigated in this study.

References

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Title

English Globalization Issues, Impacts and Challenges as to Culture and Language in Islamic Contexts Especially Iran

Authors

Abbas Paziresh (M.A)

Payamnoor University of Kohgiloye (Dehdasht), Iran

Fereshteh Shojaie (M.A student) Science Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Azerbaijan Gharbi, Iran

Rana Shokrollahi (M.A student)

Science Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khuzestan, Iran

Biodata

Abbas Paziresh M.A in TEFL and is currently teaching English at Payamnoor University of Kohgiloye (Dehdasht) centre. His research interests include pragmatics, psychology, sociolinguistics, genre analysis, discourse analysis, linguistics and translation studies. Fereshteh Shojaie M.A student in TEFL at Science research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Azerbaijan Gharbi. Her interests include Sociolinguistics, Testing and Pragmatics. Rana Shokrollahi M.A student in TEFL at Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khuzestan. Her research interests include genre analysis, psychology and translation studies.

Abstract

Culture and language are twins’ brothers; lack of insurance for one will cause the

other to be insecure as well. English globalization is felt to jeopardize culture and

language in the same and different ways. It is planned, however, to neo-colonize

third world languages and cultures. It helps languages to die-out and change.

Moreover, it homogenize and hetrogenize people cultural identities. Via this

paper, we wish to unfold less unsaid issues, which might undermine the face of

standard languages and their varieties and disturb old cultures lives. What is more,

it devises and suggests ways for keeping English down. Also, warn English

producing centres that produce materials relevant to local cultures and those

responsible of teaching these materials to avoid teaching western patterns to their

Muslim students particularly in Iran.


Keywords: English language globalization; Language death and shift;

Homogeneity; Heterogeneity; Pedagogical materials

1. Introduction

Globalization is manifested through diverse concepts; from among them are language

globalization, global citizenship, global ethic, cultural diversity, cultural liberty, dialogue

among civilizations, quality of life, education for all, women’s rights, Youth Parliament,

peace education and the rights of future generations, here English language globalization is

considered. Globalization by any means refers to the process of bringing all other societies

and their cultures under one colonial umbrella and leaving not any scope for diversities which

is also called homogenization. Globalization according to Arnold (2006) and Redman (2002)

spreads its territory beyond geographic limitations, time and space restrictions or the barriers

caused by gender, age, skin colour, and lifestyle. “English is the global language” as stated by

Crystal (2003) presented to the world an uncomplicated scenario offering the universality of

the English spread and the likelihood of its continuation.

Nowadays English is spoken from Lahore to Bengal from Belize to Las Vegas and from

Paris to New Delhi; therefore it is the global lingua franca. Crystal (2003) claims that English

is the global language; we hear and see it on television, spoken by politicians, spoken by

travelers and etc. Of interest it is to search for roots of dominance of English empire over the

world. Outspokenly, I do say English is the most predominant language because of the

economic and political supremacy of the U.K and U.S.A, as well as the fact that English

speaking countries export many aspects of language and culture to the world.

Globalization of a language is not only globalization of language of group of people but

also globalization of that group culture. Language and culture are interdependent and

interactive. Accordingly, culture and language association should not be ignored at all. Sapir

acknowledged the close relationship between language and culture, maintaining that they are

inextricably related so that you could not understand the one without a knowledge of the

other (1929, p. 207). According to Wardaugh (1973), culture is handful of what a person

knows or believes that a person must possess to get through the task o daily living. According

to the following definitions and views, we conclude that in any area its language and culture

are homogenised.

It is widely known that English Language is emperor in the world. It has put its feet on

one side of the world and its hands on the other side in terms of a tool for communication,

trade and access to information. Therefore, this emperor alongside itself carries out the


culture of major English producing and speaking countries namely U.S.A and UK into those

empire countries. English is exalted by political and economic power and its values and

habits as foreign cultures at the expense of native culture broadened. All know it well that

English is in every computer windows, in any website, in any book, on any pepsi over lips, in

any gas station pumping their gas and in every mobile in any hand.

What we wish to target in this study is the case of publishing books, booklets, CDs, DVDs

and magazines that are produced inside super English producing countries enriched with their

culture and values dispersed around the globe ignoring destination cultures and values,

especially those Islamic cultures and values. The considered culture in this study is Iranian

culture as an Islamic country in which English is used and taught as a foreign language. Most

of books and CDs which are taught in Iran are produced inside U.S.A enriched with those

values, ethics and principles which go contradictory to Persian ones; and destroy Persian

values and are injected into Iranian students’ heads. In fact, American-western culture and

language intend to swallow other cultures and languages and as result bring them under an

umbrella then produce a homogenised integrated culture, which is called English

globalization. Experts and professionals at the centre of publishing English, claim that the

spread of English language and culture do not threaten local cultures and languages; but the

researchers counter claim that effects of western culture are super-clear and are lingering

inside local cultures like Iran.

2. Statement of the problem and purpose of the study

In order to fight this phenomenon, for protecting our national identity, and reviving our

Islamic culture, we need to understand what globalisation is and know how to counter attack

it. This study intends to gives some declarations and revelations concerning dangers,

consequences, roots and channels of English globalization that is channelled toward other

cultures like Persian. Regarding Persian context in which English is used as foreign language,

via this study we wish to warn teachers and students to not adopt, use and focus on those

rules, conversations, and pieces which are enriched with American and western rules and

principles. Besides, to get aware of western language and culture imperialism by counter

attacking them for protecting our religion, symbols, language, songs, stories, celebrations

and all expressions of our way of life.

3. Issues, Impacts and challenges in relation to culture and language


3.1 Globalization

The term globalization is reviewed in relation to English globalization. Scholte (2011)

offered five meaning or definitions for globalization: the first one talks of globalization as

internationalization that explains growth in international exchange and interdependence

among countries o the world. Next, he explained globalization as liberalization. Through

liberalization, countries remove restrictions on the movement of capital from one country to

another by applying ‘open’, ‘borderless’ economy. The third meaning to the word

globalization means universalization. In this context, globalization is a process of spreading

various objects and experience to people living in the four corners of the world. The fourth,

meaning of globalization is referred to Westernization or modernization (to the Americans it

is the Americanization). Abdul Razak (2011) defined globalization as free flow of capital,

people, news and information via electronic media from one country to another, without

being subjected to any form of restriction imposed by governments in the world.

Globalization explains a scenario whereby people of the world live in borderless beliefs,

world without any geographical restrictions and as the result, the world will be transformed

into a single global village.

3.2 Globalization or colonization

So many decades ago, western powers were used to dominating small countries by being there

by all of their military and non-military equipments which is called physical presence. Their

physical presence in underdeveloped and developing countries was called colonization.

According to Abdul Razak (2011), due to the old dependence of developing countries to super

powers, nowadays they are also somehow dependent on them especially in the areas of

science, knowledge and technology. Present dependence of developing countries is called

neo-globalization and old form called colonization; previously they were present in

developing countries physically but today they are not so, but being present in minds and

hearts of people virtually. In both forms, they are colonization, but the new one, which is

modern, better to be called neo-colonization or globalization.

3.3 English globalization and destination cultures

Muyale-Manenji (1998) said "Shonyala okhumanya inzu yowasio tawe". According to her

this means that you cannot manage or know the affairs of the house of your neighbour. This is

a saying the people of Ebukanga village, Kisa location in Kakamega district of the Western

Province of Kenya usually used when respecting one's privacy and affairs. Culture is a

combination of values and norms people have, which make them live in a particular way. In

other words, it is the sum total of all things that refers to religion, roots of people, symbols,


language, songs, stories, celebrations and all expressions of our way of life. Accordingly

culture involve language and we add language involve culture as well.

Culture and language flourish side by side and reinforce each other in direct and indirect

ways; every language is taught to child and values and norms inside that society transferred

to him by language. Any language is specific to its culture and vice versa. Every culture is

different from the other culture. Globalization of English language also means globalization

of western culture. As the African sentence "Shonyala okhumanya inzu yowasio tawe"

narrates, every region has their specific rule which only fits people of that region and those

people can manage their affairs. Nevertheless, unfortunately English globalization which

takes its root from two points U.K and U.S.A tries to manage and subjugate all neighbouring

cultures. Globalization of English is a new approach which brings with itself west

colonization to east. Globalization is a new agenda of the West to re-colonize the East. It is

seen as a new approach of how the Western hegemony can be imposed on the political,

economic, social, cultural and other aspects of the people in the East, particularly in the

Muslim world (Abdul Razak, 2011, p. 1).

English globalization as a planned or unplanned strategy wishes to converts all individual

“Is” to “We”; which causes all individual “Is” lose their identity and get suffocated to come

in one big identity called “We” or globalization. In the identity scenario Deng (2005) points,

that cultural identity answers the questions of “Who am I?”, “Where are we going?” and

“What do we Have?” Since people construct their identities through their cultures, they will

defend them. Daraz, Hussain, khan and Naz (2011) allege that through globalization the

entire world is changing into a single place, single culture and single identity. It encourages

secularization, creates religious conflict and decays artefact beauty of the country as Dalby

(2007, p. 36) stated that folk-art forms are removed from their religious ritualistic nature.

Daraz et.al (2011) believes globalization has brought cultural pluralism, which creates

cultural conflict among the locally defined cultural traits and those traits, which are defusing

from the western culture.

This paper revolves around English inside Iran as a foreign language. It is just taught in

institutions, schools and universities; but the materials that are used for teaching it are

produced wholly in U.K and U.S.A. Such materials are CDs, DVDs, books, booklets,

magazines, charts, pictures, workbooks and tapes. Western rules, patterns, dialogues and

simulations form content of these pedagogical materials. These materials contents are unfit

with rules and culture inside Iran and Arabic countries. Teachers blindly teach these unfit

patterns to students of different ages and as the result, students have to learn and use them


both in classroom and society. The wash backs will be making western brains over Muslim

shoulders. One instance is teaching of dating, this WAS a very rare and scarcely happening

case inside Iran, but since material content is western content enriched with western culture

patterns, students have to learn and behave in western way.

Via this paper, we wish to warn against the teaching of unfit patterns and their use by both

teachers and students inside Iran and all Muslim countries. Moreover, we declare institutions

and publications in charge of western pedagogical materials to do marketing plans and

produce materials specific to specific regions, we mean a global language should conforms to

global culture.

3.4 Aspects of culture diminished by English globalization

Since there is a direct link between the culture of a particular community and the language

this community speaks, no changes in language are possible without prior changes in culture.

In the course of the dominance of one culture, its key words are transferred to other

languages. One other reason for the transfer is the worldwide reporting of political, social and

other events that took place in the country enjoying the status of an influential superpower.

(Witalisz, 2011, p. 5). Accordingly, language and culture have reciprocity, and one finds it

impossible to flourish without the other. When a language is attacked, the culture in that

society also attacked; this attack in spite of changes which causes for language causes many

aspects of that society to experience change or even lose.

English globalizations cause so many aspects of a victim culture to change and take shape

of source language values. Food items and food culture, clothing or costume culture, behaving

culture, talking culture, music culture, literature culture, goods production culture, education

culture, thinking culture, consuming culture, life style, and media are all aspects which

English globalization pushes a culture to adopt. Corpus analysis carried out so far points to

several semantic fields which illustrate which aspects of culture are recognized as American

and which of them are adopted most willingly by the recipient cultures (Witasiz, 2006). Most

numerously affected areas include:

Working style, making a career based on competition, achieving fast success (the

famous American dream

Names of occupations

Modern communication technology, computer-related terminology

The cult of beauty and youth, which makes you think that good looks will make you

happy and successful in life


Food and eating habits

Popular culture (movies, music, TV, entertainment in general)

Ways of spending free time

Advertising practices, in particular the use of metaphor to manipulate the recipient into

buying a product by establishing a discourse of positive, homely associations

The use of euphemisms and avoiding naming things directly

the use of qualifiers such as hyper, mega, super, especially in the media, as a way of

presenting insignificant events or a pieces of information in an attractive and attention-

catching way

3.5 English globalization line of attack

English globalization may seem a natural or unthreatening movement to some, but in fact, this

is not whole story. Different terminology has been offered to name English globalization in

developing or underdeveloped regions; the degree of change and severity of English

globalization contacting other varieties is different. Some name it assimilation, some name it

genocide, some name it killing, some name it death and some name it shift and some

bilingualism. In fact, English globalization is not globalization but is colonization in new

form called neo-colonization that we discussed before.

Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics defines language shift as the process by which

new language is acquired by a community usually resulting in the loss of the community first

language. According to Trudgill (1983) shift in language happens where native people adopt

another language and eventually the old language may die out. Mufwene (2002) believes that

language shift, is the main cause of language endangerment and death as speakers endeavour

to meet their day to-day communicative needs. Language shift- sometimes referred to as

language transfer or language replacement or assimilation- is the progressive process

whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of

assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak another

language more often in the home.

Morsalin (2012) claims that there is a difference between language death and language

murder. Language death is when a language disappears naturally; its speakers are leaving it

voluntarily and do not practice it, but language murder means that the killer language actively

discourages use of other languages. Holmes (2008) in an Introduction to Sociolinguistics

writes the death of a language takes shape when all speakers of that language die out or its

speakers stop speaking that language by shifting to another available language. English is


referred to as a "killer language", which means that it is a dominant language learned

subtractive, at the cost of the mother tongues, rather than additively.

According to above explanations and definitions English globalization could lead to every

one of the above manifestations of language loss. Everything depends on language speakers

save in one case when all speakers of a language die out. If speakers of a language like

Persian stop communicating using it, they push forward language shift, death or murder.

3.6 Resisting English globalization

The process of English overtaking the whole globe is certain and cannot be denied in any

way. Contemporary mass production of luxury, new, hard to produce goods may no longer

take place within discrete national borders, but unfold in a complex system of transnational

economic and cultural exchanges characterized by the global flow of cultural products and

commodities inside English emitting empires. Based on the mentioned facts, by exporting

products, sending tourists, books, films, broadcasting news and films overseas, English

intrude other nations. Therefore, English is uninvited and unwanted guest of the kind which

fosters obnoxious plans in its head for local languages. Therefore, languages do not kill

languages; their own speakers do, in giving them up, although they themselves are victims of

changes in the socio-economic ecologies in which they evolve (Mufwene, 2002).

If the unwanted-uninvited guest wishes to linger on in host nation, disastrous consequences

it may cause. It is upon host hands to ambush against and keep this jeopardizing guest at

elbow by adhering to their native languages, dialects and accents. The wished victims can

continue to speak and communicate their languages. Since English globalization lead to

language shift, death or genocide, Holmes (2008) aided and contributed by suggesting coming

factors which seem to retard wholesale language impairments at the least for some times:

Groups consider their language as their identity

Groups live near to each other and see each other frequently

The degree and frequency of contact with homeland

Institutional support like law, education and administration

Regarding Persian language, the researcher warns Iranian despite taking into consideration the

above crucial factors, be careful not to:

Teach and learn English as a tool inside country for meeting their educational and

scientific needs not as language as medium and formal language

Lose flag of our long and old civilization at the cost of nothing

Teach English to your kids instead of Persian at home as first language


3.7 Dangers of English globalization on destination languages and cultures

English globalization, which is newly called neo-colonization, is both dangerous for

destination cultures and languages. Since culture and language are building blocks of the

same system, the vulnerability of one will also affect the other one. In cases when the

destination languages remain and the globalized English also penetrate and both going to be

used which some call it hybridization the culture of that society no doubt undergoes mortal

viruses.

Muyale-Manenji (1998) had put forward the following pretty words which we cannot turn

blind eye. Each culture has its own personality. The fact that we are all human does not mean

that we are all the same. To ignore this would be destroying God's own beautiful rainbow

made from the many colures of cultural diversity. Moreover, she claims culture is learned.

This is the most common attribute. The European beckons while holding his hand with the

fingers uppermost, while the African does so with the fingers pointing down. Each has

learned his/her way. Such learning does not take place through natural inheritance. It is not

genetically transmitted. Rather, it takes place by a process of absorption from the social

environment or through deliberate instruction. No culture is possible without a language. It is

bound up with language. This is an important prerequisite and therefore to kill a language is

to kill a culture.

The language a community speaks is part of its culture and so few changes in language

occur unless there are prior changes in culture. Global language here English may cause the

following dangers as offered by Morsalin (2012):

A global language might cultivate an elite class with native speakers, who take

advantage of the possibility to think and work quickly in their mother tongue. If this was

the case, they might manipulate it to their advantage at the expense of those who has

another language as their mother tongue and in this way create a linguistic gap between

people. English has a history, sometimes cruel and violent with colonialism and war, and

introducing English as the global language might be seen as a threat of future dominance.

Perhaps a global language will make people unwilling or unable to learn other languages

and make other languages unnecessary.

Daraz et.al (2011) found the following as consequences of English globalization and

globalization and called them crises:


Decline of traditional social structure

Losing the traditional and century’s old customary traits and values, directly found

proportional to cultural imperialism and pluralism.

Wrenching the belief system directly

Cause departure of old values by prevailing and encouragement of secularism.

Augmenting religious conflicts which induce intolerance among the followers

Bringing psychological crises among the minor cultures.

Replacing solidarity by individualism.

Occurring social isolation among people

4. Channels which aid English globalization

Mishra (2008) believes globalization is perceived as highly dangerous because its impact

cannot be kept out as it overcomes both natural and national barriers with the help of the latest

information technologies. Free trade in cultural goods has given rise to “television without

borders” and through them American fashions, tastes and values enter without any

hindrance”.

Globalization, which started sometimes ago, is an ongoing thing that cannot be stopped. A

multi-faceted phenomenon ramifies into all areas of the human life. Since the idea of

globalization is a thing that comes from the rich and affluent countries of the West, many in

the developing and third world countries welcome it with much delight as it offers them a

great deal in terms of capital flow, which promises prosperity (Abdul Razak, 2011). With the

coming of western powers to Asia and to other parts of the world, they brought along their

culture, custom and language, system of administration, law and order in having their

hegemony over the countries under their control. When they could establish themselves via

all means, they imposed their hegemony on inhabitants of these countries. This is from one

side that they colonized these countries then, as they were super-wealthy powers having giant

factories, companies and industries tried to sell their products in these countries.

First gateway through which English is emanated over local borders is English production

policy. Both sources of English producing countries are U.K and U.S.A, which produce

English for all around the globe by British and American accent respectively. Very popular

universities, publications, and institutions like Oxford University Press and Cambridge

University Press annually produce thousands of volumes of books, booklets, work books and


thousands of rings of DVDs and CDs in English to be sent just outside their territories with

the aim of making profits and spreading English.

The next gateway is mass media at their power, which their programs are mostly broadcasted

in English. Their news bulletins are produced for political, economical, social and cultural

aims and as to be heard around the globe for teaching English. Thousands of radio, TV and

satellite channels like BBC, CNN and VOA proceed broadcasting English overseas.

The third gateway is sending and receiving passengers, students, tourists, correspondents,

athletes and adventurers. However, all for meeting their needs need to talk in English.

The fourth gateway is the biggest and most famous one, i.e. WWW. Every computer

windows is in English, every messenger is in English, every scientific famous journal is in

English, every mobile phone first language is English, all soft ware and hard ware language is

English etc.

The fifth gateway, which allows for English transmission is that of goods and products

which are sold and send around the globe. All of their labels and instructions are in English.

5. English globalization or English borrowing

By any means, English is transmitted to underdeveloped regions and there it may delays

leaving. For prestige or for talking with outsiders or anything else, it is possible that

inhabitants tempted to use English fully or code-switch or borrow words or phrases to

communicate themselves. Witalisz (2011) raise this issue that in language studies, linguistic

globalization may be seen as global intensive lexical borrowing from English by languages

whose speakers use English as a foreign language, e.g. Polish, Spanish, Chinese. Cross-

lingual borrowing facilitates the process of linguistic globalization, with English being the

most prominent donor of vocabulary and set expressions. He again raises this question of why

linguists do need to speak of globalization in relation to linguistic borrowing. By doing

studies and reaching many findings, Witalisz (2011) tried to answer his question: the majority

of globalisms have English as their source language, i.e. language from which they are

borrowed by other systems. The two main types of linguistic borrowing found among

globalisms of English origin are “loanwords and “loan translations. Process of borrowing

from English quite paradoxically contributes to language diversification due to formal and

semantic changes that the English etymons undergo in the course of the adaptation process

(Alexieva, 2008; Dunn, 2008, Witalisz, 2010)


6. Preserving while Maintaining The strongest forth of our languages (Persian and Arabic) will be built if we speak our

languages nationwide and at the same time preserving them against probable dangers like

globalization. Linguists are trying to document as many as they can by describing grammars

and structural features, by recording spoken language and by using computers to store this

information for study by scholars. Many endangered languages are only spoken; no written

texts exist. Therefore, it is important to act quickly in order to capture them before they go

extinct. The following actions can be done to preserve our languages:

Duplicating and digitizing high-quality recordings in an archival form

Emphasizing self-documenting and software-independent data

Giving linguists a toolkit to analyze and compare languages

Developing General Ontology for Linguistic Description (GOLD) to allow

interoperability of archives, and comparability of data and analysis.

7. Iranian protect Persian against English globalization

Iran is one of the leading nations in the Middle East region that has a culturally rich history

and civilization. For several centuries, many powers attacked Iran and stayed behind here, but

they could not survive their domination. Iranian culture and language were repetitively

assaulted; nevertheless, they avoided accepting any alteration.

The main themes in this study were to warn Iranian teachers, authors, ordinary people and

students against English globalization dangers for their old culture and language. The

researchers as a teachers in institutions and schools in Iran while teaching English as foreign

language faces conversations, patterns and rules of conduct, which are wholly westernised. If

the desire is to teach our students such immoral cases no longer do we have pure culture, but a

heterogeneous and homogenous culture. According to Ameli (2002, p. 226) heterogeneity

helps fragmentation of identities in the society and homogeneity which create domination by

Western culture, in particular American culture, all over the world. So globalization is seen to

be creating a tension between these two forces. A central problem of globalization is the

dialectic tension between homogenization and heterogenization (Chuang, 2000, p. 19, cited in

Ameli, 2002). Therefore, English being a global language will of course cause a levelling of

many cultures into a global culture.

We Iranian, owners of one of the oldest civilizations and languages, for prestige, for

translation, for talking with outsiders, for chatting, for reading, for writing, for travel and for


whatsoever purposes should acquaint and equip ourselves with all languages, but we must be

careful to no to put aside flag of our rich culture at the expense of English.

The researchers declare English producing centers to stop producing pedagogical materials

just around their rules and patterns of their cultures. We warn that a global language should

adapt itself to global cultures, i.e. respect all minority languages and cultures by either

produce pedagogical materials specific to every culture or at least remove those items which

undermine other cultures.

8. Conclusion

Putting everything in a nut shell, English globalization seriously jeopardizes the peaceful life

of twins’ brothers; that is culture and language. English globalization by all means like mass

media is swiftly spreading its scope of control over world languages and cultures. It causes

language shift, death and murder, heterogeneity and homogeneity of society identities. It is

another line of colonization of super-powers which is called neo-globalization.

English will be misplaced provided that like past we Muslims speak our languages

wholeheartedly. One of the major leading forces in the death or survival of a language is

government; in cases when English continue to be used as foreign language and not as second

language by government, it will no doubt permit not English to threaten life of local

languages. The researchers hope Muslim ministries of culture, literature and guidance build

their own vocabulary for those words which they borrowed. Since the foundation of English

in any country is built when the speakers in that country start to produce utterances as an

amalgamation of English and for instance Persian, we suggest people in that country to use

their language words only. Moreover, we expect those in charge of teaching English

pedagogical materials at universities and institutions to circumvent teaching pieces of

conversation which include Non-Islamic rules and patterns.

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Title

Epistemic Modality in Academic Discourse: A Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Disciplinary Study

Authors

Motahareh Sameri (M.A candidate)

University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Manoochehr Tavangar (Ph.D) University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Biodata

Motahareh Sameri M.A. Candidate of TEFL at University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Her research interests include semantics and intercultural pragmatics. Manoochehr Tavangar associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. His main areas of interest are discourse analysis and pragmatics.

Abstract

The field of academic writing has undergone a major shift of attention from

objectivity to subjectivity. Accordingly, being subjective, research articles lend

themselves to the investigation of modality which, according to one of its

conceptualizations, is the expression of subjectivity. However, different languages

and disciplines possess different norms of epistemic modality exploitation. Thus,

the present study sets out to investigate the effect of cultural and disciplinary

variations upon epistemic modality use across soft and hard disciplines of English

(by native and non-native speakers) and Persian research articles. The results

revealed that the number of modalised utterances is highest in the English corpus

and lowest in the Persian with the non-native speakers’ corpus being somewhere

in between. With regard to disciplinary variation, in all three corpora, hard

sciences used epistemic modality less frequently than their soft counterparts.

Moreover, another key finding of the present study is that hard sciences use

certainty markers more frequently than possibility and probability markers to

modalise their utterances, while soft sciences are characterized by the use of

probability and possibility markers, rather than certainty markers.

Keywords: Modality, Epistemic modality, Genre, Transfer


1. Introduction

The field of academic writing has recently witnessed and undergone a major shift of attention

from objectivity to subjectivity. The initial conflicting stance, to belie the commonly held

view regarding the objective and impersonal nature of academic writing, was given substance

by studies such as Holms (1988), Swales (1990), Myers (1989) and mostly Hyland (2002a;

2002b; 2001; 2009 , to name just a few). Such conception of the subjective nature of

academic discourse triggered off a bulk of research in the field. In this respect, Flottum

(2005) maintains that academic discourse, being a dynamic research field, has lent itself to

being investigated in terms of different phenomena, from different theoretical perspective,

and within diverse methodological frameworks. The present study, which is within the same

line of research, aims at investigating the use of epistemic modality markers in the Persian

and English academic discourse. The reason is that epistemic modality provides writers with

an opportunity to intrude into texts and express their certainty or uncertainty (or their

subjective attitude, broadly construed) towards the propositions it contains. The subjectivity

of academic writing, thus, highlights the importance of the use of modality in academic

writing in that modality, according to one of its conceptualizations, is a means of expressing

subjective attitudes and opinions of writers towards the propositional and factual aspect of

their utterances. Moreover, what provides the present study with further impetus to

investigate the use of epistemic modality in academic discourse is the fact that, as argued by

Hyland (1996), much of the work on modality has been either theoretical or has been

confined to modal verbs and drew upon non-academic sources.

However, different languages provide their speakers with different linguistic and

paralinguistic devices for the expression of modality (Palmer, 1986) and different cultures

have different norms, conventions, practices, and expectations regarding the use of rhetorical

devices in general, and epistemic modality in particular, and that the appropriate use of

epistemic modality is dependent upon linguistic contexts and the norm of the discourse

community within which it is being deployed. A growing body of literature has been devoted

to confirm the effect of linguistic variation on the use of modal markers (including Hu and

Cao, 2011; Hinkel, 2005; Hyland and Miltone, 1997; Salagar Meyer et. al., 2003; Vold, 2006;

Vassieleva, 2001). Besides taking Persian and English research articles into account, the

present study draws upon non-native speakers’ corpus (English research articles written by

Persian writers). The rationale behind choosing a language-contrastive perspective in this

study, in keeping with Vold (2006), is that besides the specific linguistic features of English


academic, their similarities and differences with other languages should be highlighted to

help the non-native language writers compare and contrast the academic norm of their

languages with English.Moreover, it has been empirically proven that one of the significant

hurdles learners face in this regard is the influence of the first language (Hinkel, 2009).

According to Yakhontova (2006), besides cultural factors, lots of other forces are at work

to shape academic discourse. According to him, one of the important dimensions which has

rarely been taken into account is the influence of professional or disciplinary context. Thus,

he argues that “It is thus reasonable to assume that disciplinary conventions interplay with

national cultural influences” to leave their joint effect upon academic discourse. Accordingly,

being informed by the fact that different disciplines have different rhetorical structures, and to

be accepted as a member of a discourse community, research article writers are required to

conform to the established norm of the community (Hyland, 1998), the present study takes

disciplinary variations into account too.

To address the identified research lacuna identified above and to investigate the effect of

cultural and disciplinary influences upon epistemic modality use, the present study scrutinize

the discussion sections of English (by native English speakers and native Persian speakers)

and Persian research articles published across hard and soft disciplines.

2. Expression of Epistemic Modal Markers in English and Persian

Before embarking on the explanation of epistemic modal markers in English and Persian, we

will present a brief sketch of what constitutes modality. In point of fact, despite the vast and

growing body of research on modality, it continues to remain a moot point for linguists and

philosophers and there is no commonly held view regarding what is modality. Accordingly, a

number of criteria including subjectivity (Bybee et. al., 1994; Lyons, 1977; Palmer, 1986),

factuality (Palmer, 2001; Papafragou, 2000), and nonpropositionality (Fillmore, 1968) have

been put forward to map out the scope of modality and find out what exactly constitutes this

phenomenon. Among scholarly examples equating modality with subjectivity is Lyons

(1977, p. 495), who construes modality as “the speaker’s opinion or attitude towards the

proposition that the sentence expresses or the situation that the proposition describes”. Along

the same line, Palmer (1986, p. 16) conceives of modality as “the grammaticalization of the

speakers’ (subjective) attitude and opinion”. On the other hand, Fillmore (1968), in

advancing his argument on the notion of proposition, touches upon the concept of modality in

passing and defines it as everything which is outside of, and complementary to, the


propositional content of the sentence. Finally, Papafragou (2000, p. 3), from the vantage point

of non-factuality, envisages modality as linguistic expressions which allow us “to talk (and

modal concepts allow us to think) about states of affairs which are not present in the current

situation and may never occur in the actual world”.

Our perception of modality is further clouded by regarding the way it is linguistically

expressed in that different linguists propose different ways for the linguistic expression of

modality. However, for the purpose of the present study, Nuyts’ (2001) proposed taxonomy

was taken as our working criterion. Nyuts (2001, p.384) argues that epistemic modality,

which happens to be the main focus of the present study, is realized through the following

categories in English: modal adverbs, modal adjectives, modal auxiliaries, and mental state

predicates. As for Persian, Tavangar and Amuzadeh’s (2009) proposed taxonomy was

selected. According to them, in Persian modality is textualisd by means of one of the

following linguistic devices: modal adverb, modal verb, modal auxiliary, mental state

predicate.

Having presented an overall picture of the linguistic expressions of epistemic modality in

English and Persian, we will shed light on the criteria for the inclusion of epistemic modal

markers. They can be adumbrated as follows:

1) Having confined the scope of modality to epistemic type, exclusive emphasis was laid on

modal markers expressing certainty, probability, and possibility (the entire gamut of

meanings encoded by epistemic modality). Accordingly, in Persian, instances of

‘xastæn’, ‘tævanestæn’, and ‘bayestæn’, which are chief exponents of expressing

dynamic and deontic modality, respectively, were excluded. As for English, likewise,

instances such as ‘must’ and ‘can’ which are carriers of deontic and dynamic modality

were ruled out.

2) To give a panoramic view of the use of epistemic modal markers in the genre of

academic writing, the present study included markers which qualify the propositional

content of the utterance both implicitly and explicitly. With regard to the distinction

invoked between implicit and explicit modal markers, Vold (2006), unlike the present

study, maintains that verbs such as ‘find’, ‘show’, ‘demonstrate’, ‘claim’, ‘propose’,

etc. qualify the truth value of the utterance implicitly and that their main function is

reporting something and contributing to the propositional content of the utterance and,

consequently, should not be regarded as epistemic modal markers.


3) Another key issue which should be taken into consideration in counting the number of

epistemic modal markers was ‘the issue of the responsibility for the utterance’ as

discussed by Crompton (1997, p. 283). According to him, modal lexical verbs such as

claim, suggest, believe, etc. are carriers of modal meaning, when writers ‘use them to

report their own proposition (1997, p. 283), rather than that of other writers. However,

this issue is a matter of controversy and some other scholars such as Hyland and

Milton (1997) maintain that these lexical verbs express epistemic modality even in

cases they are used to report other writers’ proposition. According to the authors, the

writer may have recourse to the opinion of other researchers “as a means of disguising

the epistemic source” (p. 283). For the purpose of the present study, which draws

upon Hyland and Milton (1997) and Sinclair’s (1986) convincing argument, both

attribution and averrals (to use Sinclair’s (1986) terminology) were taken into

consideration. Consider the following text samples:

“Rooryck (2001), in offering such an analysis for syntactic parentheticals, suggests that

the syntactic position itself might ‘‘filter’’ the semantic content of items it contains,

allowing only those aspects of their content compatible with an evidential interpretation to

survive.” (Native English Corpus, Applied Linguistics 8).

4) The classification of adverbs as carriers of modal meaning is, moreover, a matter of

controversy. Put more precisely, adverbs are conceived of either as modifying the

whole sentence (called ‘sentence adverb’, in this sense) or modifying a word or a

group of words, referred to as word modifier in this sense (Hoye, 1997). The

controversy arises from the fact that some linguists such as Drubig (2001, p. 10)

maintain that “epistemic interpretation only occurs with sentence adverbs”. Some

other linguists such as Hyland (1998a), on the other hand, argue that word or word-

phrase modifiers are carriers of epistemic modal meaning. The present study, based

on the same line of thought as Hyland (1998a), maintains that both instances of

sentence and word-phrase modifiers are regarded as encoding epistemic modality.

3. methodology

For the corpus of the present study to be representative of native English and Persian

scientific writing, the authors of research articles, at least the first author, were required to

have an Angelo-Saxon and an Iranian surname, respectively, and to be affiliated with an

institution or university in countries where these languages are spoken as L1. Moreover, it


is worth mentioning that, to maximize variation of the corpus, we attempted not to choose

more than one article by the same writer.

The rationale behind confining the scope of the study to discussion section is that this

rhetorical section allows for the frequent use of epistemic modal markers in that “… It is in

this last section of research papers that writers speculate, argue, contrast and extrapolate from

the described results, and at the same time avoid stating results too conclusively so as the

readers can note that the authors are not claiming to have the final word on the subject”

(Salager-Meyer, 1994, p. 169). Accordingly, bearing in mind the fact that uncertainty (along

with certainty) constitutes one of the core concepts encoded by epistemic modality, it goes

without saying that this rhetorical section of research articles allows for the frequent use of

epistemic modal markers. Put differently, given that the discussion section is the locus of

making claims and generalizations about the findings of the study, it allows for the frequent

use of epistemic modal markers as a means of writer’s intrusion into discourse to express

his/her certainty or lack of certainty regarding the findings of the study.

Bearing the preceding remarks in mind, classified random sampling was used for the

purpose of the present study to select the corpus constituting 240 discussion sections of

research articles written in hard and soft disciplines by native speakers of Persian and English

and non-native speakers of English. At the next stage, the primary pool of data coming from

240 discussion sections of research articles was subdivided into three groups: 80 articles

written in Persian by Persian speakers, 80 written in English by English native speakers, and

80 written in English by Persian native speakers. In each group, the articles were chosen from

among different subdisciplines of hard and soft sciences. As for soft sciences, the present

study reviewed the philosophy and applied linguistics research articles, and for hard sciences,

physics and chemistry research articles were investigated. From each discipline 20 articles

were randomly selected.


Table 4.1.represents total number of words, total and relative frequency of epistemic modal

markers across soft and hard disciplines of English, Persian, and non-native speakers’

corpora.

Table 4. 1. Total number of words and total and relative frequency of linguistic devices used

to express epistemic modality:


Language Native Persian

speakers

Native English

speakers

Non-native

speakers

Discipline Soft

sciences

Hard

sciences

Soft

sciences

Hard

sciences

Soft

sciences

Hard

sciences

Total

number of

words

14396 11758 16788 13766 21060 7116

Total

epistemic

words

220 124 562 312 410 96

Tokens per

1000 words

8.41 4.74 18.39 10.21 14.55 3.40

Even a cursory examination of the total number of words in each language and discipline

reveals that the three corpora under investigation do not coincide in terms of their size.

Accordingly, to make them comparable and perform further computations, instead of drawing

upon the raw data presented in Table 4.1., the data were normalized and the frequency per

1000 words calculated (Table 4.2). To normalize the data and calculate the relative frequency

per 1000 words, the following formula was used: [(Raw frequency count/ number of words in

the text) × 1000 = normalized frequency count] and the following procedures were

performed: first, the raw frequency (F) of the intended device was determined in different

subcorpora, the raw frequency was divided by the total number of words in the intended

corpus and then the result was multiplied by 1000.

As the quantitative distribution of epistemic modal markers across different disciplines of

different languages, represented in Table 4.1 makes manifest, native English speakers, in

general and regardless of the discipline within which they are writing, modalised their

utterances more often (28.60) than their Persian and non-native counterparts. On the

evidence of the total relative frequency of epistemic modal markers per 1000 words at the

bottom of Table 4.1, it is manifest that they are followed by non-native (17.59) and Persian

(13.15) speakers, respectively. Setting out on a more detailed examination to uncover the

more subtle differences in each corpus, the author made a comparison is made between the

research articles published across soft and hard research articles. As the estimated frequencies

indicate, in all the three corpora under investigation in the present study epistemic modal

markers pervaded in the research articles of soft sciences. However, the most pronounced

disciplinary variation was found between the research articles of hard and soft disciplines of

non-native speakers’ corpus.


In the above section, an attempt was made to offer a rather comprehensive account of the

frequency and distribution of different syntactic categories of epistemic modal markers across

soft and hard disciplines of English, Persian, and non-native corpus. The next step that needs

to be taken at this stage is to make inter-lingual and intra-lingual comparisons between the

soft and hard disciplines of each language and the soft and hard disciplines of English and

Persian. Accordingly, to achieve this aim, chi-square, a non-parametric data analysis test, was

employed. The results are represented in the following table.

Table 4. 2. Chi-square values resulting from comparing modal markers across disciplines

and languages

Language discipline Total number of epistemic modal markers

PS/ES 3.7

PH/EH 1.95

PS/PH 1.01

ES/EH 2.82

PT/ET 2.80

LS/ES 0.44

LS/PS 1.64

LH/EH 3.4

LH/PH 0.22

LS/LH 6.92

LT/ET 2.92

LT/PT 0.64

PS: Persian soft, PH: Persian hard, ES: English soft, EH: English hard, PT: Persian total, ET: English total, LS: learner’s corpus soft, LH: learner’s corpus hard, LT: learner’s corpus total, df =1, level of significance = 0.10, X2 critical value = 2.706.

As the relevant figure in Table 4.2. illustrates, the cross-linguistic difference between the

English and Persian research articles from soft sciences was significant (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2

crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 3.7), and the native English research article writers publishing in soft

sciences had recourse to epistemic modal markers more frequently (18.39 per 1000 words, n

= 562) than their Persian counterparts publishing within the same discipline (8.41 per 1000

words, n = 220). With regard to the hard disciplines of the two languages, the results of the

non-parametric statistics, however, was suggestive of an insignificant difference between the


English and Persian research articles (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 1.95). The

results of the intra-linguistic comparison between Persian research articles published in two

different disciplines of soft and hard sciences, moreover, was indicative of an insignificant

difference between the research articles of hard and soft sciences. Put differently, reviewing

the relative frequency of the Persian hard and soft research articles, we find that, conforming

to our expectations, the Persian research articles published in soft sciences used epistemic

modal markers more frequently (8.41 per 1000 words, n = 220) than the research articles of

hard sciences (4.74 per 1000 words, n = 124). However, the results of the non-parametric

statistic show that the difference was not significant (p < 0.10, df = 1, X2 critical value = 2.70,

X2 observed = 1.01). Quite incompatible with the results of the Persian corpus, the intra-

linguistic investigation of the English research articles of soft and hard disciplines revealed

that there was a significant difference between the English soft and hard research articles(P <

0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 2.82). In point of fact, the English research articles

published in soft sciences were more tentative in reporting their results and, consequently,

utilized epistemic modal markers more frequently (18.39 per 1000 words, n= 562) than the

research articles of hard discipline (10.21 per1000 words, n = 312). Having compared

English and Persian research articles in terms of their use of epistemic modality marker

across their soft and hard discipline, it would not be impertinent, at this stage, to make a

comparison between the use of epistemic modality markers in the English and Persian

research articles, irrespective of the discipline within which they were published. A quick

glance at table 4.1., findings, and figures provides us with the evidence that English research

articles, regardless of the disciplines involved, contained markedly more epistemic modal

markers (28.6 per 1000 words, n = 874) than the Persian research articles (13.15 per 1000

words, n = 344). The results of the non-parametric statistics, moreover, provide evidence for

this finding (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 2.80). The observed result may be

attributed to the non-native speakers’ tendency to exaggerate their findings. Besides, the more

authoritative tone of Persian research articles may be regarded as being corroborative of the

more persuasive nature of Persian (Hinkel, 2005).

To investigate the effect of first language, the English research articles written by Persian

native speakers across soft and hard disciplines were put under scrutiny and were compared

with the English and Persian research articles. The comparison between the research articles

published in soft disciplines by English non-native speakers (Persian researchers writing in

English) and their counterparts composed by English native speakers revealed that English

native speakers qualify their propositions (18.39 per 1000 words, n = 562) more than their


non-native counterparts (14.35 per 1000 words, n = 410). However, the results of the non-

parametric statistic demonstrated that the difference between them was not significant (P <

0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 0.44). It might be argued that this finding affords clear

confirmation of the fact that the non-native English speakers writing in soft disciplines

managed to identify and conform to the accepted and established norms of the target

discourse community. The same corpus (research articles published in soft disciplines by

English non-native speakers), when compared with their Persian counterpart (Persian

research articles published in soft sciences), exhibited an insignificant difference (P < 0.10, df

= 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 1.64). While Persian researchers, when writing in one of the

soft disciplines of English, modalised their utterances more (14.35 per 1000 words, n = 410)

than when they were composing in one of the soft disciplines of Persian (8.41 per 1000

words, n = 220), the difference was not fundamental. This piece of finding may be invoked to

hypothesize that transfer from Persian to English in soft disciplines had taken place.

However, given the insignificant difference between the ways in which native English

speakers and non-native speakers use epistemic modal markers in soft disciplines, it goes

without saying that this hypothesis is rejected. To check whether Persian research articles

published in English hard disciplines conform to or deviate from the accepted norms of the

discipline, a comparison was made between research articles published in hard science by

English non-native speakers and their counterpart published in the same field of study by

native English speakers. Unlike the case of the non-native speakers’ soft corpus, the non-

native speakers’ hard corpus revealed a significant deviation from the established and

accepted norms of the English hard disciplines, to which they intended to conform in that the

results of the chi-square test demonstrated a significant difference (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.=

2.706, X2 obs. = 3.4) between the hard corpus of non-native speakers and that of English

native speakers. Put differently, the English native speakers writing in hard sciences

modalised their utterances (10.21 per 1000 words, n = 312) much more frequently than their

non-native counterpart (3.40 per 1000 words, n = 96). In line with the soft disciplines, to

determine whether the deviation from the accepted norms and conventions was instigated by

any transfer from Persian to the English research articles of English non-native writers

publishing across hard disciplines, a comparison was made between the research articles of

hard disciplines composed by Persian native speakers and those by English non-native

speakers (Persian researchers publishing in English). The results were suggestive of a rather

insignificant difference (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 0.22) between the two

corpora in question, which provides evidence in support of the negative transfer from Persian.


Hence, this piece of finding is in line with and corroborative of the above finding regarding

the failing of the non-native researchers to conform to the norms and conventions of hard

disciplines. As for the intra-linguistic comparison between the research articles published

across soft and hard disciplines by English non-native speakers (Persian native speakers

writing in English), a chi-square test was deployed. The results (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.=

2.706, X2 obs. = 6.92), being in line with the English corpus and confirming our expectations,

showed that research articles published in soft sciences contained significantly more

epistemic modal markers (14.32 per 1000 words, n = 410) than their hard counterpart (3.40

per 1000 words, n = 96). Finally, as the author was not concerned with cross disciplinary

variations, a comparison was made between the total numbers of the epistemic modal

markers of non-native corpus and the English and Persian corpus. With respect to the

comparison between English and non-native speakers’ corpus, the results suggested a

significant difference between the two corpora in terms of the frequency of epistemic

modality exploitation (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 2.82). This piece of finding

can be regarded as being suggestive of the non-native speakers’ failure to conform to the

accepted norm of English disciplines. Moreover, with regard to Persian and non-native

speakers’ corpus an insignificant difference (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 0.64)

was identified.

As was pointed out in the previous chapter, to address and discuss the fifth question

concerning the effect of disciplinary variation upon the manifestations epistemic modal

markers, or more precisely, the degree of certainty or uncertainty encoded by epistemic

modal markers, in research articles, Nuyts’ (2006) taxonomy for the meanings encoded by

epistemic modality (i.e., certainty, probability, and possibility) was taken as our point of

departure. Table 4.3 shows the relative frequency of certainty, probability, and possibility

markers across the hard and soft disciplines of the English, non-native speakers, and Persian

corpus. This table sheds light on the disciplinary variation and any probable effect it might

have upon the degree of certainty, encoded by epistemic modal markers.

Table 4. 3. Relative Frequency of the linguistic devices used to express epistemic modality

per 1000 words:

Language Native Persian speakers Native English speakers Non-native speakers

Discipline Soft sciences

Hard sciences

Soft sciences

Hard sciences

Soft sciences

Hard sciences


Certainty markers

3.74 2.52 3.46 5.10 4.54 1.56

Probability markers

2.75 1.98 6.61 2.81 5.89 1.41

Possibility markers

1.91 0.22 8.31 2.29 4.11 0.42

GT 8.41 4.74 18.39 10.21 14.55 3.40

GT: grand total As for the native Persian corpus, the research articles published in soft sciences, quite

contrary to our expectations, used certainty markers most frequently (3.74 per 1000 words, n

= 98), followed by probability markers (2.75 per 1000 words, n = 72), and then possibility

markers (1.91 per 1000 words, n = 50) and the difference between them was revealed to be

significant (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 2.11, X2 obs. = 1.51). With regard to the research

articles published in the hard disciplines of Persian, as Table 4.3. indicates, certainty markers

(2.52 per 1000 words, n = 66) were used most frequently, followed by probability markers

(1.98 per 1000 words, n = 52), and then possibility markers, which were used least frequently

(0.22 per 1000 words, n = 6) and the difference between possibility, certainty, and probability

markers was substantial (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 0.211, X2 obs. = 1.83). As for the research

articles published by the English native speakers across soft disciplines, possibility markers

accounted for 254 instances of epistemic modal markers (totaling 8.31 per 1000 words)

followed by probability (6.61 per 1000 words, n = 202) and certainty markers (3.46 per 1000

words, n = 106), respectively. Mention should also be made of the fact that, besides the more

frequent use of possibility and probability makers than certainty markers, the difference

between them was revealed to be significant too (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 0.211, X2 obs. =

1.96). In keeping with the research articles published in Persian hard disciplines, those

composed by the English native speakers across hard disciplines, certainty markers are

deployed extensively (5.10 per 1000 words, n = 156). Probability (2.81 per 1000 words, n =

86) and possibility markers (2.29 per 1000 words, n = 70), as the figures demonstrate, are

used less extensively. Moreover, the results of the performed computations (i.e., the chi-

square) are indicative of the significant difference between certainty, probability, and

possibility markers of English research articles of hard disciplines (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.=

0.211, X2 obs. = 1.31). The research articles published by the non-native speakers in soft

sciences, which are neither in line with English nor Persian research articles of soft sciences,

extensively drew upon probability markers to modalise their proposition (5.89 per 1000

words, n = 166). However, the difference between the three categories of certainty,

probability, and possibility markers was revealed not to be significant (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2


crit. = 0.016, X2 obs. = 0.034). Moreover, it is worth mentioning that although the research

articles published in soft disciplines of non-native speakers’ corpus were

epistemicallymodalised (14.55 per 1000 words, n = 410) more frequently than their hard

counterparts (3.45 per 1000 words, n = 96), to modalise their utterances, they had recourse to

certainty markers rather as frequently as did possibility markers, and the difference between

the use of certainty, probability, and possibility markers was found not to be significant (P <

0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 0.211, X2 obs. = 0.034). Such interesting results tend to support the

argument that the total frequency of epistemic modal markers, regardless of the degree of

certainty and uncertainty they encode (i.e., certainty, probability, and possibility) is not a

stringent criterion for the effect of disciplinary variation on the use of epistemic modal

markers. The results of the use of different degrees of epistemic modal markers (i.e.,

certainty, probability, and possibility markers) across hard disciplines of the non-native

speakers coincide with our previous findings regarding the frequency and distribution of

epistemic modal markers in the research articles of hard disciplines of English and Persian in

the sense that across hard disciplines (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 0.211, X2 obs. = 0. 66), the

difference between certainty, probability, and possibility markers is significant.

5. conclusion

5.1. Discussion of the Findings of Linguistic Variation

The quantitative analysis of the data, coupled with their textual and qualitative analysis,

demonstrated that the number of modalised utterances is highest in the English and lowest in

Persian, with the non-native speakers’ corpus being somewhere in between. In point of fact,

the Persian research articles, compared to their English counterparts either penned by English

native speakers or Persian native speakers, are more direct, objective, and factually-oriented.

Put differently, compared to the English corpus, the writers of the Persian corpus seem to

express more certainty towards the propositional content of utterance; to increase their

commitment to the findings of the study and the proposed claims; to neglect, and at times, to

refute alternative views; to mitigate the reader-writer interaction; to increase the illocutionary

force of the utterance; and, finally, to indicate lack of respect and deference for differing and

alternative views and other scholars in the field. These findings are in keeping with the

results of several other cross-cultural studies (Chen, 2010; Hinkel, 2005; Hu and Cao, 2011;

Salagar Meyer et. al., 2003; Vassileva, 2001; Vazquez Otra, 2010; Vold, 2006; Yang, 2003),

in that all the above studies bear out the conclusion that scholars either native English


speakers or non-native speakers writing in English, publishing their research articles in

English journals, use epistemic markers more frequently than other writers publishing in their

native language.

The differences observed between the research articles published in English and Persian

journals can be attributed to the rhetorical conventions, discourse preferences, and persuasion

styles of different cultures which inform the larger socio-cultural contexts in which English

and Persian research articles are written. In this connection, Hyland (2002b, p. 1110) argues

that “culture shapes our communicative practices in significant ways, influencing our

preferences for structuring information, the relationships we establish with our readers and

how far we want to personally appear in our texts”. With regard to the degree of certainty,

Aijmer (2002, p. 63) claims that “writers form different cultures have different

preconceptions about the degree of directness and certainty required in academic writing”.

For instance, English research articles are informed by and grounded in the rhetorical norms

and discourse preferences of Anglo-American culture, which is characterized by challenging

one’s own and others’ claims and beliefs, by evaluating and judging the existing body of

knowledge, and by being involved in formal argumentation as the primary and principal way

of knowledge construction (Hu and Cao, 2011). In the discourse of scientific writings, it

makes itself manifest in the form of “an emphasis on rational reasoning, a preference for

reasoned discourse between individuals as a way to approach clarity and truth, the framing of

intellectual ideas in adversarial terms, and the anticipation or construction of

counterarguments” Hu and Cao (2011, p. 2804).

As discussed above, as far as the frequency of epistemic modality exploitation is

concerned, the non-native speakers’ corpus is located somewhere between the English and

the Persian corpora. Thus, the more frequent use of epistemic modal markers in the non-

native corpus, compared with its Persian counterpart, might be due to the fact that second

language writing instruction materials are, likewise imbued with Angelo-American norms

and conventions.

Besides culturally-determined rhetorical norms and conventions, the negative politeness

nature of English academic discourse (Holms, 1984; Hu and Cao, 2011; Vassileva, 2001) can

be invoked to account for the observed differences between Persian and English research

articles. Bearing the above remarks in mind, it would not be surprising to find that English

researchers capitalize on uncertainty markers to minimize imposition on the reader and to

avoid “Face-Threatening Acts”, in general (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Research articles

published in Persian journals, on the other hand, being informed by Persian rhetorical norms


and conventions, do not tally with English journals in terms of epistemic marker exploitation.

According to Abdollahzadeh (2011), “… It seems to be a common practice in the Iranian

tradition to abide by the rules and traditions without questioning or expressing doubt or

opinion about them. Cultural and educational upbringing, and traditionally oriented leanings

impose sets of orders and instructions in the form of ‘‘musts’’ and ‘‘must nots’’” (p. 295).

Audience awareness may be regarded as yet another reason for the observed rhetorical

differences in the three corpora under investigation. In this connection, Abdollahzadeh (2011)

maintains that, given the critical stance of readers and the high-stake nature of publication,

research article writers, when publishing in leading international journals, use modalised

utterances as a tactful means of gaining the acceptance and solidarity of an expert audience,

as well as, leaving some room for disagreement with, and probable falsification of,

arguments. As for the present study, the writers of the Persian corpus have in mind a

different perception of the audience of research articles in that the audience in question are

different in terms of their size, their expectation of effective arguments, and their mode of

criticism. Put more precisely, the research articles published in Persian, compared with their

English counterparts, address a more limited audience size. Besides being of a different size,

the audience of Persian research articles have a different culture-bound rhetorical construct,

different rhetorical sensitivity, different expectations regarding what constitutes an

academically effective argument, and different ideology regarding the rhetorical norms,

conventions, and practices involved. Such factors intertwined with each other to impose

their effect upon the extent of the persuasiveness of the text, the extent of certainty with

which a proposition is proposed, the extent of writers’ commitment to their claim, the extent

to which alternative views are taken into consideration, or broadly conceived, the extent of

modalising their findings and claims.

Owning to their deferential discourse system and collective culture, Persian research

article writers are characterized by not seeking for authorial voice or frequently refuting and

dismissing other researchers’ views. Epistemic modality, on the other hand, is recognized as a

means of expressing authorial voice, taking stance towards the proposition and findings of the

study, and advancing alternative views (Biber et. al., 1999). Accordingly, it might be argued

that the rationale behind the infrequent use of epistemic modality in the Persian corpus is

reluctance on the part of Persian researchers to seek for authorial voice. Put differently, the

result of the present study showed that, to report their findings, Persian research article

writers had recourse to categorical, rather than modalised, assertions. The observed results

may be accounted for by regarding such categorical assertions as a means of enabling


researchers to hide behind their research and of helping them avoid taking individual

authorial voice. Moreover, categorical assertions allow for reporting one researcher’s finding

without adopting a stance towards other views or challenging them.

5. 2. Discussion of the Findings of Disciplinary Variation

To get a more comprehensive grasp of the issue under investigation in the present study, a

second dimension - the examination of the effect of disciplinary variation on the distribution

and use of epistemic modality markers - was included.

As the results of the present study demonstrated, in all the three corpora of the study, the

research articles published within soft disciplines were modalised more than the research

articles in hard disciplines. The observed difference in epistemic modality exploitation might

be attributed to the fact that different disciplines are informed by different research designs,

materials, methods, etc. Put more precisely, in hard sciences knowledge proceeds

cumulatively and one researcher’s works build upon the work of other researchers, and hard

sciences, in general, are characterized as being ‘impersonal’ and ‘value-free’. Soft sciences,

on the other hand, are distinguished by being ‘personal’ and ‘value-laden’ in nature, and

knowledge in soft sciences, unlike that in hard sciences, proceeds recursively by proposing

other researchers’ view so that it may take a stance towards them (Becher and Trowler, 2001,

p. 36). Moreover, Varttala (2001, p. 250) maintains, in this respect, that the theoretical

foundation of soft sciences is more tentative in nature, while hard sciences are "more closely

related to the traditional rigorous empiricism of the natural sciences". The findings of the

research articles conducted in the soft sciences are not mathematically verifiable; rather, they

are proposed as tentative opinions. Accordingly, they are more susceptible to conflicting

views and attracting criticism from other members of the discourse community.

The observed difference regarding the significantly less frequent recourse to epistemic

modal markers in the research articles of hard sciences may also be justified by drawing upon

the fact that the research articles published in hard sciences are rooted in positivism and, as

Hyland (2005, p. 147) maintains, an important rhetorical aspect of positivist epistemology is

favoring and opting for textual authority (rather than individual authority) and seeking writers

“to disguise both their interpretive responsibilities and their rhetorical identities behind a

screen of linguistic objectivity’’. Thus, it may lend us support to argue that emphasis on the

text and the premise that the results are always the same regardless of the person who

conducted the study, justify the lack of writer’s presence in the text, or the infrequent use of

modality in general, or epistemic modality in particular accounts for the less tentative nature

of hard sciences.


Besides discovering the infrequent use of epistemic modal markers in the academic discourse

of hard sciences, the other striking finding of the present study regarding the use of epistemic

modal markers across hard disciplines was the more frequent use of certainty markers, rather

than probability and possibility markers, in hard sciences. This might be accounted for by

bearing in mind the nature of the evidence invoked to validate and substantiate the claims in

question. According to Hu and Cao (2011), the evidence writers of research articles written in

hard sciences invoke to verify their claims incorporate the primary data which were obtained

in the course of the research by the researcher and the research, in fact, is designed and

conducted with the aim of validating these claims. Accordingly, this empirical evidence is

conclusive and convincing enough to warrant the frequent use of certainty markers to express

stronger commitment to the findings. As for the pieces of evidence cited to substantiate the

claims in soft sciences, we can argue that they consist of secondary data obtained by means

of unsystematic and indirect observations and controversial theories which are recognized by

some scholars in the field but not by others. Thus, such findings are perceived to be limited

and inadequate to warrant the expression of a high degree of certainty and strong

commitment, hence, to allow for the prevalence of uncertainty markers (probability and

possibility markers).

The other reason which is invoked by Hyland (2009) to account for the more impersonal

nature of hard sciences is that such sciences are universalistic in that they seek for empirical

uniformities and generalizations, rather than individuals, and the methods and the procedures

which are deployed to propose an argument are of paramount importance. Epistemic modal

markers, on account of encoding possibility and probability and hampering making

generalizations, are not used very frequently in hard sciences. Other characteristics of hard

sciences presented by Hyland (2001, p. 216) are “involving familiar procedures, broadly

predictable outcome, and relatively clear criteria of acceptability”. Being concerned with

familiar procedures and objectivity, hard sciences do not allow for the prevalence of modal

markers in that they are indicative of subjectivity and the researcher’s intrusion into the

interpretation of the findings. In soft sciences, on the other hand, the acceptance of an

argument is heavily dependent upon the writer’s success in convincing the reader of the

reliability and validity of his/her findings and it is mainly achieved through a balanced

expression of commitment and detachment (Hyland, 2001). One of the means whereby this

can be achieved is the appropriate use of epistemic modal markers in that epistemic modality


can be deployed to indicate the writer’s stance towards his/her proposition, his/her certainty

or lack of certainty about the proposition, respecting differing views.

However, one point, which our discussion has bypassed so far, and which might come to

our mind at this stage, is how chemistry and physics research articles, despite being

conducted within the paradigm of hard sciences, involve possibility and probability markers.

This can be traced back to the fact that even in hard sciences, there are some intervening

variables whose effect cannot be controlled. Moreover, in all experimental and empirical

studies there is a margin of error which exerts a direct influence upon the language used to

report the findings. To account for the rationale behind the use of hedging (or probability and

possibility markers, according to the categorization adopted in the present study) in the

academic discourse of hard sciences, Hyland (1996, p. 257) argues that despite being

conducted under laboratory conditions and following experimental procedures, pieces of

research conducted in hard sciences are also informed by “experimental limitations, possible

exceptions and alternative explanations”. Accordingly, the empirical findings of their studies

can never control all variables and account for all exceptions. The preceding remarks confirm

the necessity of using probability and possibility markers in hard sciences.

However, as was mentioned in passing in the previous section, the other focal point of

analysis in the examination of the effect of disciplinary variation on the use of epistemic

modal markers is the investigation of the effect of the disciplinary variation upon the

semantic category of modal markers or, broadly construed, the degree of certainty epistemic

modal markers encode. Thus, to address this question, a three-fold distinction, adopted from

Nuyts (2006), was drawn between the meanings epistemic modality encodes; namely,

absolute certainty, probability, and possibility. However, what is at issue in this section is

investigating into which category (i.e., certainty, probability, or possibility) epistemic modal

markers, in general, and epistemic modal auxiliaries in particular, fit. With regard to the

degree of certainty epistemic modal auxiliaries encode, Halliday (1985) proposes rather the

same diagram and rates must as carrying the most degree of certainty.

Will must would should would (hypothetical) may could might Certainty markers probability markers possibility markers Figure 5.1. The Degree of Possibility English Modal Auxiliaries Express As results of the study revealed, the research articles published within hard disciplines

represented by the three corpora of the present study used certainty markers more frequently


than probability and possibility markers to modalise their findings. The difference between

possibility and certainty marker, on the other hand, is huge and considerable in the hard

research articles of the three corpora. Bearing in mind what was mentioned above regarding

the nature of hard disciplines, it goes without saying that the empirical, experimental, and

objective nature of hard sciences accounts for the more frequent use of certainty markers

(compared with probability and possibility markers).

As for soft sciences, the native English research articles use possibility and probability

markers more than certainty markers to modalise the propositional content of their utterances.

Likewise, the more subjective and personal nature of the soft sciences can be invoked to

account for the observed difference. However, the use of certainty, probability, and

possibility markers in the Persian corpus runs counter to our expected use in that across the

soft research articles of the Persian corpus, certainty markers are used more frequently

instead of probability or possibility markers.

Such interesting results make a strong case for the conclusion that there is a particular

kind of correspondence which holds between the inherent properties of disciplines (being soft

or hard) and the kind of epistemic modality (in terms of their semantic category) used to

encode modality. Put more precisely, as Hyland (2009) asserts, all disciplines can be

conceived of as falling into two major categories; namely, hard (otherwise known as

sciences) and soft (otherwise known as humanities) disciplines. It can schematically be

represented as follows:

Sciences social sciences humanities Figure 5.2. Continuum of Academic Knowledge (adopted from Hyland, 2009, p. 9) The meanings encoded by epistemic modality, on the other hand, run the whole gamut of

certainty, probability, and possibility, which can be represented as follows:

Absolute certainty probability possibility

Figure 5.3.Nuyts’s Classification of the Meanings Expressed by Epistemic Modality

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Title

On the Relationship among Language Learning Attitude, Academic Motivation and Language Proficiency of Iranian EFL learners

Authors

Jahanbakhsh Langroudi (Ph.D)

Shahid Bahonar University, Foreign Language Department, Kerman, Iran

Nasibeh Amiri (M.A student) Shahid Bahonar University, Foreign Language Department, Kerman, Iran

Biodata

Jahanbakhsh Langroudi, assistant professor of applied linguistics in the foreign languages department of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. He has been teaching different courses more than seventeen years at B.A. and M.A. levels. His areas of interest are teaching methodologies, contrastive analysis, issues of psycholinguistics and applied linguistics. Nasibeh Amiri B.A. in English literature from Shahid-Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran. an M.A. student in English Teaching in Shahid-Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran. Her current research interests include various aspects of English teaching and psycholinguistics.

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to explore any significant relationships among

language learning attitude (LLA), academic motivation (AM), and language

proficiency (LP) of Iranian EFL learners. One hundred and twenty Iranian EFL

students studying at the Department of Foreign Languages of Shahid Bahonar

University of Kerman took part in this study. The participants, including both

males and females, were selected using cluster sampling, a type of probability

sampling, from junior and senior students majoring in EFL related fields

(Teaching, Literature and Translation). In order to obtain the required data, three

questionnaires were utilized: the Language Attitude Scale (LAS) to measure

learners’ language learning attitude, The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) to

measure learners’ academic motivation, and Michigan Proficiency Test, short

version, to determine the level of students’ Language Proficiency. The findings of

this study revealed that first, there was a significant positive relationship between

LLA and LP (r= 0.24): the more positive language attitude the students have, the


higher their scores of LP; second, there was a significant positive relationship

between AM and LP(r= 0.44): the more motivated the students, the higher their

scores of LP; third, there was a significant positive relationship between LLA and

AM (r= 0.76): the more positive language attitude the students have, the higher

their academic motivation scores.

Keywords: Language Learning Attitude (LLA), Academic Motivation (AM),

Extrinsic Motivation (EM), Intrinsic Motivation (IM), Amotivation, Language

Proficiency (LP)

1. Introduction

Attitude as a psychological concept has been the focus of much research in the fields of

psychology, sociology, social psychology and educational psychology. Language learning

attitudes, as Fasold (1987) comments, only differ in the sense that they are attitudes about

languages and nothing else.

It has been suggested that the most likely fundamental and salient factor affecting

foreign language proficiency is motivation (Rahman, 2005). According to Bailey,

Onwuegbuzie, and Daley (2000), as motivation has a direct effect on the target language

proficiency, it is a strong predictor of substantial foreign language proficiency as well.

Several studies on learner variables (motivation, attitude, anxiety) and their

relationships with learners’ foreign language proficiency have been carried out over the

course of more than three decades. All of those studies have proved that learner variables

have influences on learners’ language proficiency (Lukmani, 1972; Kachru, 1992; Oxford

and Shearin, 1994; Brown, 1994 and 2000; Warden and Lin, 2000; Dornyei, 1994 and 2002;

Masgoret and Gardner, 2003; Lamb, 2004; Gardner, Masgoret, Tennant, & Mihie, 2004; and

Rahman, 2005).

In addition, there has been considerable research demonstrating that attitudinal and

motivational variables are related to achievement in a second language, and that this

association is independent of language aptitude (e.g., Inal, Evin and Saracaloglu, 2005).

Gardner (1982) states that although some possibly negative results have been reported, the

overwhelming evidence indicates that attitudinal variables are related to, and possibly

influence proficiency in second language.

Moreover, the relationship between motivation and attitudes has been considered a

prime concern in language learning research. Gardner and Lambert (1972) state that “his (the


learner) motivation to learn is thought to be determined by his attitudes towards the other

group in particular and by his orientations towards the learning task itself” (p.2).

2. Review of the Literature

2.1. Language Attitude

“Learning a language is closely related to the attitudes towards the languages” (Starks &

Paltridge, 1996, p.218).

Social psychologists started to investigate language attitudes in the 1950s. The

increased interest in studying language attitudes in the early years needs to be seen in relation

to the growing acceptance of the mentalist approach that regarded language production not as

behavior but as cognitive or mental activity. Since then a lot of research has been carried out

on describing and understanding language attitudes. The complexity of language attitudes

with their linked concepts of language and attitude and their correlation with society make it

impossible to devise a definition that is theoretically comprehensible and also applicable in

the real world context (Smith, 1996).

Attitudes have been explored by many researchers in different parts of the world. A

group of researchers (Latif, Fadzil, Bahroom, Mohammad, San, 2011) conducted a research

to determine the relationship between various socio-psychological variables like attitude,

motivation, anxiety and instrumental orientation on performance in English as a second

language. The results indicated that all of the four variables were significantly correlated with

learners' performance in the English course conducted at Open University of Malaysia.

Moreover, the regression analysis showed that all the variables except for personal

motivation exerted significant impacts on performance with anxiety having a negative impact

while attitude and instrumental orientation having positive impacts.

Liu’s (2007) study on Chinese university students’ attitudes and motivation to learn

English and the correlations of both variables with the students’ English proficiency also

revealed similar findings. The third-year undergraduates had positive attitudes and high level

of motivation towards learning English. Liu (2007) suggested that this may be due to the

rapid demand for university graduates to be highly proficient in English. In addition,

correlation analysis showed that students who had more positive attitudes towards learning

English tend to score higher in the proficiency test. However, Liu suggested that more

positive attitudes and higher instrumental and travel orientations might also be the result of

students’ higher English proficiency.


Haitema (2002) and Saracaloğlu (2000) in their studies reveal that there is a positive

relationship between affective characteristics and foreign language achievement. In her study,

Saracaloğlu (2000) refers to the students’ attitudes that they differ according to the type of

high school, that is Anatolian High School and private high school showed high positive

attitudes towards foreign language.

Bartley (1970) stated that his studies have showed that there was a direct relationship

between positive attitudes and high achievement as well as negative attitudes and low

achievement. That positive attitudes enhance achievement has been confirmed and described

by Lambert et al. (1963), and Spolsky (1969).

Chalak and Kassaian (2010) investigated motivation and attitude of Iranian

undergraduate EFL students towards learning English. The research focused on the

motivation orientations of the students and their attitudes towards the target language and its

community. A group of 108 students majoring in English Translation in Isfahan, Iran was

surveyed using Attitude, Motivation Test Battery (AMTB). The results revealed that these

Iranian non-native speakers of English learned the language for both ‘instrumental’ and

'integrative' reasons and their attitudes towards the target language community and its

members were generally found to be highly positive.

2.2. Academic Motivation

The relationships between academic motivation and language proficiency have long attracted

researchers’ attention. Motivation determines how and why people learn and how they

perform (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996).

Clement and Kruidenier (1985) and Dornyei (1994) have demonstrated that measures

of proficiency in the second/foreign language are related to motivational characteristics of

students. In this respect, Corria (1999) claims that a full understanding of students’

motivation is necessary to maximize the English language results and positive outcomes.

Kharma (1977) also found that different kinds of motivation to learn a foreign language may

produce different rates and ultimate levels of proficiency.

Thus, the importance of motivation in enhancing second/foreign language learning is

undeniable. Lifrieri (2005) points out that “when asked about the factors which influence

individual levels of success in any activity – such as language learning – most people would

certainly mention motivation among them” (p. 4). Brown (2000) states that “it is easy in

second language learning to claim that a learner will be successful with the proper

motivation” (p. 160). With similar views, Gardner (2006) posits that “students with higher

levels of motivation will do better than students with lower levels” (p. 241). He further adds


that “if one is motivated, he/she has reasons (motives) for engaging in the relevant activities,

expends effort, persists in the activities, attends to the tasks, shows desire to achieve the goal,

enjoys the activities, etc” (Gardner, 2006, p. 243).

Moreover, relations between students’ academic motivation and academic

achievement have been routinely established in the literature (Ames, 1992; McInerney, 2001;

Pintrich and Maehr, 1995; Wentzel, 1991). Skaalvik and Valas’ (1999) study of Norwegian

elementary and middle school students also included a measure of motivation (interest and

investment) into their study of reciprocal effects. In the two oldest cohorts, the results

revealed that motivation was affected directly by achievement.

Gardner (1985) found that motivation has close relationship with learner’s

achievement. He analyzed the role of attitude and motivation in second language acquisition

through his previous study. The results indicate that the attitudinal-motivational factors were

also related to student’s achievement.

In Japan, learners’ motivation and attitudes towards the English language were also of

concern for many researchers. One of the most relevant studies was that of Benson (1991)

who surveyed over 300 freshmen to assess their motivation towards learning English. The

results demonstrated the importance of integrative and personal goals as factors in motivation

among Japanese college students as he stated, “integrative and personal reasons for learning

English were preferred over instrumental ones" (Benson, 1991, p. 34).

In Iran, a few similar studies (e.g, Shaikholeslami & Khayyer, 2006; Rastegar, 2003;

and Tohidi, 1984) have also been conducted with different groups of students among Iranian

students to investigate their motivation. Most of them (learners), however, were college

students. Sadighi & Maghsudi, (2000) investigated the effect of the two types of motivation

(integrative and instrumental) on the English proficiency of the EFL senior students at

Islamic Azad University of Kerman city. The results of their study showed a significant

difference between the means of the English proficiency scores of the integratively motivated

students and the instrumentally motivated ones and there were significant correlations

between the integrative and instrumental motivation with the students' English proficiency

scores. It was also found out that the personal, social, and educational factors had significant

relationships with the EFL students’ motivation.

Other studies done in this area are as follows: Ramazanian (1998); Hassanpur (1999);

Salimi (2000); Sedaghat (2001); Roohani (2001); Hassani (2005); Fazel and Razmjoo (2007);

Neissi (2007); and Zarei (2009).

This study intends to answer the following major questions:


1. Is there any significant relationship between language learning attitude and language

proficiency?

2. Is there any significant relationship between academic motivation and language

proficiency?

3. Is there any significant relationship between language learning attitude and academic

motivation?

3. Methodology

3.1. Participants

The participants of this study were selected using cluster sampling, a type of probability

sampling (Mousavi, 1999). The sample were selected from the population of senior and

junior university students who were majoring in EFL related fields (Teaching, Literature and

Translation) from Bahonar University of Kerman during the academic year of 2012.

In general, 120 students formed the participants of the study among which 50 were

males and 70 were females. The rationale behind selecting EFL senior and junior students

was that they had already passed more English courses, comparing to the sophomore or

freshman students and they had already gained relative language proficiency. This was due to

the fact that in this study the researcher aimed at finding whether language attitude and

academic motivation could have any contribution to the differences in language proficiency

scores among the university students or not.

3.2. Instrument For achieving the required data on the appointed variables, i.e. language proficiency as the

dependent variable and language attitude and academic motivation as the independent

variables, three different instruments were used.

1. Language Attitude scale(LAS), Saracaloğlu (1992)

2. Academic Motivation scale(AMS), Vallerand, et al. (1989)

3. Michigan Proficiency Test, short version (1997)

3.2.1. Language Attitude scale (LAS), Saracaloğlu (1992)

The first questionnaire is Language Attitude Scale (LAS) developed by Saracaloğlu (1992).

This Scale, which is 5- point Likert- type, consists of 38 items, 23 of which are positive and

15 of which are negative statements. The lowest score to be obtained from the scale is 38, the

highest score is 190. The higher scores refer to positive attitudes towards foreign language.

Positive items are scored from 5 to 1; negative ones are scored 1 through 5. Negative items


are “2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25, 27, 29, 33, 35”numbered ones. The statements were

graded as Totally Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Totally Disagree. In

addition, the scale, whose Cronbach alpha reliability was found as .096, has one dimension.

3.2.2. Academic Motivation scale (AMS), Vallerand, et al. (1989)

The second questionnaire is Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) developed by Vallerand,

R.J., Blais, M.R., Brière, N.M., & Pelletier, L.G. (1989) .This scale is a 28-item measure of

students’ motivation for attending university. The AMS uses a 7-point Likert-type scale that

measures three major motivation dimensions: Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Amotivation. They are

graded as Does not correspond at all,Corresponds a little,Corresponds

moderately,Corresponds a lot,and Corresponds exactly. The Intrinsic motivation has three

sub-scales (to know, toward accomplishment, to experience stimulation) like the Extrinsic

motivation (identified, introjected, external regulation). However, for the purpose of the

present study, the three major dimensions were used. The range on the SDI is from -18 to

+18.The higher the score, the more intrinsic the participant is considered to be. Vallerand et

al. reported that Cronbach’s coefficient alphas for the subscales ranged from .83 to .86, with

the exception of the identified subscale of extrinsic motivation, which had an internal

consistency of .62.

3.2.3. Michigan Proficiency Test, short version (1997)

In order to evaluate English proficiency of the participants, short version of Michigan English

proficiency test was chosen. The examination for the certificate of proficiency in English

(ECPE) was developed at English Language Institute of the University of Michigan

(ELIUM). It is a test battery for assessing English proficiency as a second language at an

advanced level. The short form of this test consists of 35 items which are embedded in 4

different sections: Cloze, Grammar, Vocabulary and Reading.

4. Data collection procedure

120 senior male and female EFL students of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman took the

Michigan proficiency test and two other questionnaires, Language Attitude and Academic

Motivation.

Each student was provided with an answer sheet and a test booklet. First, the subjects

were asked to answer the 35 multiple choice items of the proficiency test in class in 35

minutes and take the two questionnaires home to answer. Before starting to answer, the

students were asked to write their student numbers on both the answer sheet and the


questionnaire in order that the researcher would be able to match the scores of each student.

After collecting the proficiency answer sheets, subjects were informed about how to fill the

Language Attitude and Academic Motivation. They were assured that neither their teachers

nor any other person, other than the researcher, would have access to their responses. At the

end, the researcher asked those students who wanted to receive the result of the study to write

their Email address in the specified place at the end of the second questionnaire.

5. Results

Table 4.1 presents the basic statistical description for the scores of Language learning

attitude, academic motivation, each of academic motivation factors, and language proficiency

for the sample of university EFL students.

Table 1. The descriptive statistics of the variables

5.1. Learners’ Language Learning Attitude (LLA)

In order to describe the variable of language attitude, the five possible answers to each item

of this category (“1. Totally agree, 2.Agree, 3. Neither agree nor disagree 4.Disagree, and

5.Totally disagree”) have been coded and then summed up. For the variable of language

learning attitude, the scores ranged from a minimum of 52.00 to a maximum of 190.00, with

the mean of 148.45 and a standard deviation of 28.15 (Table 4.2).

Table 2. The Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Language Learning Attitude

N Range Minimum Maximum Mean Std.

Deviation Variance

Skewne

ss

Language

Attitude

120 138.00 52.00 190.00 148.4500 28.15350 792.619 -.940

The histogram for the distribution of language attitude scores is displayed in figure 4.1. On

the whole, the collected data demonstrate a negative skew (Skewness = -0.940) in the

Descriptive Statistics

120 138.00 52.00 190.00 148.4500 28.15350 792.619 -.940 .221

120 23.00 -5.00 18.00 8.2692 6.23576 38.885 -.131 .221

120 30.00 5.00 35.00 19.8833 8.64829 74.793 .439 .221

120 15.33 1.00 16.33 4.1805 3.39877 11.552 1.231 .221

120 49.42 3.66 53.08 28.2046 17.02860 289.973 -.297 .221

120 72.50 3.33 75.83 27.2221 16.98883 288.620 -.028 .221

120

Language Attitude

Academic Motivatio

Language Proficien

Amotivation

Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic Motivation

Valid N (listwise)

Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Std. Error

N Range Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Variance Skewness


distribution of students' language learning attitude scores which means that most of the

students have positive language attitude.

The negative skew means that scores are slightly more spread out at the low end than

the high end of the scores. According to Farhady (2009, p.176) “If most of the scores are high

and a few scores are low, the peak of the distributon will fall toward the right side of the

graph and the few low scores will make the distribution skewed”. So, because a few low

scores are the cause of skewness, the distribution is called negatively skewed.

Figure 1. Distribution of language attitude scores in the sample

5.2. Learners’ Academic Motivation (AM)

In order to describe the variable of academic motivation, the five possible answers to each

item of this category (“1.Does not correspond at all, 2. Corresponds a little, 3. Corresponds

moderately 4.Corresponds alot, and 5.Corresponds exactly”) have been coded and then

summed up. For the variable of academic motivation, the scores ranged from a minimum of -

5.00 to a maximum of 18.00, with the mean of 8.26 and a standard deviation of 6.23 (Table

4.3).

Table 3. The Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Academic Motivation


Deviation Variance

Skewness

Academic Motivation

120 23.00 -5.00 18 8.2692 6.23576 38.885 -.131

The histogram for the distribution of academic motivation scores is displayed in figure 4.2.

On the whole, the collected data demonstrate a rather normal distribution because the

Language Attitude200.00180.00160.00140.00120.00100.0080.0060.00

Freq

uenc

y

25

20

15

10

5

0

Mean =148.45 Std. Dev. =28.153

N =120


majority of scores are located in the center of the graph and the curve is somehow bell

shaped. Moreover, the number of skewness that is -0.131, is just a few less than zero. So it

can be considered as a normal diagram (Figure 4.2).

Figure 2. Distribution of academic motivation scores in the sample

5.3. Learners’ Language Proficiency (LP)

For the variable of language proficiency, the scores ranged from a minimum of 5.00 to a

maximum of 35.00, with the mean of 19.88 and a standard deviation of 8.64 (Table 4.7).

Table 4. The Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Language Proficiency


Deviation Variance

Skewne

ss

Language

Proficiency

120 30.00 5.00 35.00 19.8833 8.64829 74.793 .439

The histogram for the distribution of language proficiency scores is displayed in figure 4.6.

On the whole, the collected data shows a positive skew (shewness= 0.439) in the distribution

of students' language proficiency which shows the learners’ low language proficiency.

Positive skew means that scores are more spread out at the high end of the scores. According

to Farhady (2009, p.177) “If most of the scores are low and a few scores are high, then the

peak of the distribution will fall on the left side of the graph”. So, because a few high scores

will be the cause of the skewness, the distribution is called positively skewed.

Academic Motivation20.0015.0010.005.000.00-5.00

Fre

qu

en

cy

20

15

10

5

0

Mean =8.27 Std. Dev. =6.236

N =120


Figure 3. Distribution of language proficiency scores in the sample.

5.4. Statistical Analysis

In this section, the statistical analysis of the data will be presented.

5.4.1. Analysis of the relationship between LLA and LP To answer the first research question (Is there any relationship between language learning

attitude and language proficiency), Pearson Correlation was conducted. The analysis of the

collected data shows that Pearson correlation coefficients between language learning attitude

and language proficiency is 0.24 with the P-values of 0.008 which is less than the significant

level of α= 0.05 (Table 4.8). Moreover, according to the correlation coefficient which is

positive and the gradient of the fit line in Figure 4.7, the relationship between the above-

mentioned variables is positive. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a high positive

significant relationship between language learning attitude and language proficiency, that

means by increasing the learners’ language attitude (independent variable), the scores of

learners’ language proficiency (dependant variable) increases too.

Table 5. Pearson Correlation between LLA and LP

According to scattering of the dots in the scatter diagram below, it is clear that as the scores

of language attitude increase, the scores of language proficiency increases too, which shows a

Language Proficiency35.0030.0025.0020.0015.0010.005.00

Freq

uenc

y

20

15

10

5

0

Mean =19.88 Std. Dev. =8.648

N =120

Correlations

1 .242**

.008

120 120

.242** 1

.008

120 120

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Language Attitude

Language Proficiency

LanguageAttitude

LanguageProficiency

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


positive relationship between the variables. Moreover, fixing coefficient between language

learning attitude and language proficiency is 0.059. In other words, %5.89 of the changes

between above-mentioned variables is common.(%5.89 of changes of dependant variable is

justified by the degree of independent variable).

Figure 4. The scatter Diagram for Correlation between LLA and LP

5.4.2. Analysis of the relationship between AM and LP

To answer the second research question (Is there any relationship between academic

motivation and language proficiency), Pearson Correlation was conducted. The analysis of

the collected data shows that Pearson correlation coefficients between academic motivation

and language proficiency is 0.44 with the P-values of 0.00 which is less than the significant

level of α= 0.05(Table 4.9). Moreover, according to the correlation coefficient which is


mentioned variables is positive. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a significant

positive relationship between academic motivation and language proficiency, that means by

increasing the learners’ academic motivation (independent variable), the scores of learners’

language proficiency (dependant variable) increases too.

Table 6. Pearson Correlation between AM and LP


Lang

uage

Atti

tude

200.00

180.00

160.00

140.00

120.00

100.00

80.00

60.00

R Sq Linear = 0.059

Correlations

1 .440**

.000

120 120

.440** 1

.000

120 120

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Academic Motivation

Language Proficiency

AcademicMotivation

LanguageProficiency




of academic motivation increase, the scores of language proficiency increases too, which

shows a positive relationship between the variables. In other words, the more motivated the

students are, the higher their scores of language proficiency will be. Moreover, fixing

coefficient between academic motivation and language proficiency is 0.194. In other words,

%19.4 of the changes between abovementioned variables is common. (%19.4 of changes of

dependant variable is justified by the degree of independent variable).

Figure 5. The scatter Diagram for Correlation between AM and LP

5.4.3. Analysis of the relationship between LLA and AM

To answer the third research question (Is there any relationship between language learning

attitude and academic motivation), Pearson Correlation was conducted. The analysis of the

collected data shows that Pearson correlation coefficients between language learning attitude

and academic motivation is 0.76 with the P-values of 0.00 which is less than the significant

level of α= 0.05 (Table 4.10). Moreover, according to the correlation coefficient which is


mentioned variables is positive. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a significant

positive relationship between language learning attitude and academic motivation, that means

by increasing the learners’ language learning attitude (independent variable), the scores of

learners’ academic motivation (independent variable) increases too.


Aca

dem

ic M

otiv

atio

n

20.00

15.00

10.00

5.00

0.00

-5.00

R Sq Linear = 0.194


Table 7. Pearson Correlation Coefficient between LLA and AM


of language learning attitude increase, the scores of academic motivation increases too, which

shows a positive relationship between the variables. Moreover, fixing coefficient between

language learning attitude and academic motivation is 0.592. In other words, %59.2 of the

changes between above-mentioned variables is common. (%59.2 of changes of language

attitude is justified by the degree of academic motivation).

Figure 6. The scatter Diagram for Correlation between LLA and AM

6. Discussion

In order to answer the first research question (Is there any significant relationship between

language learning attitude and language proficiency), the data obtained from Language

Attitude Scale (LAS) and Michigan Proficiency Test were analyzed. Pearson Correlations

was conducted to find any significant relationships between LLA and LP. The results

revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between LLA and LP(r= 0.24).

Moreover, the result of this study supports previous established results. For example, Oxford

and Shearin (1994), Lukmani (1972), and Kachru (1992) found similar findings in their

Correlations

1 .769**

.000

120 120

.769** 1

.000

120 120

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

Language Attitude

Academic Motivation

LanguageAttitude

AcademicMotivation


Academic Motivation20.0015.0010.005.000.00-5.00

Lang

uage

Attit

ude

200.00

180.00

160.00

140.00

120.00

100.00

80.00

60.00

R Sq Linear = 0.592


studies. According to them, learner variables (attitude, motivation, anxiety) have positive

influences on learners’ language proficiency. In their classic study on attitude and motivation,

Gardner and Lambert (1972) also concluded that attitude and motivation are factors that

influence the development of second-language proficiency. Successful language learners

“must be psychologically prepared to adopt various aspects of behavior which characterize

members of another linguistic–cultural group” (Gardner and Lambert, 1972, p.3).In addition,

Liu’s (2007) study on Chinese university students’ attitudes and motivation to learn English

and the correlations of both variables with the students’ English proficiency also revealed

similar findings. In Liu’s (2007) study, correlation analysis showed that students who had

more positive attitudes towards learning English tend to score higher in the proficiency test.

Considering their studies, it can be concluded that the more positive attitudes the students

have, the higher the scores of their language proficiency will be.

In order to answer the second research question (Is there any significant relationship

between academic motivation and language proficiency), the data obtained from Academic

Motivation Scale (AMS) and Michigan Proficiency Test were analyzed. Pearson Correlations

was conducted to find any significant relationships between AM and LP. The results revealed

that there was a significant positive relationship between AM and LP(r= 0.44). In fact, the

more motivated the students, the higher their scores of LP. Concerning the significant

positive relationship between AM and LP in this study, Bailey et al.(2000), also found that as

motivation has a direct effect on the target language proficiency, it is a strong predictor of

substantial foreign language proficiency as well. In addition, Kharma (1977) found that

different kinds of motivation to learn a foreign language may produce different rates and

ultimate levels of proficiency. Clement and Kruidenier (1985), and Dornyei (1994) also have

demonstrated that measures of proficiency in the second/foreign language are related to

motivational characteristics of students. In this respect, Corria (1999) claims that a full

understanding of students’ motivation is necessary to maximize the English language results

and positive outcomes.

In order to answer the third research question (Is there any significant relationship

between language learning attitude and academic motivation), the data obtained from

Language Learning Attitude (LLA) and Academic Motivation (AM) were analyzed. Pearson

Correlations was conducted to find any significant relationships between LLA and AM. The

results revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between LLA and AM (r=

0.76). The result of this study supports previous results, for example, (Dörnyei, 2001;

Gardner, 1985; Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993; Liu, 2009; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995) have


confirmed that positive attitudes towards a language often lead to higher motivation to learn

and higher proficiency in the language as well.

In addition, Gardner and Lambert (1972) state that the learners’ motivation to learn is

thought to be determined by his attitudes towards the other group in particular and by his/her

orientations towards the learning task itself .Moreover, Gardner (1999) in one of his research

using Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) to measure the major attitudinal and

motivational variables, and indices of anxiety associated with learning a second language

concluded that it was obvious the basic associations between attitudes and motivation on the

one hand, and achievement on the other were quite stable. Cook (1996) in his research

concluded that the usual meaning of motivation for the teacher is probably the interest that

something generates in the students and it relates to the attitudes of students towards the

target language, as these are rooted in their minds and their background (Cook, 1996). So,

attitudes are related strongly to motivation, it is evident that people with a negative attitude

towards a language could not be motivated learners, and there is evidence to support the

correlation between the positive attitude about a language and high achievement (Wilhelm,

1999).

7. Conclusion

This study sets out to find out 1) relationship between language learning attitude and

language proficiency, 2) the relationship between academic motivation and language

proficiency, 3) the relationship between language learning attitude and academic motivation.

The study found that first, there was a significant positive relationship between language

learning attitude and language proficiency; Second, there was a significant positive

relationship between academic motivation and language proficiency; third, there was a

significant positive relationship between language learning attitude and academic motivation.

In fact, the more students have positive language attitude, the higher their scores of language

proficiency; the more motivated the students, the higher their scores of language proficiency,

and the more students have positive attitude, the higher their scores of academic motivation.

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Title

The Effect of Different Text Types on Cognitive and Metacognitive Listening Comprehension Strategy Use among Iranian EFL Learners

Author

Anis Behzadi (M.A)

Iran

Biodata

Anis Behzadi holds an M.A. degree in TEFL. She has been teaching as a lecturer at Sirjan Payame Noor University, Sirjan, Iran. Her research interests include task based teaching, cognitive and metacognitive styles and strategies, psycholingustic, motivation, photographic memory.

Abstract

Listening comprehension is viewed theoretically as an active process in which

individuals focus on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning from

passages, and relate what they hear to existing knowledge. This theoretical view

has not been sufficiently supported by direct research which clarifies what

listeners actually do while engaged in listening tasks. If you have ever listened to

a paragraph and realized that you were not paying attention or did not understand

something, you were engaging in metacognitive monitoring. In fact, listening was

a complicated phenomenon for English foreign language learner. However in

recent years, there has been an increased focus on L2 listening ability because of

its perceived importance in language learning and acquisition. The present study

investigated the effect of static and dynamic (expository and narrative) task/text

types on listening comprehension among Iranian EFL learners. Brown & Yule

(1985) categorized spoken texts into three broad types (narrative and expository

& abstract ).In fact , texts which describe an object or give an instruction are

expository, those that tell a story or recount an incident are narrative. To

comprehend every kind of spoken texts, students should apply some specific

strategies. After training and practicing sessions, the researcher distributed

metacognitive listening questionnaire with 24 questions in total. To analyse the

result SPSS software was used. The result showed that some cognitive and


metacognitive strategies were used more than the others in the experimental and

control groups.

Keywords: Listening comprehension, Narrative texts, Expositorytexts,

Metacognitive strategies.

1. Introduction

There is a wealth of research substantiating the fact that both cognitive and metacognitive

strategies are used by both expert and novice learners. More importantly, researchers have

shown that when learners combine both, i.e., learning strategies and strategy regulation, they

not only learn more (Brown 1982), but they can also transfer the strategy from task to task

and their ability to use the strategy over time endures. Research indicates that effective use of

strategies depends on a number of variables: the demands of task, the genre of the written or

spoken text (for example narrative, expository, instructional), the proficiency level of the

learner, the ability of the learner, and beliefs about the nature of language learning. Tasks can

be rated as to their case or difficulty in the amount of cognitive control required to perform

them. Some can be performed quite mechanically while others require a great deal of

attention, hypothesis formation and transformation of language. Effective use of learning

strategies has come to be one of the hallmarks of the good or successful language learner.

Learning strategies are the operations or steps used by a learner to facilitate the acquisition,

storage, retrieval and use of information. As Wenden (1998), notes ‘Learners are actively

involved in the process of learning – selectively attending to incoming data, hypothesizing,

comparing, elaborating, reconstructing its meaning, and integrating it with previously stored

information for future use. In other words, learning strategies are the processes which

learners use to learn a language, to make sense of the information being presented. In this

view of learning, learners are constantly active as information processors. However, while all

learners use learning strategies, successful learners learn how to use them effectively. In fact,

listeners maybe unable to process information quickly enough to make sense of what is said.

This problem could be due to different factors including cognition and metacognition factors.

More concisely, without comprehensible input at the right level, learning cannot take place.

Therefore, listening is a fundamental and vital skill in the acquisition of languages (Nunan,

2002). In the light of cognitive theory, O' Mally and Chamot (2001) classified learning

strategies into three major types: Metacognitive Strategies, Cognitive strategies, and

social/effective strategies. This classification would prove useful and has since been drawn

up on by Vandergrift (2004), Nation (2006) and indeed this paper. Strategies are learner's


deliberate attention to their comprehension processes in order to construct meaning (Cohen

2000). There are many different types of listening, which can be classified according to the

number of variables, including: purpose for listening or type of task, the role of listener, and

the type of text being listened to. These variables are mixed in many different configurations,

each of which will require a particular strategy on the part of listener. Listening purpose is an

important variable, for instance listening to a news broadcast or a lecture to get main idea

involves different processes and strategies from listening to a sequence of instruction for

operating a new piece of a computer software requires different listening skills and strategies.

Actually, the purpose of listening is changed according to specific text and task.

This study is mainly composed to answer to two main questions:

1-Are there any differences in the use of cognitive and met cognitive strategy use between

static and dynamic groups?

2- What are the cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed by participants in two

groups?

2. Review of the related literature

Anderson (2002a, p.1) defines metacognition as "thinking about thinking." As Anderson

states, the use of metacognitive strategies ignites one's thinking and can lead to higher

learning and better performance. Furthermore, understanding and controlling cognitive

process may be one of the most essential skills that teachers can help second language

learners develop. According to (Flavell, 1987, p. 252) metacognition involves "active

monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of cognitive process to achieve

cognitive goals". It included interpretation of ongoing experience, or simply making

judgments about what one knows or does not know to accomplish a task, as other features of

metacognition. Along with the notions of active and conscious monitoring, regulation, and

orchestration of thought process, Flavell (1987) believed through repeated use of

metacognition, it might in time become automatized. Most of the early investigations of

metacognition were particularly interested in processes concerned with conscious and

deliberate storage and retrieval of information. Anderson (2002a) has proposed five main

components for metacognition. They include: 1) preparing and planning for learning, 2)

selecting and using learning strategies, 3) monitoring strategy use, 4) orchestrating various

strategies, and 5) evaluating strategy use and learning. By preparation and planning in

relation to their learning goal, students think about what their goals are and how they will go


about accomplishing them. Students, with the help of the teacher, can set a realistic goal

within a set time for accomplishing that goal. Setting clear, challenging, and realistic goals

can help students see their own progress and hopefully, by becoming consciously aware of

their progress, the students' motivation for learning would be increased. The metacognitive

ability to select and use particular strategies in a piece of listening for a specific purpose

means that the learner can think and make conscious decisions about the learning process.

Learners should be taught not only about learning strategies but also about when to use them

and how to use them. Students should be instructed on how to choose the best and most

appropriate strategy in a given situation. The next main component of metacognition is

monitoring strategy use. By examining and monitoring their use of learning strategies,

students have more chances of success in meeting their learning goals (Anderson, 2002a).

Students should be explicitly taught that once they have selected and begun to use the

specific strategies, they need to check periodically whether or not those strategies are

effective and being used as intended. For example, when listening, they can use context to

guess the meaning of some unknown vocabulary parts. To monitor their use of this strategy,

they should pause and check to see if the meaning they guessed makes sense in the listening

and if not, go back and modify or change their strategy. One of the most important

metacognitive strategies is to evaluate effectiveness of strategy use. Self-questioning,

debriefing discussions after strategies practice, learning logs in which students record the

results of their learning strategies applications, and checklists of strategies used can be used

to allow the student to reflect through the cycle of learning. At this stage of metacognition the

whole cycle of planning, selecting, using, monitoring and orchestration of strategies is

evaluated. It should be noted that different metacognitive skills interact with each other. The

components are not used in a linear fashion. More than one metacognitive process along with

cognitive ones may be working during a learning task (Anderson, 2002b). Therefore the

orchestration of various strategies is a vital component of second language learning in general

and vocabulary learning in particular. Allowing learners opportunities to think about and talk

about how they combine various strategies facilitates strategy use.Metacognitive strategies do

not only help learning in general but also have a lot to offer to listening comprehension

specifically. Vandergrift (1997) indicates that metacognitive strategies such as analyzing the

requirements of a listening task, activating the appropriate listening processes required,

making appropriate predictions, monitoring their comprehension and evaluating the success

of their approach cause the difference between a skilled and a less-skilled listener. Similarly,


Goh (2008) lists some of the positive effects of metacognitive strategy training on listening

comprehension.

3. Methodology

3.1. Subjects

In the current survey, 60 intermediate students were chosen from 120 English students

learning English in different language institutes .Then, they were divided randomly into

two groups , experimental group and control group , and 30 subjects in each one. Their

age range was between 19 and28.One of the classes was randomly selected as the control

group and another class as experimental group. The number of the students in the control was

30 and there were 30 subjects in the experimental group.

3.2. Instrumentation

Different kinds of research instruments were constructed for current study , including

proficiency test, static and dynamic listening , listeningtests, cognitive metacognitive

questionnaire with 24 questions.

3.3. Data Analysis

Both qualitative and quantitative data analyses were performed. To address these issues,

the researcher used statistical analysis of t-test was used to test possible differences between

the two groups at the beginning and end of the study. In order to establish the homogeneity of

the two groups in terms of vocabulary knowledge an independent-samples t-test was

conducted to examine the difference among the performance of the two groups on the

listening test before the experiment. The result indicated that there was not any significant

difference (t (51) = 1.00 a< .05) between the mean scores of the subjects in the control group

with the participants in the experimental group. Besides, the qualitative method was also

added in this study to prove the role of using 'Static and Dynamic(narrative and

expository)' texts among Iranian EFL learners. To evaluate metacognitive and cognitive

questionnaires, “ Likert-scaled which had an ordinal scale of one to five was used. The

ordinal scores were transformed into interval variable category. A high interval score

indicated frequent use the specific strategy or increased perception of difficulty. The result is

presented in the following tables.

4. Results

Table 1 Listening Planning Strategies (Experimental group)


Listening Planning Strategies (Metacognitive strategies) Mean SD

1-I clarify the objectives of an anticipated listening task . 1.55 0.81

2-Before listening, I prefer my mind to concentrate. 2.58 2.40

3-Before listening,I request myself to make progress. 3.10 3.02

Table 2 Listening Planning Strategies (Control group) Listening Planning Strategies (Metacognitive strategies) Mean SD 1-I clarify the objectives of an anticipated listening task.

2.11 1.25

2-Before listening, I prefer my mind to concentrate.

4.03 0.67

3-Before listening, I request myself to make progress.

3.89 0.74

Chen (2009) stated that previewing the questions before the text was helpful to the learner’s

comprehension. From statement 1 to 3, we can conclude that least students in dynamic group

could clarify the objectives of listening task (1.55) and prepared their mind to concentrate

(2.58) and requested themselves to make progress (3.10) .On the other hand, participants in

control(static) group could prepare their mind to concentrate (M=4.03) and requested

themselves to make progress (M=3.3.89) rather than clarify the objectives and propose

strategies (M=2.11).Therefore, the researcher conclude that the control group prefer to use

more listening planning strategies than dynamic group. However, for learners, their lack of

knowledge of grammar and vocabulary would definitely affect their listening comprehension,

and thus reduced their confidence (Yang, 2006). Weinstein (2005) suggested teachers list the

new vocabulary on the board and offered the pictures to help the students predict the listing

questions. Nevertheless, Conner (2006) considered that pre-teaching vocabulary before

listening might negatively influenced the student’s strategy using because the students might

focus on clues and not pay attention to understand the whole content.

Table 3 Monitoring strategies(Experimental group)

Monitoring Strategies(Metacognitive strategies) Mean SD

4- While listening, I don’t understand if I am unfamiliar with speakers’ accent

3.43 10.2

5- While listening, I will check what part of content I don’t understand.

3.39 0.83

6- While listening, I will double check again for my answer. 1.78 0.92

7- I am aware of my inattention and correct it while doing listening test.

1.39 0.85


Table 4 Monitoring strategies(Control group) Monitoring Strategies(Metacognitive strategies) Mean SD

4- While listening, I don’t understand if I am unfamiliar with speakers’ accent

1.77 0.91

5- While listening, I will check what part of content I don’t understand.

3.78 1.13

6- While listening, I will double check again for my answer. 2.26 1.06

7- I am aware of my inattention and correct it while doing listening test.

2.39 1.02

While listening, most students in experimental (dynamic) group were aware that they did not

concentrate on listening, and correct it immediately (M=1.39). However, the speakers’

accent, stress and speed would influence their mind. In the statement 4, most of the listeners

confused about what they heard because of speakers’ accents (M=3.43). The results

corresponded with Yang’s (2006) study, reporting that there were 66.25% of learners

influenced by speakers’ accent. The unfamiliar accents might hinder listeners from

understanding the contents. However, as English is an international language used by variety

of nations around the world now, different accents of materials should be introduced in

accessing listening exercises in the classroom. Comparatively, students, in

experimental(dynamic) group , showed low interests if they were willing to check the parts

they didn’t understand (M=3.39) and did not often check again their answers when they

finished the test (M=1.78).On the other hand, control(static) group were aware that they did

not concentrate on listening and correct it immediately( M= 2.39). The speaker accent

would influence their mind in control group(M= 1.77) ; the students check the parts they did

not understand(M = 3.78) and often check again their answers when they finish the test

(M=2.26) either, in control group. As different types of materials can cause different barriers

for variety of listeners, Yang (2006) stated that 87.5% of students thought news was the most

difficult listening materials while 85% of students suppose short conversation was somewhat

easier. In this statement, students in experimental group were not used to look over their

answers again but the student in static group do it more. Some possible explanation might

result from their losing patience, out of time etc. Yet, Bacon (1992) suggested that teachers

should provide “a variety of text, tasks, strategies, and overt practices in order to help

listeners develop that unique compound that is most effective for them as individuals.”

Table 5 Evaluation Strategies(Experimental group)


Listening Evaluation strategies(Metacognitive Strategies) Mean SD

8- After listening, I reflect on my problems, such as the key words that I don’t understand

2.86 0.98

9- After listening, I evaluate how much I could understand.

2.87 0.98

10- I will write down the words I don’t know after the listening tests and look up the dictionary

2.74 1.04

Table 6 Evaluation Strategies(Control group) Listening Evaluation strategies(Metacognitive Strategies) Mean SD

8- After listening, I reflect on my problems, such as the key words that I don’t understand

3.30 1.19

9- After listening, I evaluate how much I could understand.

2.04 0.90

10- I will write down the words I don’t know after the listening tests and look up the dictionary

1.83 0.85

From statements 8 to 10, results demonstrated that most students in static group found out the

problems by checking the key words (M=3.30) and contents (M=2.04) they didn’t

understand. However, for the further study of looking up the words in the dictionary, we

found that students in experimental group showed their conservative attitude in it (M=1.83)

and control(static) group(M=2.74) for, post-listening evaluation strategies, having a large

lexicon could help EFL learners improve their listening comprehension (Yang, 2006). Most

of the listeners had problems of poor vocabulary. When they heard some words they could

not figure out, they would feel confused. How to expand the vocabulary was an important

issue in language learning (Chu, 2004). In Goh and Yustina (2006) research, it indicated that

most subjects looked up the unknown vocabulary in the dictionary. Yet, in this study, almost

half of the subjects did not look up the unknown vocabulary in the dictionary. Actually, many

non-native students are used to the ways of acquiring information from teachers instead of

self-searching. It is essential for instructors to stimulate students’ learning autonomy in

problem-solving while designing instruction.

Table 7Cognitive Strategies(Experimental group)

Cognitive listening strategies

Mean SD

11-I will practice English listening actively in daily lives, such as listening to English Radio, English songs, talking to foreigners.

3.30 1.19


12-While listening, I try to translate words or sentences into Persian.

2.87 0.98

13-While listening, I can apply the new vocabulary, phrases, or grammar I have learned to understand the content.

1.78 0.99

Table 8 Cognitive Strategies(Control group)

Cognitive listening strategies

Mean SD

11-I will practice English listening actively in daily lives, such as listening to English Radio, English songs, talking to foreigners.

1.78 0.99

12-While listening, I try to translate words or sentences into Persian. 3.11 1.14

13-While listening, I can apply the new vocabulary, phrases, or grammar I have learned to understand the content.

3.39 1.02

In this category of evaluating learners’ cognitive translation, most learners can utilize the new

words, phrases, or grammar to comprehend the content in the article in control group

(M=3.39) and they like to translate words or sentences into Persian in order to understand

(M=3.11). However, while asking students if they will practice actively in daily lives, so

many persons show their strong motivation in learning listening comprehension in

experimental(dynamic) group (M=3.30) and less students show their interest in control

(static) group(1.78). In Conner’s (2006) study, subjects frequently practiced English by

watching films or TV programs, listening to English songs, radio programs, and English

lectures and interesting topics and some popular songs could attract students’ learning

motivation. In a study, Hedgcock (2005) found most of the subjects in his research did not

receive proper training in English listening comprehension. The data indicated that 86.4% of

them accessed their listening ability by their teachers’ pronunciation of vocabulary, and

phrases or oral reading of sentences and passages, and only 28.7% of the students practiced

listening through audiotapes. In this study, the result illustrated that most of the students only

studied in the English classroom, and were lack of passion to utilize any facilities around

them to improve their listening comprehension. Chu (2004) stated that students tended to be

panic in listening the real materials since authentic materials were faster in speaking speed.

After all, instead of giving listening tests, the instructor might consider to create an authentic

and friendly listening environment for promoting students’ learning motivation.


Table 9 Bottom-up Cognitive strategies(Experimental group)

Bottom-up(Cognitive strategies)

Mean SD

14-While listening, I will notice the information questions with who, how, when, where and what in the content.

1.93 0.85

15-While listening, I try to understand each word. 1.89 0.29

16-While listening, I repeat words or phrases softly or mentally.

2.10 0.62

17-While listening, I piece things together from the details

2.72 0.40

18-While listening, I will take note. 1.81 0.25

Table 10 Bottom-up Cognitive strategies(Control group)

Bottom-up(Cognitive strategies) Mean SD

14-While listening, I will notice the information questions with who, how,when, where and what in the content.

2.31 0.29

15-While listening, I try to understand each word.

3.35 1.06

16-While listening, I repeat words or phrases softly or mentally.

2.87 1.02

17-While listening, I piece things together from the details

3.61 1.08

18-while listening ,I will take note. 2.89

1.04

The bottom-up strategies tend to understand the details such as words or phrases of the

content. Among statements 14 to 18, it seems that listeners in control(static)group like to put

details together to understand what the sentences mean(M=3.61), and notice the information

of who, how, when, where, and what (M=2.31)), piece things together from the details , try to

understand each word (M=3.35), However, the skills of repeating words or phrases softly or

mentally are comparatively not used by most students (M=2.87).On the other hand, in

experimental group, students notice the information of who ,how ,when ,where ,and what(M=

1.93), try to understand each word(M=1.89),repeating word or phrase(M=2.10) .In this part,

the students in Control group(use more bottom-up strategies than the students in experimental

group. Actually, for applying of bottom-up processing, it is necessary to learn how to break

the content down into its components and combine together. However, learners need a large


vocabulary and good working knowledge of sentence structure to process texts bottom-up.

Traditionally, the exercises of dictation, cloze listening, the use of multiple-choice questions

after the texts etc. are applied to process the bottom-up strategy. Richards (2008) pointed out

that the recognition of key words, transition in a discourse, grammatical relationships

between elements in sentences, and use stress, intonation to identify word and sentence

functions were the essential elements in processing bottom-up strategy.

Table 11 Top-down cognitive Strategies(experimental group)

Top-down Strategies (Cognitive Strategies) Mean SD

19-I listen for main ideas first and then details.

4.01 1.09

20-I predict or make hypotheses on texts by titles

2.52 1.07

21-I can guess the meaning based on the context.

3.11 1.14

22-I try to think in English instead of Persian.

1.93 0.85

23-While listening, I form pictures mentally to help me comprehend texts.

1.77 0.99

24-I collect the contents of listening to my personal experiences.

2.73 1.04

Table 12 Top-down cognitive Strategies(Control group)

Top-down Strategies (Cognitive Strategies) Mean SD

19-I listen for main ideas first and then details.

1.37 0.83

20-I predict or make hypotheses on texts by titles

1.33 0.82

21-I can guess the meaning based on the context.

2.02 0.98

22- I try to think in English instead of Persian.

1.93 0.85

23-While listening, I form pictures mentally to help me comprehend texts.

3.39 1.02

24-I collect the contents of listening to my personal experiences.

2.26 1.06

Top-down skills are also essential strategies in listening comprehension, and they evaluated

from statements 19 to statement 24. The results indicated that most students in

experimental(dynamic) group were good at applying guessing the meaning based on the

context (M=3.11) but not familiar with trying to think in English instead of persian


(M=1.93). Other top-down skills were applied by students in improving their listening

comprehension. For example, predicting or making hypotheses on texts by titles (M=2.52),

listening for main ideas first and then details (M=4.01) and collecting the contents of

listening to my personal experiences (M=2.73).On the other hand, least of the students in

control(static) group were good at applying listening for main ideas(M=1.37), predict or

make hypotheses on texts by title(M=1.33) , guess the meaning based on the

context(M=2.02), think in English instead of Persian(M=1.93), form picture mentally to help

comprehension(3.39) ,and collecting the contents of listening to may personal

experiences(M=2.26). Generally speaking, it is concluded that students still need more

guidance in developing top-down strategies. As top-down processing went from meaning to

language, the background knowledge required for top-down processing might be previous

knowledge about the topic of discourse, situational or contextual knowledge, or knowledge in

the form of “schemata” or “scripts”-plans about the overall structure of events and

relationships between them (Richard, 2008). It is quite natural for learners to choose their

familiar ways to process the information in terms of “trying to think in English instead of

persian”. However, Some exercises were also suggested by Richard (2008) in developing top-

down strategies: use key words to construct the schema of a discourse, infer the setting for

the text, role of the participants and their goals, causes or effects, unstated details, and

anticipate questions related to the topic or situation.

5. Discussion and Conclusion

This study investigated the cognitive and metacognitive listening strategies employed by

Iranian EFL students. In fact, there was difference between students use of cognitive and

metacignitive in listening comprehension between experimental and control groups. The

findings implied that for the metacognitive strategies, there still left lots of space for students

to improve among their application of pre-listening planning, while-listening monitoring, and

post-listening evaluating strategies. In addition to making progressing in basic skills such as

vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure, it is more essential to promote students’

learning listening variety and build up their learning autonomy. In terms of cognitive

strategies, bottom-up strategies seems to be applied more often than top-down strategy in

control (static) group and top-down strategies were used more among experimental

(dynamic) group. The findings of this study support the foreign language research literature

on strategy training of other components and skills of the language such as reading


comprehension. Moreover, it can be asserted that the model used to teach metacognitive. In

fact, the present study have implications for learners, teachers, and teacher educators in the

realm of TEFL in particular and education in general. It helps teachers in accomplishing their

challenging task of teaching English in EFL contexts where learners have less exposure to

language compared to ESL contexts. Teachers can help learners use different metacognitive

strategies to facilitate their listening. Textbook writers, especially in the context of EFL, do

not include a sufficient amount of information on learning strategies. A need for the inclusion

of and emphasis on learning strategies is obvious. There is a need for more comprehensive

research on a wide range of variables affecting language learning strategies use. Variables

such as cultural background, beliefs, learning style, motivation, and attitude that may have a

bearing on language learning strategy use should be studied with students of different

language backgrounds and proficiency levels. Moreover, research on the frequency of use of

the social and affective strategies and choice of given strategies is recommended since it is

helpful for both learners and teachers. Although this study sheds some light on the usefulness

of metacognitive strategy training in listening classes, the findings cannot be generalized to

all EFL contexts ,as the number of participants, the duration of the strategy training and

practising program and different variables can easily change the results of such studies.

Therefore, further studies should explore the effectiveness of metacognitive strategy training

with higher number of students and allocate a longer period of time than only 6 weeks that is

the time spent on the training for the current study. In addition, more comprehensive research

on different variables such as participants’ cultural background and proficiency levels of

English is necessary. Different strategy training models and test types should also be used in

future research studies to come to the sound conclusion that metacognitive strategy training

does actually matter as far as L2 listening comprehension is concerned. More research is

needed on a possible cause and effect relationship between some other learning strategies

(e.g. cognitive and socio affective) and listening performance as well. As this study is only

about the influence of cognitive and metacognitive strategy training on L2 listening, more

research should be carried out to investigate the effect of certain metacognitive strategies on

different language skills or sub-skills performance in order to claim that metacognitive

strategy training is effective in learning English in general. English teachers in different local

settings should take such studies as their starting point and engage in classroom research in

order to come to more sound conclusions about the effectiveness of strategy training on

students’ performance in their classrooms. By reflecting upon their teaching experiences,

they can even develop their own strategy training models suitable for their local context.


The results suggest that:

1-Teachers need to advise learners about how to apply strategic knowledge – in our case,

prior knowledge – flexibly and in combination with other listening strategies.

2- Teachers are more likely to be successful if they use a variety of approaches to developing

listening comprehension.

3-Throughout the different phases of language learning teachers should bear in mind that a

mixture of approaches will be the most beneficial for long-term listening skill development.

4-The complexity of the interrelationship between top-down and bottom-up processing

strategies suggests a wide variety of listening texts and tasks for learners. Implications for

choosing which texts to use when are probably the following:

A-Topic-specific texts with high prior knowledge (PK) – develop the ability to infer without

knowing all words

B-Topic-specific texts with low PK – develop the ability to decode and gradually develop

schema

C-Non-topic specific or multi-topic texts – ability to switch from PK reliance to non-PK

reliance.

To sum up, it should be noted that the traditional idea of only exposing EFL students to

listening texts in listening classes should be challenged by an approach in which strategies

can effectively and successfully be embedded to the listening course by means of strategy

training program. It is hoped that this study will trigger more research exploring the effect of

different strategy training models on students’ performance in different basic skills. Studies

proving the effectiveness of strategy training are likely to convince English teachers, teacher

trainers, course book writers and curriculum designers to be more aware of the benefits of

strategy training and include these strategies in their lessons, course books and curricula.

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listening texts by Chinese EFL students in Taiwan. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,

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Appandix Cognitive & Metacognitive ListeningQuestionnaire

Directions: Please respond to the following questions using the scale provided:

(1) strongly disagree (2) disagree (3) neutral (4) agree (5) strongly agree

Likert Scale Strategies Name

1 2 3 4 5 1-I clarify the objectives of an anticipated listening task . PL

1 2 3 4 5 2-Before listening, I prefer my mind to concentrate. PL 1 2 3 4 5 3-Before listening,I request myself to make progress. PL

1 2 3 4 5 4- While listening, I don’t understand if I am unfamiliar with

speakers’ accent MO

1 2 3 4 5 5- While listening, I will check what part of content I don’t understand.

MO

1 2 3 4 5 6- While listening, I will double check again for my answer. MO

1 2 3 4 5 7- I am aware of my inattention and correct it while doing listening test.

MO

1 2 3 4 5 8- After listening, I reflect on my problems, such as the key

words that I don’t understand EV

1 2 3 4 5 9- After listening, I evaluate how much I could understand. EV

1 2 3 4 5 10- I will write down the words I don’t know after the listening tests and look up the dictionary.

EV

1 2 3 4 5 11-I will practice English listening actively in daily lives, such

as listening to English Radio, English songs, talking to foreigners.

CO

1 2 3 4 5 12-While listening, I try to translate words or sentences into Persian.

CO

1 2 3 4 5 13-While listening, I can apply the new vocabulary, phrases, or grammar I have learned to understand the content.

CO

1 2 3 4 5 14-While listening, I will notice the information questions with

who, how, when, where and what in the content.

B- up

1 2 3 4 5 15-While listening, I try to understand each word. 1 2 3 4 5 16-While listening, I repeat words or phrases softly or mentally. B-up

1 2 3 4 5 17-While listening, I piece things together from the details B-up

1 2 3 4 5 18- While listening, I will take notes. B-up


1 2 3 4 5

19-I listen for main idea first and then details. T-

Down

1 2 3 4 5 20-I predict or make hypotheses on texts by titles T-Down

1 2 3 4 5 21-I can guess the meaning based on the context. T-down

1 2 3 4 5 22-I try to think in English instead of Persian.

T-down

1 2 3 4 5 23-While listening, I form pictures mentally to help me comprehend texts.

T-down

1 2 3 4 5 24-I collect the contents of listening to my personal experiences T-down

Pl= Planning strategy

Ev= Evaluation strategy Mo= Monitoring strategy

Co= Cognitive strategy B-up= Bottom –up strategy

T-down= Top down strategy


Title

Text Linguistics and Systemic Functional Grammar: Platforms of Reform in Literacy

Author

Maryam Eftekhari (Ph.D candidate)

Department of English Language, Kashan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kashan, Iran

Biodata

Maryam Eftekhari, Ph.D candidate of TEFL at Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran. Her research interests include CALL, Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, and Teaching techniques.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to shed more lights on systemic Functional Grammar

(SFG) as well as text linguistics as frameworks in teaching writing to EFL

learners. Working as an EFL teachers provided the researchers with the

opportunity to focus on the writing process and observe different aspects in

relation to written texts such as considering the text as a way of communication,

applying functional tools to writing effective text, recognizing the importance of

theme and rheme differentiation, and reflecting on learners' common errors which

bring to the fore the fact that students should improve their writing and reading

skills using SFG and text linguistics. To investigate the significance of the two-

fold framework, a corpus of thirty essays written in English by the thirty English

majors studying EFL at Kashan University were examined so as to identify those

problematic aspects of grammar which demand more instruction and attention.

The results highlighted the contributions made by SFL and text linguistics as tools

which both play a vital part in enhancing learners' literacy level in general and

help them analyze the grammatical features of written texts.

Keywords: Text linguistics, systemic Functional Grammar, theme, rheme,

literacy

1. Introduction


Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has recently proved efficacious in many areas

including discourse analysis (Djatmika 2007; Wiratno 2003, Priyanto 2003), English

Language Teaching (Wiratno 2003, 2006) as well as translation studies (Manfredi, 2008) .It

is defined by Tucker (2002) as: “a socially oriented theory of language, the task of which is to

explain how meanings are made and exchanged through the resource of grammar and lexis”.

SFL views language as a social phenomenon including both social and semiotic reality

(Santosa 2003). As a semiotic reality, language is a symbol that displays the social realities

occurring in the context of culture and context of situation. In fact, language is the realization

of social process; therefore, language learning should be regarded as a social process as well.

Educational learning is also taking place in a social environment, whether in the form of

classrooms and schools, or even in the more abstract sense of the educational process as it is

perceived in the society. Halliday and Hasan (1985) further assert that knowledge is

transmitted in social contexts through relationships which are manifested in the value systems

and ideology of the culture, like those of teacher and student or parent and child.

The immediate context where the discourse happens, the participants involved, and the

issue being discussed determine the contextual configuration as well as meaning of the

language. In other words, the immediate or wider context where text takes place is the

context of culture (genre) coined by Malinowsky (1923) and which according to Halliday

(1989, p.6) includes'' not only the immediate sights and sounds surrounding the event, but

also the whole cultural history behind the participants and behind the kind of practices that

they were engaging in…''. Malinowsky (1923) has also coined the term context of situation to

refer to extralinguistic factors that are present in the text and affect the social process realized

by the language.

The concept of situation itself is associated with the concept of register which involves a

configuration of three variables namely, field, tenor, and mode. These variables realize three

metafunctions of language including textual (language used to create coherent discourse),

interpersonal (language used to enact our social relationship with others), and ideational (to

represent human experience) metafunctions (Halliday and Hasan, 1985; Martin, 1992).

However, the social process affected by extralinguistic factors is expressed by the language

which plays its role as text. For Halliday and Hasan (1976) the notion of text is: '' [A term]

used in linguistics to refer to any passage-spoken or written, of whatever length, that does

form a unified whole [….]. A text is a unit of language in use or a sentence; and is not

defined by its size [….]. A text is best regarded as a semantic unit, a unit of not form but

meaning'' (pp.1-2).


Halliday and Hasan (1985) argue that a text can be both a product and a process. As a

product, it is understood as an obvious manifestation of a mental image that can be studied

and realized in systemic terms. As a process, on the other hand, it is regarded as a continuous

movement through a network of meaning potential involving a lot of choices. Therefore, text

linguistics is “...devoted to describing how texts are created and understood” (Donnelly 1994,

p.18) and in so doing studies the “... defining properties of texts - what constitutes their

textuality or texture...” (Crystal,1992, p.387). It provides the necessary tools to write effective

text incorporating ideas compatible with the cultural conventions in which the text is written;

in this way, changing writing into a coherent text. Furthermore, it raises the awareness of the

weaknesses as well as the recognition of the text as an obvious instrument of communication.

Since SFL deals with production and analysis of texts, it has significantly influenced literacy.

In other words, it provides the required instrument for syntactic analysis of written text

including: lexical choices, types of verbs and nouns, theme and rheme position, cohesion, etc.

Having access to such tools for analyzing these features, the context of the text, and their

applications in writing would enhance learners' level of literacy. In addition, SFL brings to

the fore the significance of writing effective texts which consist of ideas compatible with

shared cultural conventions (Unswoth, 2008).

Moreover, since reading is regarded as a meaning seeking skill and meaning is a central

notion in SFL, therefore adopting a functional approach in a reading class can be of great aid

to learners' comprehension of the written texts (Goodman, 1994).Considering reading as a

socio-psycholinguistic process, Goodman (1994, P.1103) argues that'' characteristics of

writer, text, and reader will all influence the resultant meaning''. He applied information taken

from Halliday and Hasan (1985) SFL which is based on socio-cultural view of language. To

investigate literacy within the socio-cultural context, Goodman (1994) stated that Halliday's

concepts of field, mode, and tenor should receive great attention. As a result, achieving a

satisfactory level of reading comprehension is a demanding task which can be enhanced by a

systemic Functional Linguistics approach to text analysis in that it would result in a better

comprehension of reading text through enabling learners to elucidate different meanings

conveyed in a written text.

Therefore, SFLis going to be taken as the theoretical framework of this study which

presents an enhanced insight into the text and also provides the required instruments to

analyze form and content aspects in the text suggesting that students need to be aware of the

three metafunctions of language (Halliday & Hasan, 1985). The idea of 'choice ' is also

accented in SFL as Ragan (1989, p.117) points out: '' a systemic perspective focuses on


choice, a relevant perspective as ESL students are often unable to draw freely from the

choices which exist in the English linguistic code for aligning language with the context in

which it is used''. By applying an SFL perspective, students may be able to recognize the role

of social experience in the linguistic choices made by writers as well as the relationship

between language and context as Coffin (2001, p.95) points out: “One of the most important

features of SFL is the way its theoretical framework is designed to explain the

interrelationships between culture, society and language use.” It tends to highlight the

importance of having students write about things they are really interested in.

Based on what was mentioned above, this study aimed to examine a corpus of thirty

essays written by English undergraduates at University of Kashan. Twenty one students were

female and nine were male. Their final examination essays were analyzed to identify the

possible weaknesses as well as problematic areas which required more attention and

pedagogical considerations. They had been asked to write an essay choosing their own

favorite topic.

2. Students' major writing errors

After close observation of student's essays, the following list of errors was found in most (at

least 70 percent) of their essays. It is reflecting the most frequent problems students had in

their writing task. The errors were located and highlighted so as to offer students feedback

and draw their attention to some aspects of SFL and text linguistics which could help them

improve their writing.

2.1. Interlingual errors: due to mother tongue interference which results from structural

differences between L1 and L2. In other words, wrong vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and

even incorrect pronunciation are rooted in differences between students'L1 and L2.For

example: People have interest in fast foods for some reasons. Forinterlingual errors it is

reasonable that ''remedial measures should be taken to implement approaches that could best

assist students in these problematic areas'' (Maros & Salehuddin, 2007).

2.2. Overgeneralization: caused by excessive application of overgeneralization strategies

such as ignorance of rule restrictions or incomplete application of rules. That is, due to

uncertainty in learners' minds, they applied incorrect preposition in their essays. They used

one preposition to express different meanings, e.g. they overgeneralized the preposition 'at' to

be used instead of 'in'. Examples include: we had a nice time at the winter. Or we enjoyed our

trip to Shiraz at the last year.


2.3. Misformation errors: occurred when students replaced the correct forms of the words

with the wrong ones. It commonly happens in case of subject-verb agreement e.g. They has

three children. The wrong tense may be used as well, e.g. the use of past tense forms to

express present or future time e.g., I thought my father was right.

2.4. Lexical errors

2.4.1. Misselction errors including those words which have the same root, but different

suffixes e.g. production and productivity.

2.4.2. Distortion errors including omission (e.g. intresting instead of interesting) and

overinclusion as dinning room instead of dining room)

2.5. Semantic errors

2.5.1. Confusion of sense relations (i.e. using a hypernym for a hyponym). For instance: we

have to buy new equipment instead of appliances for our house.

2.5.2. Collocation errors: e.g. our city is growing (instead of developing) so fast.

2.5.3 Stylistic errors including:

2.5.3.1. Verbosity (we were invited to the party through the medium of a letter)

2.5.3.2. Under-specification: when the writer cannot communicate her or his message in their

writing (e.g. however the number of public transportation vehicles in this city are lower

instead of however, there are fewer public transportation vehicles in this city)

2.6. Spelling errors

These are caused by substituting one letter for another (e.g. as in s for c in desicion), omission

of letters in a word (e.g. frindship), addistion in a word (e.g. tommarrow).

2.7. Word order errors

These errors are concerned with learner's tendency to follow the syntactic order of their

mother tongue in their writings. They may not be familiar with English SVO word order and

stick to Persian SOV structure and especially with the position of adverbs in the sentence.

Here are two examples:

My dream for living abroad with my family is great.

I never could forget those nasty days.

They had also difficulty with inversion as the following examples display:

2.8. Article errors

Another problematic part in students' essays was incorrect usage of definite and indefinite

articles. They didn't keep in mind that abstract uncountable nouns don't take articles when

they are generally referred to. For example,: The life is not interesting at all.


Moreover, they had trouble using definite article with abstract uncountable nouns when

bringing a specific example as in: honesty for which she is always praised. Here the student

is talking about a specific honesty which requires the use of definite article.

2.9. Theme-rheme errors

Sometimes students had mistakenly used new information in the place of old information (the

beginning of the clause) reflecting their lack of familiarity with theme-rheme position in the

sentence as it is vividly realized in this example:

Widespread TV advertisement is the most important reason.

2.10. discourse-markers errors

Students used to provide links between sentences using illogical and unreasonable cohesive

devices which made the whole paragraph sound odd. In the Following example additionally

has been wrongly used instead of 'as a result' that shows effect:

TV movie programs that show violence affect children behavior. Additionally, they may act

violently imitating what they have seen.

3. SFL and text linguistics' contribution to literacy

Pedagogically, learners' errors enable teachers to provide them with necessary devices which

could be used to facilitate the learning process (Lightbown&Spada, 1999). In order to help

students improve their literacy through dealing with their writing errors, some aspects of SFL

and text linguistics frameworks shall be emphasized. The purpose of providing these

suggestions was to stress the pedagogical application of SFL to the teaching of writing in

EFL context as Coffin (2001, p. 98) puts it:'' educational application of SFL are generally

designed to teach students how to operate in social contexts relevant to their educational,

social, and cultural needs''.

3.1. Text as a means of communication

Each unit of language in use can be thought of as a text. De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981)

define a text as a communicative occurrence. It is not simply a linguistic unit, but a means of

action, interaction, and communication (De Beaugrande 1995, p.17). A real text, in fact, can

fill the gap between the real world and the classroom (Guariento and Morley, 2001).That is

when we write we are trying to interact with the intended reader which necessitates the

awareness of various interactive sources. Therefore, students should realize the fact that by

creating a text, they are able to communicate their thoughts and ideas through language and

language is as Halliday (1978, p.27)''what speaker can do''.


3.2. Highlighting the importance of different contexts

Making learners aware of different types of context especially context of situation and

context of culture described earlier would help them write more effectively. In fact, without

direct knowledge of context of situation, Leckie-Tarry (1995) believes that learner ''must

construct a possible context of situation for the text, which must drive from his/her

background knowledge, that is knowledge of the context of culture, and the possible

configuration of contextual elements which that context of culture allows'' (p.28).Apart from

context of situation (Register) and context of culture (Genre) which were described earlier,

students have to learn about intertextual, intratextual, and extratextual context as well (Van

Dijk,1985). Intertextual context is concerned with the relation between a given text at hand

and other potential texts that are partly like or unlike it. Intratextuality refers to the

relationships between piece of a single text or its internal coherence (Halliday 1994).

Extratextual dimension refers to the relationship between a text and its world.

3.3. Introducing cohesive ties

Halliday and Hasan (1976) believe that coherence quality in a text results from the available

cohesive ties within that text. They argued about cohesion such that:'' if a learner of English

reads a passage of the language which is more than one sentence in length, he can normally

decide without difficulty whether it forms a unified whole or is just a collection of unrelated

sentences'' (p.1).Hence, Halliday and Hasan (1976) conclude that for a text to be coherent, it

should include some linguistic features such as cohesive ties. Since students mostly face

problems when trying to link their ideas in a text in a logical manner, they must get familiar

with the importance and necessity of using cohesive ties to compensate for the lack of

coherence and cohesion of in their writings.

3.4. Emphasizing theme-rheme structure

Within textual metafunction theme is defined by Halliday and Hasan(1985) as: ''the point of

departure of the clause'' while rheme is '' part of the message that is presented as most

important or most newsworthy'' (Lock, 1996, p.222).Students should be taught to use various

themes and not the same theme to refer to the same person or idea throughout the whole

paragraph. In other words, in academic writing, what is written at the end of one clause then

appears at the beginning of the next clause, providing a logical link with previous sentence.

Therefore, theme/rheme specification can be very helpful in comprehension and production

of texts as well as evaluating L2 writing at the level of discourse. They provide teachers with


an instrument to focus on the level of text and to identify problematic areas associated either

with thematic progression and/ or thematic selection

3.5. Introducing text type and genre

The specification of different text types and genres to be taught in the writing classrooms

would be based on many systemic functional linguists (e.g. Butt et al 2000; Derewiank,

1990). They argued for a classification of text which requires a distinction between text types

and genres. As Lin (2006) pointes out text types are concerned with prototypes of text which

are defined based on their main social purposes. These text types include: narrative, recounts,

information reports, instruction, explanation, and expository texts (Butt et al, 2000).

However, genres refer to classes of text which are used for more specific purposes such as

recopies. Lin (2006) further suggests that a genre-based approach can be adopted in writing

classes since it provides clear links to the students' purposes for writing.

4. Conclusion

The purpose of the present study was to focus on EFL learners' writing errors having SFL and

text linguistics in mind. It was emphasized that both SFL and text linguistics are involved in

improving learners' literacy for several reasons. First, Using SFL and text linguistics as

frameworks of the study offered the possibility of analyzing students' pieces of writing as

well as judging their appropriateness based on the text type and context within which they

were written. In other words, they provided the necessary tools for analyzing various features

of written texts such as theme and rheme position and cohesive devices. By familiarizing

learners with these features, they are able to recognize different texts and genre types and

apply them in their writing and therefore improve their literacy.

SFL highlights the relationship between text and context in which it occurs as Halliday and

Hasan (1985, p.47) put it:'' the relationship between text and context is a dialectical one: the

text creates the context as much as the context creates the text. Meaning arises from the

fiction between the two. This means that part of the environment for any text is a set of

previous texts, text that are taken for granted as shared among those taking part''. Finally, the

communicative role of language is emphasized in this study which implies that it is necessary

to learn to use it in an EFL/ESL context because it is associated with communication and

interaction with others depending upon what we intend to achieve in a particular context. For

this reason, students should be given the opportunity within EFL/ESL context to learn context


of culture and situation, the concept of theme and rheme, different cohesive ties, and text

types and genres.

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Title

The Effects of Brain Compatible Vocabulary Learning Strategy Instruction on EFL Students

Authors

Seyed Mahdi Araghi (Ph. D)

Payam e Noor University, Tabriz, Iran

Alireza Navid Moghaddam (M.A) Islamic Azad University, Maragheh, Iran

Biodata Seyed Mahdi Araghi assistant professor of TEFL at Payam e Noor University in Tabriz, Iran. His research interests include ELT, psychology of language learning, and applied linguistics. Alireza Navid Moghaddam M.A, graduate of Islamic Azad University in Maragheh, Iran. His research interests include ELT, psychology of language learning, and neuropsychology.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate those brain compatible vocabulary learning

strategies and their effects on first grade high school students in their English

learning process. This experimental study, which was designed as pre, post, and

post delay test control group model, was conducted in 2012 education year at

Misagh private high school in Tabriz, Iran. Two classes, namely 1-A and 1-B,

were determined as experimental and control groups respectively. The participants

of this study were 28 in each group. The study lasted 12 days for a total of 6 class

hours. During the research process, the experimental group was administered a

brain compatible vocabulary learning strategy, whereas the control group was

administered a traditional teaching approach. Analysis of pre, post, and post delay

test revealed a significant difference between the groups favoring brain-based

learning. Results show that word knowledge in experimental group enhanced.

Keywords: Brain-based learning, Brain compatible instruction, word knowledge

1. Introduction


Today, new theories and approaches (e.g. constructivism, multiple intelligence, and

connectivism) are put forward to lessen the shortcomings of the traditional way of teaching

and in result learning of second and foreign language. In addition, various theoretical

(Gardner, 1993; Krashen, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978) and practical (Asseline, 2002; Foil & Alber,

2002; Rupley, Logan, & Nichols, 1999; Schmitt, 2000; Greenwood, 2002; Rekrut, 1996;

Towell, 1998). Studies are performed to come up with different views for teaching. Brain-

based learning is new paradigm in which the brain and its functions and structures play main

role in learning phenomenon that learning a language is not an exception.

With advances in technology and knowledge about the brain, there has been the

development of brain-compatible or brain-based learning. The word brain only began to

replace the word mind in popular self-help books as late as the 1970s. Studies in the field of

neurobiology have improved understanding of how the brain functions and how learning is

formed. The concept of brain-based learning did not emerge until the 1980s, driven by the

advances in neurobiology and cognitive neuroscience (Jensen, 2008). One of the first

researchers to establish the connection between brain functions and traditional education

practices was Hart (1983). In sum, brain-based learning aims to enhance the learning

potential and, in contrast to the traditional approaches and models, provides a teaching and

learning framework for educators Materna (as cited in Ozden & Gultekin, 2008).


Brain-based learning can be defined as an interdisciplinary answer to the question of what is

the most efficient way of the brain's learning mechanisms (Jensen, 2005). Cain and Cain

(1994) define brain-based learning as recognition of the brain's codes for a meaningful

learning and tuning the teaching process in relation to those codes.

2.1 The Principles of Brain-based Learning

The principles of brain-based learning provide a theoretical framework for the

effective learning and teaching process, seeking the best conditions in which learning

takes place in the brain. Based in neurobiology, these principles guide educators to select and

prepare learning environments. Caine and Caine (1994) list these principles as follows:

Brain is a parallel processor,

Learning engages the entire physiology,

The search for meaning is innate,

The search for meaning occurs through patterning,


Emotions are critical to patterning,

Every brain simultaneously perceives and creates parts and wholes,

Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral attention,

Learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes,

We have at least two types of memory systems: spatial and rote learning

The brain understands and remembers best when facts and skills are

embedded in natural spatial memory

Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat,

Every brain is unique.

Furthermore, the principles of brain-based learning propose that effective learning could

occur only through practicing real life experiences, activating students' prior knowledge,

gaining students' attention, actively involving students' in the learning process, and helping

students to construct meaning. Learning becomes more expressive when the brain supports

the processes in search of meaning and patterning. Accordingly, it enables the learners to

internalize and individualize learning experiences. Therefore, it is essential that learners be

encouraged to participate in the learning and teaching process actively and that teaching

materials be chosen according to their learning preferences. For example, Wolfe (2001)

argues that teachers can use the visual and auditory senses to enhance learning because she

claims that visuals are powerful retention aids and can serve to increase understanding. She

enumerates classroom strategies using visual processing, such as mind or thinking maps,

webs, bubble maps, clusters, network tress, or graphic organizers, because the structure of

these frameworks mirrors the structure used by the brain to organize information. Monroe

also confirms that the use of graphic organizers can involve students in deep processing of

words (1998).

2.2 Brain compatible vocabulary strategy instruction

The research of the mid-1970s and after that led to some very careful defining of specific

learning strategies (Brown, 2000). Many of strategies were proposed in response to

individuals' second language learning process and learning styles. Auditive style, Visual

style, and Kinesthetic style are a few learning styles that taken into account by researches to

teach language components such as word.

At the beginning of the 1990's that a solid vocabulary is necessary in every stage of

language learning is now being openly stated by some methodologists and SLA (Second

Language Acquisition) researchers. Most work in the field of vocabulary has been concerned


with vocabulary acquisition in L1 (First Language); vocabulary acquisition in L2 (Second

Language); and ESL/EFL (English as Second/Foreign Language) learners' lexical knowledge

(Schmitt, 2002). Because of the complex nature of word knowledge, some researchers think

that vocabulary acquisition is the most serious challenge that L2 learners face, and L2

learners have found that it is difficult to transfer receptive vocabulary to productive

vocabulary. Unlike studies on acquiring L2 or FL vocabulary from media and wide reading –

incidentally vocabulary learning – a number of researchers have also begun to collect

empirical evidence regarding the students gaining benefits from vocabulary instruction. The

results of such researches were emergent of vocabulary strategies instruction like "semantic

mapping, the verbal visual word association, concept wheels, word maps and individual

vocabulary notebook"(Greenwood, 2002, p. 2).

Above all, the role of vocabulary within the curriculum was enhanced due to its crucial

role in the four main language skills. Many scholars admit the intimate relationship between

vocabulary and four skills. Due to the limited effectiveness of incidental vocabulary learning,

how teachers approach vocabulary instruction and explain vocabulary items to promote

communication and provide vocabulary knowledge to student is an important issue. Many

empirical studies aim to explore the effect of the strategy-based vocabulary instruction on

word learning (e.g., Hopkins & Bean, 1999; Huang, 1999; Zarry, 1999).

In this part of the paper, I want to discuss some research-based and effective strategies

offered in educational domain and used in this study to teach foreign language vocabulary.

Then, I will show how they can be corroborated from brain-based theory. Those strategies

that were the aim of this study include the verbal-visual association strategy, sentence plus

definition method, and semantic mapping. These selected strategies intertwine most of the

elements suggested by both educational and neuroscientists researchers. They contain those

criteria that we know about the brain for the moment; like practicing real life experiences,

activating students' prior knowledge, gaining students' attention, actively involving students'

in the learning process, and helping students to construct meaning.

2.2.1 Verbal-visual Association

Information can be moved from the sensory register to working memory if a learner pays

much attention to it. Many scholars indicate that emotion is a powerful tool for gaining and

maintaining learners' attention. As pointed by Jensen (2005) "emotions give us a more

activated and chemically stimulated brain, which helps us recall things better" (p.79). In

addition, brain research emphasizes the importance of an enriched environment in learning

because providing a rich learning environment is need to create the type of emotional climate

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In fact, applying this vocabulary instruction is to allow language learners' brain to make a

solid neuron networks of information intertwined and interacted to each other firmly which

will help them to have long stable data of vocabulary. According to Sokman (as cited in

Huang, 1999), semantic mapping refers to "brainstorming associations which a word has and

then diagramming the results"(p.387). In this method, teacher might write vocabulary words

connected to content area concept such as weather and have students read a selection from

their textbooks containing

the new vocabulary words. After the students read the selection, have them arrange the

vocabulary word into categories.

2.2.3 Sentence plus Definition

Mostly often active involvement leads to deep processing in learners' brain. Active

involvement itself occurs when teachers provide their students with rich information. An

appropriate strategy for this purpose can be what selected in this study as sentence plus

definition method. This vocabulary instruction strategy not only evolves students with rich

information about each word through multiple exposure to vocabulary items, but it stresses

that students need to learn the connection among several words by using them in a natural

occurrences in a real sentences, phrases and clauses. Results obtained from neuroimaging

studies (Brewer et al., 1998; Chee et al., 2002; Chee et al., 2003;) also suggest that a positive

learning outcome can be expected from active and deep processing of the materials, whether

the learning goals are lists of words or complex concepts. Genesee (2002) also claims that

with experience, practice, and exposure the neural circuits will become more complete by

listing evidence gained from brain research. Moreover, researchers (Read, 2000; Schmitt,

2000) have pinpointed that word knowledge has a complex nature; teachers should provide

their students with rich information about each word through multiple exposures to

vocabulary items (Asselin, 2002; Foil & Albert, 2002). This method suggested by

Greenwood (2002) is suitable for teaching new words representing known concepts.

Furthermore, this method offers real context where single word can be used out of vocabulary

lists. It provides students' brain with direct exposure of using words in real situation. At first,

teachers present students with a sentence using this new word (sneaker) and its definition.

Then, students are required to learn this word. Following example indicates how this method

exposes student with rich information around a word.

New vocabulary: Sneaker

He put on his sneaker to go jogging

Sneaker = Casual shoes with rubber bottom


2.3 Word Knowledge

Words are the fuel of language. The number of words you are familiar with determines your

language abilities. The more words you know, the better you are. Thus, the role of vocabulary

within the curriculum may be enhanced due to its crucial role in the four main language

skills. Many scholars admit the intimate relationship between vocabulary and four skills. Due

to the limited effectiveness of incidental vocabulary learning, how teachers approach

vocabulary instruction and explain vocabulary items to promote communication and provide

vocabulary knowledge to student is an important issue. Studies also suggest that vocabulary

instruction has its vital place in ESL/EFL reading and listening (e.g., Asselin, 2002; Smith,

1997). Language learners need to have extensive vocabulary knowledge in reading and

listening as input skill from one side and from another side production will be desired in the

future .So, without having enough knowledge on vocabulary one can not receive his goal

upon learning L2 properly. With increasing findings from brain research, it is hoped that the

application of brain research to vocabulary instruction will maximize L2 learners' effort in

vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, the previous studies have shown that teachers can choose

vocabulary enhancing strategies to make vocabulary instruction rewarding and fascinating. In

view of the significance of the vocabulary learning problem and the purpose of this study, the

present paper will address the following research questions: 1-Do freshman high school

students who receive BVLSI achieve higher score on the vocabulary achievement test than

those who do not receive it? 2-Does BVLSI have longitude effect on students' memory?

3. Methodology

Designed as pre- and post-test control grouped model, this experimental study was conducted

in order to determine the effects of the brain-based learning on vocabulary achievement test

in first grade high school students. The study was carried out with two intact classes selected

randomly. One of the classes was defined as the experimental group and the other as the

control group. Both classes were tested before and after the experiment.

3.1 Participants

Participants under study were chosen randomly to make control and experimental group of

the study from Misag, a non-profit-making, high school in Tabriz. They were male, and15

years old. Each class was composed of about 28 students totally 56 participants were in this

study. Making sure about homogeneity of participants a pre-test was held before treatment.

3.2 Material


There were lots of available ranked books considering the learners state of English

vocabulary knowledge for English language learners. According to the level of participants in

this study English Vocabulary in Use (2sdEdition) by Stuart Redman was picked out. Five

Units of this book were taught in both control and experimental group, but with different

strategies.

3.3 Instruments

In view of the nature of the construct of vocabulary knowledge being multi-dimensional,

Henriksen (1999) and Read suggest using a combination of item formats to investigate

different aspects of vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, Pike argues that "the words in context

items had greater face validity because they presented the words in the sentences. The test

items should have presented in the context. Of course, taking some consideration this issue

was not taken into account.

Avoidance of context effect in learning vocabulary and grammar impact, participants

were asked to recognize the meaning of the target words in their own official language

(Persian). This deliberate utters vocabulary assessment. All the words appearing in each

item were selected from the book that was taught via the instruction program. There were

three tests in this study. First one, which was used as pretest, recognized the homogeneity

between two groups of participant. Test items were selected from lessons of English

Vocabulary in Use that was taught to each group with different instruction. Of course, at the

end of each lesson there was a standard test relevant to that lesson which applied as reliable

test items. Second test admitted research main question.

3.4 Procedure

This study, which was set up in quasi-experimental pattern, was in need of making

participants into two groups, one as a control group which received traditional vocabulary

instruction and experimental group which was under BVLSI. Each group should have been at

least 30 participants, but due to some limitation in each group I had 28 participants, totally

they were 56 individuals. I should note that in a pre-test was applied to homogenize two

groups.

English Vocabulary in Use (pre intermediate & intermediate) by Stuart Redman

(Cambridge University Press, 2003) was taken into the experimental and control class depend

on participants' language ability and five lessons of this book was taught to both classes with

different instruction. It should be highlighted that this book intentionally was selected. The idea

behind of selecting this book in this study was the way that it was edited. This book covers

those strategies by which I wanted to manage this study hoping that I will be able to illustrate


they are brain compatible. Another reason of selecting this book is its unique feature in

gathering all kind of word knowledge in English. According to what mentioned in literature of

this study, chosen items to teach and to test should be from a wide range of word knowledge

whether collocation, phrase, concert noun, and other sort of word power. In fact, it teaches

vocabulary via audio-visual association, sentence plus definition method, and word mapping

strategy. In control group selected vocabulary from above mentioned book was taught

traditionally (reading vocabulary and memorizing with mother language translation).

For the avoidance of disturbing a normal teaching program, one of the intact classes of

students was instructed by researcher and the other one which received traditional instruction

was educated by its own typical teacher. Because of class schedule constraints, the teaching

program extended no more than a period of one month, 12 sessions each session of 6 class

hours. All participants, furthermore, should have a similar social and educational background.

To more check on the similarity of background knowledge, I depended on the pre-test to make

sure that they were not grouped based on their English language abilities. After instruction, a

post-test was taken in regard to the first question of the study. Relevant to second question of

the study, 30 days after posttest a post delay test was taken. At the end, outcomes received

from both groups were analyzed.


After the experimentation process, the data obtained through achievement tests were analyzed

in order to determine the effects of brain-based learning approach on the achievement and

retention levels of the experimental group. The data obtained by the pretest, post-test and post

delay test were scored. Since the achievement test included fifty items, each correct item was

graded as 1 point out of 50 in general. The mean scores and standard deviations of the grades

obtained via pre-test, posttest and post delay test administered to both groups were calculated.

The performances of two groups in a vocabulary test were examined through a repeated-

measure ANOVA, because SLA researchers often collect more than one score from each

participant group. For instance, score on pre-test, post-test, and post delayed test are usually

collected from each group to examine possible treatment, retention, and delayed effects.

Repeated-measure ANOVA applies to designs where each participant contributes more than

one score (Sanz, 2005). Thus, results from repeated measure ANOVA were used to compare

the achievement and retention levels of the experimental and control groups. The SPSS 12.0

software program was used in the statistical data analysis procedure.


An achievement test was administered as a pre-test to the experimental and control groups

in order to test the first hypothesis, which claims that the experimental group using principles

and criteria of brain-based learning will perform significantly better than the control group

using traditional instruction on the achievement test designed for English vocabulary learning.

Right after treatment to both groups, a post-test administered to indicate if brain-based

vocabulary learning strategies have impact on learners. Then, the mean scores and standard

deviations of the scores received by the participants from the pre-test, post-test and as well post

delay test were statistically evaluated and the differences between the mean scores were

examined (Table 1).

Table 1. Mean score and Standard Deviation in pre- vs. post- vs. and delayed tests (p1, p2, p3) of Control

and Experimental Groups.

Group Mean Std.Deviation N

Pre-Test Experimental 12.36 6.805 28

Control 12.04 6.752 28

Total 12.20 6.719 56

Post-Test Experimenta 32.68 12.789 28

Control 21.93 10.374 28

Total 27.30 12.749 56

Post Delay Test Experimental 27.21 10.609 28

Control 20.93 9.817 28

Total 24.07 10.612 56

SPSS output for testing the between-subjects effects indicates that the first null hypothesis of

this study was rejected with F (1, 54) = 5.831 with p= 0.019. What this data shows is that

brain compatible vocabulary strategy instruction (BVSI) has high effect on learners compared

with traditional methods (Table 2).

Test of Between-Subjects Effects Table 2

Source Type ||| Sum of squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Intercept 75438.095 1 75438.095 312.893 .000

Group 1405.929 1 1405.929 5.831 .019

Error 13019.310 54 241.098


According to data obtained from vocabulary achievement tests during the

experimentation, we see that the experimental group using brain-based learning strategies

performed significantly better than the control group using traditional instruction on the

achievement test designed for this English vocabulary learning classes. Figure 1 shows

clearly the whole path of experimental and result of this research.

Figure 1

Regarding the reasons behind the loss in retention by the traditional method in the

vocabulary learning it can be explicated that the traditional instruction does not focus on the

learning process. On the other hand, the brain based method of teaching primarily based on

process learning. As it is obviously known the process-based learning, which is a part of

brain based method of teaching, the process of teaching and learning focuses on higher level

learning, profound thinking and permanence as well as transfer of knowledge. The very first

aim of such a teaching and learning process is to enable the learners to organize and

internalize newly encountered information. However, this organization and internalization

should be regarded as an emphasis on meaningful learning rather than memorizing.

5. Conclusion

A brain-based education uses research in neuroscience on how the brain works to gain an

understanding of how students learn and develop in a classroom. In fact, Brain-based or brain

compatible learning is student centered learning that utilizes the whole brain and recognizes

that different learning instructions should be used in education domain. It is also an active

process where students engage in constructing their own knowledge. Applying brain research

to instructional design can result in the practice of brain-compatible instruction instead of

brain-antagonistic instruction.

Estimated Marginal Means of MEASURE_1

FACTOR1

321

Est

ima

ted

Ma

rgin

al M

ea

ns

40

30

20

10

GROUP

expermental

control


Tirado has said that the principal objective of education is to generate cognitive

strategies that help make the student more perceptive, a better learner, with increased ability

to remember and generalize acquired knowledge, which as a consequence favors more

productive and creative thinking (as cited in Robles, 2003).In these vocabulary instructions,

students got novel ways of enhancing word power. They learned how to connect already

learned words to new ones. They might use word mapping, visualizing and word definition

even out the formal class. In brief, from the results we can see that BVLSI enriched the

materials and content of vocabulary instruction.

Therefore, concerning the effects of the brain-compatible vocabulary learning instruction

on the students' vocabulary achievement test, it was found that students receiving these

treatment got better scores on the vocabulary achievement test. In a word, it is evidenced that

the effects of the brain-compatible vocabulary learning instruction can facilitate High school

EFL student' word learning. To conclude, we can claim that equipping students with more

vocabulary learning instruction based on brain-compatible is essential.

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Title

Sacrificed Elements of TEFL in Secondary Education of Iran

Authors

Fatemeh Poorebrahim (Ph. D candidate) Maragheh State University, E. Azarbaijan, Iran

Mohammad Reza Talebinejad (Ph. D)

Department of Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza branch, Shahreza, Iran

Biodata

Fatemeh Poorebrahim, Ph. D. student at Sheikhbahaee University and teacher of EFL at Maragheh State University, E. Azarbaijan, Iran. Her research interests include improving EFL textbooks and teaching methods using cross- cultural materials, discourse analysis, and ESP. Mohammad Reza Talebinejad, Ph.D, Department of Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University Shahreza branch, Shahreza, Iran

Abstract

This paper introduces a framework to show sacrificed elements of TEFL in Iranian

Secondary Education. In spite of the undeniable progress of language education in

Iran, there are a number of problems which frustrate teachers and learners

provoking poor results. Some of the problems involve decisions about language

and methodology taken by teachers who are still too concerned about form and

grammar. These elements of TEFL are based on four pillars: the task-based

approach, the content-based approach, language awareness and intercultural

competence. The task-based approach is the framework in which academic

contents are dealt with. Language awareness represents a new perspective on form

and grammar within a communicative approach. Finally, the intercultural

competence is the educational objective of language education. Each of these four

concepts has theoretical and practical implications which may help redefine the

curricular design of English teaching in Iran.

Key words: Task-based, Content-based approach, Language awareness, Intercultural

competence


1. Introduction

In recent days a number of publications have announced a “paradigm shift”, following T.S.

Kuhn’s terminology (1970), in second language teaching. This revolutionary paradigm shift

takes second language teaching from positivism to post-positivism (Jacobs and Farrell, 2001,

p.2) or, in a more specific comparison of educational paradigms, from a positivistic to a

constructivist-interpretive and, finally, a critical-emancipatory paradigm (Kohonen, 2001,

p.15).

There is no doubt that something is changing in the profession, at least considering those

recent publications. However, is that change taking place in the schools? The case of TEFL

in Iran is particularly interesting. Our educational decision makers, unfortunately, have not

made it clear which linguistic skill they have in mind as the purpose of learning EFL in

Iran. Choosing an eclectic approach which equally incorporates all linguistic skills at the

same length seems a good excuse for such decision makers.

Nowadays a child can start learning English within the kindergarten and private

institutions from her early childhood, with specialized teachers and in a motivating and

positive social context. However, there seems to be a growing sense of dissatisfaction among

language teachers in Iran. The efforts made in teaching do not seem to correlate with enough

fluency or accuracy, being the communicative competence is still a utopia.

There may be a number of reasons for this frustration. Some of them are historical,

ranging from a poor tradition in language teaching, anchored in the grammar-translation

method, to the difficulty of finding parents who can speak in English to support their

children. Other reasons are structural problems of the educational system. One of these, for

example, is the ratio of students per teacher, which is still too large (not to mention the

university, of course).

The solutions to these problems depend on many different people and institutions. The

government must make a continuous effort to improve education in general and FLL in

particular; schools should participate facilitating cooperation of teachers across the

curriculum and even bilingual programs as well as in-service teacher training; parents could

accept the responsibility of promoting the acquisition of a foreign language at home; teachers

must make the effort of using the best techniques to teach the language, being critical with

themselves and earnestly demanding whatever they may need to improve their practice.

One of the problems which may be hampering the acquisition of English in the

educational system affects teachers directly. In Iran there is a generation of teachers of


English working in the schools who have learnt themselves with the methodologies of the 60s

and 70s, basically the grammar-translation and the audio lingual methods. However, this

generation of teachers has been trained at the university in the communicative and more up-

to-date approaches.

This situation is provoking a dilemma in the teachers’ minds, who would like to use

communicative activities in a learner-centered curriculum but who actually tend to implement

more structural, guided, teacher-centered activities in the classroom. Furthermore, teachers

see themselves compelled to do this by all the problems mentioned above, as they perceive

that sort of methodology works better when there are too many students, sometimes with

problems of discipline and very little motivation. However, this way of thinking becomes, in

the long run, the main source of dissatisfaction. Due to all those problems, teachers believe

that they cannot use the most efficient methods to teach a language, which then provokes

poor results, not in relation to the assessment but to the communicative competence they have

aimed at.

This vicious circle can be broken by the teacher. A redefinition of the teaching practice is

needed to establish which are the objectives of learning a foreign language within the

educational system as well as the procedures to achieve them. Furthermore, this redefinition

is particularly necessary in Secondary Education, when children make the most important

effort, in number of hours, to learn the language. In fact, that growing sense of dissatisfaction

we have commented upon above is especially acute among Secondary teachers, overloaded

with responsibility and problems, and this paper is written with their situation in mind.

Hence, this paper tries to suggest some ideas for this redefinition of TEFL in Secondary

Education. Four key concepts are discussed: the task-based approach, the content-based

approach, language awareness and the intercultural competence. These four concepts,

supported by research on Second Language Acquisition, represent a step forward of teachers

as the people directly responsible for FLT.

2. The task-based approach

The notion of “task” is, on the one hand, as old as humankind may be in the common sense of

the concept and it is even quite well established in the rapidly changing world of TEFL. On

the other hand, it is still a “new” term in the lexicon of many TEFL practitioners in Iran. In

TEFL, the term task has received a number of definitions, which are summarized in Nunan

(1989, pp. 5-11). Nunan himself defines it as "a piece of classroom work which involves


learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language

while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. The task should also

have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own

right" (Nunan 1989, p.10).

Skehan (1998, p.95) prefers to collect the most important features of tasks from other

authors’ works, saying that “a task is an activity in which:

- Meaning is primary;

- There is some communication problem to solve;

- There is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities;

- Task completion has some priority;

- the assessment of the task is in terms of outcome.”

From our perspective, a task is the sum of activities performed to produce something

from an input. These activities are the means to achieve the goals established in the teaching-

learning process. The output of the task must be a real-world material product. During the

performance of the activities the teacher and the learners must assume different roles, which

go beyond the teacher as the centre of the classroom.

The emphasis on a product

as a result of the task is justified for two reasons: on the one

hand, research on second language acquisition has shown that, apart from some

comprehensible input, it is necessary to produce some comprehensible output to provoke

acquisition, and the creation of a material product and its subsequent presentation can foster

that comprehensible output (Ellis 1985, pp.157-159; Swain, 1995; Skehan, 1998, pp. 16-22);

on the other hand, the realization of the product is part of the activity motivation which tasks

seek to promote (Ellis,1985, p.300). The product is the rationale for the task, and for that

reason the realization of the product must be related to the learners’ interests and needs.

In Iran, even though the term task is not new at all in the academic field, the concept is

not part of the lexicon of TEFL practitioners in the schools. The more well-known concept of

the “didactic unit” is frequently used for planning the syllabus. However, both terms are not

exclusive, but complementary, tasks representing a methodological option which does not

exclude, for instance, the use of textbooks and other common teaching practices.

Regarding the organization and planning of tasks, Dave Willis and Jane Willis (2001,

p.163), after stating six propositions to guide FLT, explain that what is needed is a

methodology rooted in meanings and which exploits natural language behavior, activities

which encourage a focus on form and a syllabus which is holistic and which is specified both

pragmatically and linguistically.


To achieve these demands, they create a task-based framework (Willis and Willis 1996

and 2001). This task-based framework, which creates a bridge between the concepts of “task”

and “didactic unit”, consists of three parts and some sub-elements:

PRE-TASK

Introduction to topic and task

TASK CYCLE

Task > Planning > Report

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Analysis and Practice

This task-based framework represents an interesting way of organizing the FLT

curriculum, at least for the Iranian FLT traditional procedures. On the one hand, the teacher

does not explicitly establish the list of structures and the range of vocabulary which would be

studied during a unit, but they devise tasks to fulfill some goals based on the learners’ needs

and interests. On the other hand, it goes beyond the traditional method of organizing language

teaching described by Skehan (1998, pp. 93-95) as the 3Ps, Presentation, Practice and

Production.

Furthermore, this framework, like the task-based approach itself, has some interesting

advantages. First, it focuses on meaning while it does not forget about form. Second, it

fosters not only individual work, but basically pair- and group-work. Third, this framework

does not constrain the selection of activities or the use of the textbook. Moreover, the task-

based approach encourages the integration of skills in a realistic manner. Finally, this

framework moves beyond the concept of assessment as the measure of the acquisition of a

closed set of linguistic items predefined by the teacher.

In conclusion, a task-based approach, within this task-based framework, can provide

teachers and students with a space for communication which is not present in many Iranian

language lessons. Now, this approach must be complemented with the three following

elements, the content-based approach, language awareness and the intercultural competence.

3. The content-based approach

The second element for the redefinition of TEFL in Secondary Education is the content-based

approach. This approach is originally related to the immersion programs in Canada and the

USA as a response to the problems of language learners who must cope with a new language

and with the contents of curricular areas in second language contexts. From this original

objective, it has evolved to become a way of language instruction used in foreign as well as


second language situations, and in that sense it is related to some of the most important

teaching movements in TEFL, namely the natural approach, the communicative approach,

experiential learning or the whole language movement.

Basically, the content-based approach, also called “curricular integration” (Jacobs and

Farrell, 2001,pp. 6-7) can be described as that type of instruction in which “ESL, bilingual, or

foreign language teachers use academic texts, tasks, and techniques as a vehicle for

developing language, content, and thinking/study skills” (Crandall,1993, p. 114). He defines

it and at the same time explain its advantages: "Curricular integration serves to overcome the

phenomenon in which students study one subject in one period, close their textbook and go to

another class, open another textbook and study another subject. When various subject areas

are taught jointly, learners have more opportunities to see the links between subject areas. By

appreciating these links, students develop a stronger grasp of a subject matter, a deeper

purpose for learning and a greater ability to analyze situations in a holistic manner".

Mimi Met (1994, pp.159-182) describes, step by step, how to implement a content-based

approach. Some very interesting suggestions are made in that chapter, such as the difference

between content-obligatory and content-compatible language objectives (p.161), the

importance of experiential, hands-on, cognitively engaging and collaborative activities (p.

164), the integration of culture in the syllabus (p.166), the negotiation of meaning (p.167), the

roles of the teacher (pp.170-173), and the need of adequate assessment procedures.

In the Iranian context, some scholars introduce some techniques and strategies to develop

a content-based approach: 1) use of visual aids (graphs, diagrams, tables, etc.); 2) use of

redundancy and reformulation; 3) active learning through experiments, manipulation,

problem solving, etc.; 4) comprehension checks by different procedures (including TPR); 5)

inclusion of cognitive skills in the language planning, and 6) learn-to-learn techniques.

Obviously, these techniques and strategies require more than an adaptation; the authors are

describing a real modification of TEFL through the integration of tasks and contents.

There are a number of reasons for implementing a content-based approach. The content-

based approach can be beneficial from the language learning perspective as well as the

cognitive perspective. Thus, Stoller (1999, p.9) explains the following benefits of a content-

based approach:


1. A content-based approach eliminates the artificial separation that often exists between

language instruction and subject-matter courses, lending a degree of reality and

purpose to the language classroom.

2. Students learn content in the L2 and in the process develop both language and

academic skills.

3. Content-based instructional units lend themselves naturally to an integrated-skills

approach.

4. Thematically organized materials, which are typical of content-based classrooms, are

easier to remember and learn.

So, the content-based approach can help develop the foreign language, but it can also

help the cognitive growth of the learners, as it is explained in McKeon (1994, p.28). The

developmental sequence of the curricular areas is also followed in the foreign language

classroom, where, instead of considering concepts from their everyday realities, the learners

deal with contents with an increasing level of abstraction and complexity.

Furthermore, the content-based approach suits the task-based approach described above.

Tasks represent the how whereas the academic contents represent the what of the teaching

process. Thus, the task cycle can include mathematical problems, natural science projects or

historical argumentation, among many others.

Similarly, the content-based approach is closely related to cooperative learning. Fathman

and Kessler (1993: 128) define it as follows: “Cooperative learning refers to group work

which is carefully structured so that all learners interact, exchange information, and are held

accountable for learning.” Then, they make clear the value and use of this technique:

“Cooperative learning is designed to engage learners actively in the learning process.

Through inquiry and interaction with peers in small groups, learners work together towards a

common goal.” (Fathman and Kessler, p. 127) Therefore, tasks, contents and cooperative

learning can become a powerful collection of techniques to redefine TEFL.

In that sense, the content-based approach would run against the traditional isolation of

ELT as a separate subject, different from the other, more “serious” curricular areas. The

whole curriculum would gain coherence and the students might see that the contents of one

subject are not relevant only during one hour, but for them as individuals and members of a

community, as it is reflected by the coordinated work of the ELT teacher and the rest of the

staff.

But, then, logically this approach requires from the staff a greater coordination than it is

normally found. It implies sharing information about each one’s curricular areas, not only


about the contents but also about the methodology used in each subject, including the

activities which are normally performed. These activities would be, after the normal

adaptation to a language learning situation, the axis of the task-based approach (see Vale and

Feunteun 1995 for suggestions on a content-based approach within an activity-based

framework in primary education).

4. Language Awareness

One of the characteristics of the Iranian language teaching culture is its concern about the

grammatical aspects of language teaching. In spite of the progressive introduction of new

methodologies, the general acceptance of the communicative approach and the use of notions

and functions, grammar is still at the core of language teaching, sometimes explicitly but

normally implicitly under more or less communicative syllabuses. For that reason, it is

important to make clear this concept of “Language Awareness” as a new way of

incorporating a focus on form into language teaching.

The term “Language Awareness” is used here in two senses. First, it refers to “any

pedagogical effort which is used to draw the learners’ attention to language form either

implicitly or explicitly” (Spada 1997, p. 73). Second, it also means the conscious attention of

language learners towards language form as a procedure to improve learning. So, language

awareness covers many other terms such as attention focusing, focus on form (Williams,

1995), consciousness raising (Fotos, 1993; Schmidt, 1990), noticing, explicit instruction, or

analytic teaching.

Interestingly, research on SLA has shown that the “best way” to learn a second or foreign

language is through comprehensible input and comprehensible output or negotiated

interaction. These two pillars of the communicative approach, however, must be

accompanied by a monitor device in order to avoid the lack of accuracy in favor of fluency

(Schmidt, p. 1993). That monitor device is Language Awareness.

It should be noticed, however, that this paper does not advocate a grammar-based

instruction. What is being discussed here is a focus on form within a communicative task-

based approach. Thus, Spada (p. 77) explains, in the light of SLA, how to implement

Language Awareness: “learners who benefited most in these studies were those who received

form-focused instruction which was operationalized as a combination of metalinguistic

teaching and corrective feedback provided within an overall context of communicative


practice.” So, two of the basic instruments of Language Awareness should be metalinguistic

teaching and corrective feedback.

Three procedures will be mentioned in relation to metalinguistic teaching, namely input

flood, input enhancement and grammar consciousness-raising tasks. Input flood implies the

inclusion of a great number of samples of the structure under focus in the texts being used.

Input enhancement refers to the artificial highlighting of the structure by means of

typographic devices such as underlining, bold letters, etc. Finally, grammar consciousness-

raising tasks are a type of task which provides learners with grammar problems to solve

interactively (Fotos, 1994).

Six possible types of corrective feedback have been analyzed (Lightbown and Spada,

1999, pp. 103-106): Explicit correction, recasts, clarification requests, metalinguistic

feedback, elicitation and repetition. This list of types of corrective feedback requires two

comments. First, research has shown that, in general, explicit methods of correction are more

effective than implicit methods, elicitation, clarification requests, metalinguistic feedback and

repetitions being the most efficient ones (Spada, 1997, pp.78-79). However, and that is our

second comment, the importance of corrective feedback compels teachers to investigate their

own practice on correction, in order to find out not only which type of corrective feedback

one normally uses, but also the effectiveness of that feedback.

Finally, with this third element, language awareness, the outline to redefine the teaching

practice in Secondary Education is complete. The suggestion made here is that teachers

should wisely use a task-based approach in which the contents from other curricular areas

might be at the centre of the syllabus and in which the focus on form should have an

important role but within a communicative framework.

However, a fourth element is missing. Learning a language cannot be considered simply

as skill development. Learning a language is a very complex educational adventure which

engages the whole person and the whole group. Terms such as “negotiation of meaning” or

“collaborative learning”, so common in those theoretical issues we referred to at the

beginning of this paper, demonstrate that language learning aims at something more than

learning the present progressive. That “something” is the Intercultural Competence.

5. Intercultural Competence

In recent article Dwight Atkinson (1999, p. 625) stated that “(e) except for language,

learning and teaching, there is perhaps no more important concept in the field of TESOL


than culture.” Probably this has been so since the very first historical attempts of learning a

foreign language as a way of approaching a community of speakers and their culture.

However, in recent years there has been a special emphasis put on the relation between

culture and learning, as well as on the importance of culture in language learning.

One of the most difficult issues in relation to culture is its own definition (Lessard-

Clouston (1997) reports that Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1963) found over three hundred

definitions of culture, nearly forty years ago!). Culture in FLT has received, traditionally, two

types of definitions (Bueno, 1995, p. 362). First, Formal Culture is said to include the history,

the arts and the great achievements of a community. Second, Deep Culture includes the

customs and the way of life of a community. A third definition, more updated from the

anthropological point of view, could be added, Cognitive Culture, which is defined as

“learned and shared systems of meaning and understanding, communicated primarily by

means of natural language”. (D’Andrade, 1990, p. 65)

So, considering, primarily, these definitions of culture, what is the intercultural

competence? To begin with, it must be said that the “intercultural competence” is a term

which appears not exclusively in the field of language teaching. The wider field of Education

coined the expression “multicultural and intercultural education”, from which the

intercultural competence is derived. Secondly, the appearance of the intercultural competence

is related to the evolution of language teaching objectives expressed as competences and to

the general evolution of the field of language teaching as explained in the introduction to this

paper.

Oliveras (2000, p.35) has analyzed the different proposals and establishes two sets of

definitions of the Intercultural Competence. On the one hand, it is defined as a skill or ability

to behave adequately in a multicultural context (as, for example, Meyer’s (1991, p. 137)

definition). On the other hand, it is defined as an attitudinal stance towards cultures in general

or a culture in particular. So, according to these definitions, the Intercultural competence

consists of three components: attitude, knowledge and skills.

Kramsch (1993, pp. 205-6) proposes four new ways of dealing with language and culture

in a teaching context: first, establishing a “sphere of interculturality”, which means not only a

transfer of information but a deep reflection on the target and on the native culture; second,

teaching culture as a interpersonal process which “applies itself to understanding foreignness

or otherness”; third, teaching culture as difference, showing diversity as an inherent feature of

culture; and, finally, crossing disciplinary boundaries to include studies from other social

sciences.


From that perspective, we define interculturality as critical participation in

communication, having in mind that the view of “cultures” as watertight compartments is a

simplification of a complex reality marked by diversity as its main feature; the intercultural

competence, then, is defined as the development of the cognitive environments of the

students to understand and accept diversity as a constituent of society, and critical analysis

and communication as instruments of knowledge and awareness in a complex society. Thus,

the intercultural competence means, among other things, critical education, cooperative

learning and reflection on social problems at the language classroom.

Hence, the Intercultural Competence becomes the authentic educational objective of

FLT, as a number of authors have suggested. Vez (1996, p. 20) redefines the purpose of ELL:

English language learning from the point of view of the curriculum does not simply aim to

fulfill practical and utilitarian purposes. And neither is this the underlying philosophy of a

communicative approach to language teaching. Through the process of learning a foreign

language at school students are also encouraged to become involved in the construction of the

world around them.

Thus, modern FLT must regain the educational, humanistic and cultural ambition which

originally underpinned learning a foreign language. Learning a foreign language, as seen

from the perspective of the intercultural competence, contributes to personal development.

Second, it also contributes to intellectual development, as learning about other languages and

cultures enhances your general knowledge of the world; and, finally, adding a cultural

element to FLL can also help improve the receptive and productive language skills, as some

aspects of language are culture-bound, as the contrastive rhetoric hypothesis has explained

(Connor, 1996).

6. Conclusion

The gap between theory and practice is the space where teachers can act to improve their

practice and enlighten the theory with classroom results. This action, which constitutes a real

lifelong learning process, will provoke an improvement in their students’ learning and will

ameliorate the teaching experience. In this paper a framework has been introduced to redefine

TEFL in the Iranian Secondary Education. The framework is defined by four pillars, tasks,

contents, language awareness and the intercultural competence. The latter defines FLT as an

educational enterprise, while the three first concepts establish the procedures to make it a

fruitful venture. Learning a language is, then, one of the most exciting personal decisions and


one of the most relevant cultural projects. Communication is a sociocultural event which

involves people in a complex process of cooperation and negotiation of meanings. This same

definition applies to a language learning context: activity, cooperation, negotiation, culture,

communication.

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Title

The Use of Annotations and Pictures in Storytelling Classes and Their Impacts on Critical Thinking and Writing Abilities of Young Iranian EFL

Learners

Authors

Mojgan Rashtchi (Ph.D) Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, Iran

Samaneh Gorji (M.A)

Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, Iran

Biodata

Mojgan Rashtchi Associate professor of Applied Linguistics in the faculty of Foreign Languages of Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, Iran. She has published several articles in local and international journals and has published some books. Her main areas of interest include second language teaching to children and adults, theories in second language learning, and teaching philosophy for children (P4C). Samaneh Gorji M.A in TEFL from Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch. She has been teaching English to young and adult language learners in different private language schools in Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Stories, as a pedagogical tool, can play a crucial role in teaching thinking and

language skills to children. The researchers of the present study aimed to

investigate whether pictures and annotations could have a significant impact on

writing and critical thinking abilities of young Iranian EFL learners. To this end

133 junior high school girls in four intact groups were selected based on

convenience sampling. Three stories from Family and Friends Series (2009) were

selected as the teaching materials. In the first group, storytelling was accompanied

by pictures whereas in the second group the participants were encouraged to write

annotations including underlining, highlighting, and glossing. The third group,

however, benefited from annotations and pictures simultaneously and finally the

fourth group experienced story re-telling without using annotations or pictures.

The results of the MANOVA showed that using pictures during storytelling could

enhance writing ability of the participants. However, as the results indicated, the


three experimental groups did not differ in terms of critical thinking ability though

they significantly outperformed the control group. The results of the study could

be of special importance to EFL and ESL teachers and practitioners as well as

educators in the field of philosophy for children.

Keywords: Annotations, Critical Thinking, Pictures, Storytelling, Writing Skill

1. Introduction

With numerous theories present and countless impeding factors to consider, planning and

teaching a course in writing can be a daunting task especially when it is aimed to teach young

learners; however, it can even be more challenging when practiced in a second language.

Writing is a skill that many teachers find difficult to teach and, perhaps consequently, a skill

many learners do not relish(Reilly & Reilly, 2005). Moreover, Effective writing skills are

important in all stages of life, from early education to future employment (Snyder &

Wirt,1998); yet, most students in Iran have problems with learning how to write in their

foreign language context. Preparation for writing literacy consists of more than knowing how

to form letters. It includes treating language as an object, maintaining cohesion and reference

in oral language, and making one’s communicative intentions known (Cazden,1976).Writing

needs the audience to comprehend, interpret, and criticize what has been written,

characteristics which elucidate its complexity (Gunning, 1998; Langan, 1978) and show to

what extent it could be challenging to learners (Parker, 1993); a skill which its share in

developing good early literacy skills cannot be ignored in young learner classrooms (Maley,

as cited in Reilly & Reilly, 2005).In addition to knowing correct spelling, grammar, and

punctuation, as Tsui (2000) argues, writing requires strategies which enable learners to

express their ideas and involves an understanding of how ideas can be put together to convey

a broader meaning. Writing as a process of several complex cognitive tasks (Bereiter &

Scardamalia, 1987) is a social act (Reither & Vipond, 1989) which requires precision of

thought and precise use of the language (Hedge, 2000).

Nevertheless, an important task of education is to teach students to think effectively;

as Robinson (1987) states, “if students are to function successfully in a highly technical

society, then they must be equipped with the lifelong learning and thinking skills necessary to

acquire and process information in an ever-changing world" (p. 16). With the beginning of

the twentieth century, education has taken over this task and h a s aimed to generate accurate

information on the ways thinking skills should be taught to students (Dombayci, Demir,


Tarhan, & Bacanli, 2011). Based on classroom experimentation, it may be asserted that

students who think critically can ask appropriate questions, gather relevant information

efficiently and creatively, sort out and reason logically based on the information obtained,

and come to reliable conclusions about the world that would enable them to live and act

successfully (Lau & Chan, 2012; Özkan, 2010; Schafersman, 1991). These student are

more productive while using their second language (Özkan, 2010).Luke and Elkins (2002)

believe that teaching EFL learners to become effective thinkers is increasingly recognized as

an immediate goal of teaching. By developing an understanding into the arguments and views

of others, critical thinking, through different activities, can improve students’ academic

performance (Özkan, 2010). According to Richards and Schmidt (2002) critical thinking

strategies in language teaching are considered as a level of reading comprehension or

discussion skills when the learner is able to question and evaluate what is read or heard.

By and large, different studies have aimed to show the importance of critical thinking in

different areas of education. For example, in his study, Toscano (2011) has worked on

developing technological awareness in the technical writing classroom. He has signified the

role of student engagement in discussions on critical technological awareness and has

attempted to foster critical thinking by promoting student’s engagement in discussions about

social constructions of technology. In another study, Rashtchi (2007) has shown that

cooperative writing could have a significant impact on critical thinking of a group of Iranian

college students. Marashi (2007) has investigated the effectiveness of community of inquiry

method on the development of reasoning skills in children and has concluded that the

implementation of community of inquiry method can positively affect the reasoning skills of the

students. Alternatively, Alagozlu (2007) has examined whether elements of critical thinking

and voice could be traced in the writings of a group of Turkish students and believes “that

EFL students need to be supported in terms of critical thinking skills” (p.118).

Correspondingly, one of the instruments which receives a special focus in many of the

English language teaching methods and is utilized for the enhancement of children’s

thinking, academic success, and emotional well-being is storytelling (Eckhoff & Urbach,

2008; Liu, Chen, Shih, Huang, Liu, 2011; Mokhtar, Abdul Halim, & Kamarulzaman,

2011).As an innovative pathway, it can enhance learning, critical thinking, and meaning

construction (Pereira, Vega, Filippo, David, Raposo, & Fuks, 2009); and it is also powerful

enough to promote critical literacy, evaluation skills, and decision making (Luke, 2004).

Being interesting and motivating for learners, stories induce listeners to construct

communication, provides learners with the opportunity to listen, think, ask questions, take


notes, and focus on the chain of events. As students engage in storytelling, as Mallan (1992)

puts forward, they learn to participate in and understand narrative discourse and create a path

to a more sophisticated use of language, that is reading and writing. Storytelling, according

to Brice, (as cited in Mokhtar et al., 2011) is a successful strategy to increase pragmatic oral

skills, the ability to use language in specific contexts for specific purposes leading to greater

ability to write and read. As a learning tool, storytelling improves learners’ oral

communication skills (Harriot& Martin, 2004), “fosters empathy, compassion, tolerance, and

respect for difference” (Baskerville, 2011, p. 107), meets children’s social and emotional

needs (Wright, Bacigalupa, Black, & Burton, 2008), helps them understand the goals of

writing, and assists them to express their ideas and feelings (Paley, 1990). The main focus of

oral practice in storytelling is on educating and transmitting knowledge and skills (Haigh&

Hardy, 2011).

Baskerville (2011) believes that storytelling creates a friendly classroom environment,

helps children learn how to work with others, enables them to express their ideas in their

personal stories, and strengthens relationships among them. There are numerous studies

related to storytelling in healthcare education. According to Haigh and Hardy (2011), stories

have been used at the healthcare ‘front line’ to promote healthy behaviors and have been used

effectively to promote professional identity and group cohesion.

It is noteworthy that many of the emergent literacy skills are acquired first in the context

of children’s interactions with peers in early play contexts (Teale & Sulzby, 1986). For

example, Preece (1992) has found that children’s interactions with each other contribute to

the modification, expansion, increased coherence, and complexity of their anecdotes and

stories. Preece’s study reveals that children are active, alert, engaged, and even aggressive

listeners; in fact, stories are the bridges between the individual experiences and social

patterns. Also, Palmer, Harshbarger, and Koch in their study observe a group of children

during storytelling sessions and conclude that storytelling initiates imagination, creative

thinking, and language abilities; it also, stimulates learning and social interaction. Another

study carried out by Cassel (2004), indicates that technology can play a unique role in

supporting emergent writing literacy activities.

Therefore, since the ultimate goal of education is teaching students the way of

thinking (Lochhead & Clement, 1977), the strategies which can facititate teaching thinking

skills require special attention. The four indicators of critical thinking which include

“promoting interaction among students, asking open-ended questions without one right

answer, giving students sufficient time to reflect on the questions and problems, and


teaching for transfer” (Potts, 1994, p. 1) seem to be accessible through storytelling classes.

Story telling can initiate interaction among students; it could be used as a trigger for the

improvement of critical thinking as well as students’ writing skill. As Özkan, (2010) contends,

“while students interact, they share their ideas and have a chance to hear others’ ideas, as well,

which helps them develop their critical thinking skills”(p. 211).

Children’s readiness for learning those aspects of writing literacy related to functions

and features of the outside world begins in play and storytelling activities (Cassel, 2004)

through which children practice talking about deixis (Scarlett & Wolf, 1979) as well as

thinking and talking about detached objects, actions, and feelings (Nicolopoulou, 1996).

Structuring experience as stories “narrative thought” and telling those stories are skills that

come naturally to children, who have ‘‘an abundant and early armament of narrative tools’’

(Bruner, 1990, p.79).

All in all,to achieve the main purpose of the study which was to investigate whether

using pictures and annotation writing in storytelling classes had any statistically significant

effect on the improvement of Iranian EFL learners' writing and critical thinking abilities the

following questions were proposed:

1. Which of the strategies namely using pictures, annotations, annotations and pictures

simultaneously, in storytelling classes have a significant impact on writing and critical

thinking ability of Iranian EFL learners?

2. How does the students’ attitude compare as a result of the different strategies used in

each of the treatment groups?

2. Method

2.1 Participants

Participants of the present study consisted of133 Persian speaking 13 and 14 year old junior

high school girls who had studied English for one year at their school in Tehran, Iran. They

were selected based on convenience sampling and were randomly assigned to one control and

three experimental groups.

2.2 Instrumentation

Four instruments for data collection were used in this study. The first instrument was a

general proficiency test consisting of five sections: vocabulary section (8 items), matching

section (7 items), grammar section (9 items), reading comprehension section (5 items) and a

section on dictation (8 items). This test was administered to homogenize the participants in


terms of their language knowledge. However, before administration, the test was first given

to 30 students whose language proficiency level was similar to the participants of the study

and who were studying at the same school.

The results of the item analysis disclosed none of the items as mal-functioning and thus

no items were discarded from the test. The reliability of the test estimated through KR-21

(r=0.82) showed a relatively high reliability index. The piloted proficiency test, as mentioned

earlier, was administered to the 133 elementary EFL learners to examine whether they were

homogeneous before receiving the treatment.

The second instrument was a writing test used both as the pre and posttests to evaluate

the writing ability of the four groups before and after the treatment. The students were asked

to choose a topic for a series of pictures and describe them afterward. There was a series of

pictures at the top of each exam paper. The students looked at the key pictures and tried to

deduce a story from them. These pictures were taken from Writing Tutor 1A (Lewis, 2011)

which is a sentence writing book. The pictures had a beginning, an ending, and illustrated an

event that a boy and his friend had experienced at a park. This activity was used to examine

whether the participants were homogeneous in terms of their writing ability before the

treatment and accordingly to examine whether their writings had improved after the

treatment. The writings of the students were scored by two raters who were experienced in

teaching junior high school students. Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormuth, Hartfiel, and Hughey’s

(1981) writing scale was adapted and used to rate the writing levels of the present study’s

participants. Since not all parts of Jacob et al.’s rubric scale were appropriate for evaluating

the students' writing skill at elementary level, the researchers decided to choose some of its

aspects and merge them with other aspects of the rubric scale used in American schools to

make it more suitable for scoring the elementary level writings of the participants of the

present study. Based on this rating scale, the scripts were rated on five aspects: writing

process, content, organization, style, and conventions (Appendix A). The five aspects were

separately scored with each having a maximum score of four. Therefore, the students were

given scores from 0 to 20 by the two raters. The inter-rater reliability showed a high

consistency between the two sets of scores (r=.92); thus the mean of the two sets of scores

was considered as the final score for each participant.

The next instrument was New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (1983) utilized to

assess the critical thinking of the participants before and after the treatment. The translated

version of the questionnaire (Shahrtash Educational Publications, 2011 by the permission


of Montclair University) was administered to the participants before and after the

treatment and its reliability was computed through Cronbach’s alpha (r=.79). The Test is

originally developed by Shipman (1983) and “has taken the first steps toward statewide

assessment of students’ thinking skills” (Morante & Ulesky, 1984, p.72).

Moreover, an attitude retrospective questionnaire (in Persian) was employedto assess the

participants’ attitude toward the different types of treatment. The questionnaire consisted of

22 questions (17 were general questions and five were specific to the type of treatment they

received); it was reviewed, modified, and finally its content validity approved by two experts

with more than 20 years of experience in the field of Applied Linguistics (see Appendix B for

the English version).

2.3 Materials

To achieve the objective of the current study, three story books appropriate for the age and

proficiency level of the participants were utilized for storytelling. Four criteria, as proposed

by Lehman (2003), were taken into consideration in selection of the books; the ethical issues

which were open to different interpretations could encourage group discussions as well as

questions and answers among the members of each class for which they had to make

decisions, take sides, and evaluate. The three selected volumes from Family and Friends

Series (2009) included: The Camping Trips(Grainger, 2009) with 29 pages, The Shoemaker

and the Elves (Arengo, 2009) with 29 pages, and Two Kites(Casey, 2009) with 37 pages.

These books provided extra reading practice. Illustrated glossary items on each page helped

children understand the text, while integrated comprehension questions and puzzles provided

a means for checking the students' understanding and helped them develop their literacy

skills. At the onset of the study the pictures of the selected stories were reprinted in big

posters (250cm x 150cm) to be used in two groups of the study. The first story's posters

consisted of 36 pictures, the second and third stories’ posters included 15 pictures which were

on view for the students during the storytelling classes.

2.4 Procedure

2.4.1 General proficiency test

The standardized general proficiency test (as explained above) was administered to examine

the homogeneity of the participants in terms of their language knowledge. Since the

participants were at the same language level no outliers were identified in the selection of the

participants with regard to the results of the test.

2.4.2 Pretests


Subsequent to administering the general proficiency test and before starting the process of

story telling, as mentioned in the instrumentation section, the students took a writing pretest

using a series of pictures. Moreover, the participants were asked to complete the Persian

version of the New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (Shipman, 1983).

2.4.3 Treatment

The instruction for all of the groups consisted of 20 sessions, each session taking 30 minutes.

All of the groups were taught by the same teacher to control the differences caused by teacher

variable. To sustain teacher’s impartiality and control her possible inclination toward one of

the groups, she was made entirely unaware of the aim of the study. In all of the four groups,

narration of the stories was followed by some questions posed by the teacher. The questions

led to classroom discussion and the students stated their viewpoints while the teacher

purposefully tried to create a challenging yet friendly atmosphere in the classroom regarding

the different ideas proposed by the students. At the end of each session the learners, in all

four groups, went through the activities of the story books individually or cooperatively.

Most of the activities were done in classroom although some were done as homework and

were checked and corrected by the teacher in the subsequent sessions. Furthermore, the

students were asked to write a summary of what had been narrated in the class. During every

session the teacher collected the summaries and provided feedback on them. The activities

and homework were identical in all groups of the study. The first and second stories took

seven sessions to complete while the third story was finished in six sessions. Nonetheless,

every group of the study enjoyed differing activities as follows:

2.4.3.1 Experimental Group 1 (+Picture - Annotation)

The first experimental group was shown pictures but did not write annotations, the teacher

narrated the stories while the learners were exposed to the posters. The posters were mainly

drawn based on the pictures of the story book depicting events of the story. The students were

asked to look at the pictures and relate them to what they were hearing. After the narration

procedure, the students were asked to look at the posters, remember the events, and negotiate

the chain of events with their peers before beginning to respond to the questions posed by the

teacher. Nevertheless, there was no annotation writing in this group.

2.4.3.2 Experimental Group 2 (-Picture +Annotation)

Participants in the second experimental group were not shown pictures but were asked to

write annotations while listening to the story narrated by the teacher. Annotation writing

consisted of activities such as underlining, glossing, highlighting, and note taking. After the


story telling procedure, like the first group, questions written on the board were followed by

classroom discussions.

2.4.3.3 Experimental Group 3 (+Picture + Annotation)

The third experimental group was exposed to the pictures while the stories were being

narrated and the members of the group were asked to write annotations while listening to the

stories. This was followed by activities similar to the other groups.

2.4.3.4 Control Group (-Annotation -Picture)

In the control group, there were neither annotation activities nor pictures available while the

teacher narrated the stories. The students listened to the story while the reprinted picture-less

story books were in front of them. After the narration, the same exact activities were

undertaken as practiced by the other groups.

It is worth noting that certain strategies which are commonly used in writing classes

including prewriting, drafting, and revising were taught and practiced in all of the four groups

in order to help students summarize and write well. Sometimes the best summaries of all

classes were copied for the rest of the students in order to provide them with a good sample

for the following sessions. Also, students were asked to volunteer and retell the stories at the

beginning of each session not only to attract every student’s attention to the theme of the

story in general but also to interest those who were absent in the previous session and hence,

had missed part of the story.

2.4.4 Posttests

A writing posttest similar to the pretest in the form of a personal narrative writing was

administered to measure the effects of the treatment at the end of the study. Moreover, the

Persian version of the New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (1983) was administered to

examine whether there were any significant differences in the thinking ability of the

participants after the treatment. Since the study had two independent variables (annotation

and picture) and two independent variables, the participants’ scores on the posttests were

compared through a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) in order to observe

whether there were any significant differences among the means of the four groups on the

writing and critical thinking posttest scores.

3. Results

The results of the writing and critical thinking questionnaire on the pretest showed that the

four groups were homogeneous at the onset of the study. Table 1 describes the descriptive


statistics of the four groups on the writing and critical thinking questionnaire pretests. The

results of skewness analysis showed that the assumption of normality was observed in the

distribution of scores in the four groups, as well (with the skewness ratios falling between the

acceptable range of 1.96). Moreover, as Table 2 indicates, since Leven’s test was greater

than 0.05, the assumption of homogeneity of variances was not violated. Thus a one-way

ANOVA was run to see whether there was a significant difference among the means of the

writings and critical thinking questionnaire of the four groups before the treatment. The

results of the ANOVA (Table 3) on critical thinking [F (3, 129) =.61, p= 0.60] and writing [F

(3, 129) =1.02, p= 0.38] yielded no significant difference among the groups.

Table 1.Descriptive Statistics, Writing & Critical Thinking, Pretest

Pretest Groups N Mean SD. Std. Error of

Mean Skewness Ratio

Critical

Thinking

+Picture -Annotation -Picture +Annotation +Picture +Annotation -Picture -Annotation

30 34 35 34

27.5 26.29 27.25 28.91

9.10 8.71 8.11 6.02

1.66 1.49 1.37 1.03

-0.17 -0.53 -0.85 0.79

Writing

+Pictures +Annotation +Picture +Annotation - Picture-Annotation

30 34 35 34

12.45 12.60 11.27 11.70

3.62 1.93 3.70 4.63

0.66 0.33 0.62 0.79

-1.44 0.07 0.042 0.25

Table 2.Test of Homogeneity of Variances, Pretest

Pretest Levene Statistic df1 df2 Sig.

Critical Thinking 1.134 3 129 .338

Writing 1.842 3 129 .125

Table 3. One-way ANOVA, Critical Thinking & Writing, Pretest

Pretest Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.

Critical thinking

Between Groups Within Groups Total

119.25 8349.98 8469.23

3 129 132

39.75 64.72

.61 .60

Writing Between Groups Within Groups Total

39.93 1681.29 1721.23

3 129 132

13.31 13.033 1.02 .38


In order to be able to answer the first research question of the study, the researchers had

to compare the performance of participants in the control and experimental groups on the

writing and critical thinking questionnaire through a test of MANOVA. This was of course

made possible with all sets of scores enjoying normality of distribution as displayed in Table

1 above.

Table 4. Descriptive Statistics, Writing & Critical Thinking, Posttest

Posttest Groups N Mean SD. Std. Error of

Mean

Skewness

Ratios

Critical

Thinking

+Picture

+Annotation

+Picture +Annotation

-Picture -Annotation

30

34

35

34

31.96

32.08

30.85

32.05

7.04

7.25

7.65

6.35

1.28

1.24

1.29

1.09

0.96

-0.53

0.32

0.42

Writing

+Pictures

+Annotation

+Picture +Annotation

- Picture -Annotation

30

34

35

34

24.08

16.25

17.48

14.79

3.62

1.93

3.70

4.63

1.47

0.61

0.409

0.59

0.24

0.61

-0.24

-0.26

Table 5. Between-Subject Factors

Groups Value Labels N

1 2 3 4

+Picture +Annotation +Picture +Annotation -Picture -Annotation

30 34 35 34

To begin with, Table 5 shows the between-subjects factors which include the groups and

types of treatment (independent variables) they received. It was necessary to check for the

homogeneity of intercorrelations to see if for each level of the between-subject variable (i.e.,

type of treatment) the pattern of intercorrelation among the levels of within-subjects variables

(i.e., writing and critical thinking) were the same. To test this assumption, Box’s M statistic

with the more conservative alpha level of 0.001 was used. In other words, Box’s M statistic

tested the null hypothesis that the observed covariance matrices of the dependent variables

were equal across groups. Table 6 displays the result and indicates that the assumption was

met (p = 0.785 0.001).


Table 6. Box’s Test of Equality of Covariance Matrices

Box’s M 61.946 F 1.689 Df1 9 Df2 179500.4 Sig. .785

Table 7. Multivariate Tests

Effect Value F Sig. Partial Eta Squared

(η2) Intercept Pillai’s Trace Wilks’ Lambada Hotelling’s Trace Roy’s Largest Root

0.971 0.029 33.084 33.84

2117.400 2117.400 2117.400 2117.400

.000 .000 .000 .000

.971 .971 .971 .971

Groups Pillai’s Trace Wilks’ Lambda Hotelling’s Trace Roy’s Largest Root

0.395 0.609 0.637 0.627

10.577 12.015 13.473 26.958

.000

.000

.000

.000

.192

.210

.228

.362

According to Table 7, the result of the Pillai’s Trace Test specified that F =10.577 and

p< 0.001; it could thus be concluded that the treatment was effective between the groups and

there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups.

Furthermore, with the partial eta squared coming out to be 0.19, the treatment accounted for

19% of the overall variance in the scores.

As illustrated in Table 8 which demonstrates the test of between-subjects effects as part of

the MANOVA output, the four groups turned out to have a statistically significant difference

in the writing and critical thinking posttests, F = 23.115 and p<0.001 and F = 4.523 and

p<0.05 respectively. The effect size, using partial eta squared was 0.35, for writing posttest

indicating a relatively large effect size, which means that writing ability by itself accounted

for 35% of the overall variance (utilizing the commonly used guidelines proposed by Cohen,

1988, pp. 284-287, 0.01=small effect, 0.06= moderate effect, 0.14= large). Moreover, as

shown in Table 8 the eta squared for critical thinking posttest was 0.095signifying that the

treatment constituted 9.5% of the overall variance in the scores.

Table 8. Tests of Between Subject Effectts, Posttest

Source Dependent variable Type III Sum of

Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Partial Eta

Squared


(η2)

Corrected

Model

Writing

Critical Thinking

1572.911

647.966

3

3

524.304

215.989

23.115

4.523

.000

.005

.350

.095

Intercept Writing

Critical Thinking

143896.243

43673.871

1

1

43673.871

143896.243

1925.492

3013.557

.000

.000

.937

.959

Groups Writing

Critical Thinking

1572.911

647.966

3

3

524.304

215.989

23.115

4.523

.000

.005

.350

.095

Error Writing

Critical Thinking

2925.968

6964.103

129

129

22.682

5.985

Total Writing

Critical Thinking

47447.000

150065.000

133

133

Corrected

Total

Writing

Critical Thinking

4498.880

6807.669

132

132

Based on estimated marginal means

*the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. aAdjustment for multiple comparisons: Least Significant Difference(equivalent to no adjustments).

However, in order to specifically locate the differences and determine which one of the

strategies manipulated in the study affected the two dependent variables (writing and critical

thinking), pair-wise comparison was carried out. Table 9 demonstrates this comparison

between the four groups of the study. As Table 9 demonstrates there is a statistically

significant difference between the +Picture – Annotation group’s writing ability and the

writing ability of the three other groups after the treatment. As far as critical thinking is

concerned, there is only a significant difference between the -Picture – Annotation group and

+Picture – Annotation group; in other words, the critical thinking ability of the participants

across the three experimental groups is not significantly different after the treatment.

Therefore, it could be concluded that the treatment equally affected the critical thinking

ability of the participants in the three experimental groups.

Table 9. Pair-wise Comparisons of the Control and Experimental Groups

Dependent

Variable (I)Groups (J)Groups

Mean

Difference

(I-J)

Std. Error Sig.

Writing

+Picture-Annotation -Picture +Annotation +Picture + Annotation -Picture - Annotation

7.8333* 6.5976* 9.2892*

1.19297 1.18496 1.19297

.000

.000

.000

-Picture +Annotation +Picture –Annotation +Picture + Annotation -Picture - Annotation

-7.8333* -1.2357 1.4559

1.19297 1.14681 1.15509

.000

.763

.663


+Picture + Annotation

+Picture –Annotation -Picture +Annotation -Picture -Annotation

-6.5976* -1.2357 2.6919

1.18496 1.14681 1.14681

.000

.763

.144

-Picture -Annotation +Picture –Annotation -Picture +Annotation +Picture +Annotation

-9.2892* -1.4559 -2.6919

1.19297 1.15509 1.14681

.000

.663

.144

Critical

Thinking

+Picture -Annotation -Picture +Annotation +Picture + Annotation -Picture – Annotation*

3.8118 5.0429 6.3412

1.84047 1.82810 1.84047

.237

.060

.010

-Picture +Annotation +Picture –Annotation +Picture +Annotation -Picture - Annotation

-3.8118 1.2311 2.5294

1.84047 1.76925 1.78202

.237

.922

.571

+Picture + Annotation +Picture –Annotation +Annotation -Picture -Picture -Annotation

-5.0429 -1.2311 1.2983

1.82810 1.76925 1.76925

.060

.922

.910

-Picture - Annotation +Picture -Annotation* -Picture +Annotation +Picture +Annotation

-6.3412 -2.5294 -1.2983

1.84047 1.78202 1.76925

.010

.521

.910

Figure1- Mean Difference Between the Groups, Posttest

To answer the second research question, as mentioned earlier, the participants were

asked to respond to a retrospective questionnaire the results of which confirms that all

participants (100%) considered storytelling a useful technique for improving their writing

ability as well as other skills such as reading, speaking, and listening. Interestingly most of

the students believed that their grammar knowledge had improved as a result of the

instructions they received. They stressed the fact that their comprehension of stories had

improved due to a better grasp of the sentence structures.

Regarding annotations, 95% of the participants strongly believed that writing

annotations during storytelling classes had helped them develop their writing ability, better

factor1criticalwriting

Est

imat

ed M

argin

al M

eans

40.00

35.00

30.00

25.00

20.00

15.00

10.00

no picture & no annotaion

picture & annotaionannotationpictures

gruops


remember or use new words and phrases, and had led to a deeper understanding. They

strongly believed that storytelling had improved their attitudes toward learning new words in

general and synonyms and antonyms in particular. However, 5% declared that they were

indifferent toward writing annotations during story telling.

Regarding pictures and storytelling 94% considered this approach as a useful technique

for remembering different parts of the story; thus they asserted that by looking at the pictures

they could easily remember and write something about the stories. Some of the students

believed that pictures induced them to be more enthusiastic toward learning English and they

also didnot find learning English too difficult any more. It is worth noting that in +Picture

+Annotation group the participants were greatly satisfied with using both annotations and

pictures in their English class. Additionally, 75% of the participants were quite positive

toward having storytelling in their syllabus for the succeeding year. The remaining 25% of

the students stated that it was time consuming and they did not have sufficient time to study

their English text book.

Moreover, 94% admitted that storytelling had helped them in learning their English

lessons. They not only enjoyed friendly atmosphere of the classes, but also were satisfied

with classroom discussions and felt they had a better relationship with their peers. Also, 98%

of the participants strongly believed that their understanding of the stories had improved as

compared to the beginning of the classes and 63% acknowledged that they enjoyed writing

summaries and believed that it helped them to write well. However, 37% of the students

found it a difficult task to carry out.

4. Discussion and Conclusion

Storytelling as an innovative language teaching tool can enhance understanding and motivate

learners to engage in classroom activities. Storytelling persuades learners to reflect and

construct meaning based on what they observe and hear. Through this activity, as the findings

of the present study may suggest, pictures play a facilitating role in the cognitive processes

learners need for meaning construction. The results of the study revealed that +picture –

annotation group outperformed other groups of the study signifying that exposure to pictures

during storytelling could have a positive impact on writing ability of participants.

The researchers of the present study believe that synchronizing pictures with

storytelling could be facilitative in learning new words and prefabricated chunks and could


enable learners to have a more organized writing style, accordingly. Furthermore, it can be

postulated that pictures helped participants grasp and thereafter implement the sequential

order of events when writing.

Moreover, pictures seem to compensate for lack of understanding which students of

other groups may have encountered due to their language proficiency level during

storytelling. Also it is assumed that pictures, more than other techniques, could foster a non-

threatening environment which, in turn, reduces the anxiety learners usually experience in

EFL classes and conversely increases language learning level.

However, coordination of visual working memory and auditory working memory can

be another reason for better performance of the +picture –annotation group though it seems

that writing annotations had a distracting role for the +picture +annotation group.

Additionally, in line with Vygotsky’s (1978) view on relation between speech and tool use (p.

23), pictures could work as “memory aids” (p. 49) or “mediators” (p.46) which helped

learners not only recall the stories, but also remember the words and the structures, and

subsequently use them in their writings. In his study, Leontiev (as cited in Vygotsky, 1978)

found that children could recall “twice as many words” when pictures were used as memory

aids (p. 48). Hence, pictures can act as signs which relate to a meaning and it can be

hypothesized that, in this study, they contributed to the activation of children’s cognitive

processes and facilitated language learning in general and writing ability in particular. As

Crain-Thoreson and Dale (1999) argue, storytelling, when accompanied by pictures, can

enhance children’s language skills and, consequently, improve language learning. The

general finding of the present study, similarly, is in congruence with that of Mallan (1992)

who asserted that story telling in classroom engaged learners in narrative discourse and

resulted in the improvement of reading and writing skills.

Surprisingly, annotations did not appear to bring about any significant differences

among the means of writings by the +annotation-picture and +annotation +picture groups.

This finding gives the impression that annotation writing was not an appropriate activity for

the proficiency level of the participants as annotations require reasoning skills such as

“judging, problem solving, and decision making” (Piolat, Olive, & Kellogg as cited in Mu,

2010, p. 1753) which could have distracted learners from focusing on the pictures. Further

studies should clarify whether it could be an effective technique for learners with higher

levels of language proficiency.

In Regard to critical thinking, the second dependent variable of the study, the results

showed that all groups outperformed the control group though there were no significant


differences among the critical thinking means of the three experimental groups. This finding

indicates the fact that both pictures and annotation writing provoked a more complex

cognitive activity which could equally give rise to the improvement of critical thinking ability

and reasoning skills of the three experimental groups. The stories selected for the study

triggered discussions and encouraged learners to reflect upon the issues implied, pictures or

annotations or both may contribute to the enhancement of reflection and cognitive activities

necessary for critical thinking skills. The questions and answers in classrooms assisted

learners in developing the ability to evaluate the events objectively and decide on the

solutions for the problems. In other words, the classroom activities provided opportunities for

learners to think critically, reflect, and make decisions.

It should be noted, the present study was carried out with a relatively small sample

and further studies with larger sample populations can verify the findings of the present

study. In addition, it would be interesting for both educators and students to see how pictures

and/or annotations in storytelling classes could influence other language skills of the

participants at different ages and proficiency levels.

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Appendix A Narrative Writing Rubric

Appendix B Questionnaire

The following questionnaire is about your storytelling classes.Remember there are no rights or wrong answers. Just answer as accurately as possible. Show your agreement or disagreement of each sentenceby marking one

4 3 2 1

Writing Process

Effectively uses the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing) to enhance writing.

Uses the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing).

Uses some steps of the writing process(prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing).

Uses some steps of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing).

Content

Uses some steps of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, andpublishing).

One clear topic/experience is supported with details that help thereader picture whathappened.

Many more details areneeded to help thereader picture whathappened.

Almost no details whichmake it difficult for the reader to understand what happened.

Organization

The beginning catches the readers’ interest. All events are in a sequential order with a well defined ending.

The beginning, middle,and end are clear. Allevents are in asequential order withan ending.

The beginning, middle or ending is missing or disorganized which may interferewith the meaning.

The beginning, middle or ending is missing or disorganized. Eventsare told out of order,interfering with themeaning.

Style

Uses a variety of sentences and exact word choices to clearly express feelings about the topic.

Uses some variety of sentences and word choices. Some feeling isevident.

Limited variety of sentences. Feelings areoften unclear. Many sentences maybe short and choppy.

No variety of sentences. Not clear how the writer feels about theexperience. Most of the sentences are short and choppy.

Conventions

All sentences are complete with very few (0-3) or no mistakes in spelling, punctuation, or grammar.

Most sentences are complete with some (4-7)mistakes in spelling,punctuation, orgrammar. But they do not interfere with the meaning of the writing.

Some sentences areincomplete. Writing hasrepeated mistakes inspelling, punctuation, or grammar, which sometimes make the writing hard to read and understand.

Many sentences are incomplete. Writing hasmany mistakes in spelling, punctuation, or grammar making it difficult to read and understand.


letter. A = strongly agree B = agree C = unsure D = disagree E= strongly disagree A B C D E 1 I enjoyed storytelling classes. 2 Through storytelling my listening skill has improved. 3 Through storytelling my reading skill has improved. 4 Through storytelling my speaking skill has improved. 5 Through storytelling my writing skill has improved. 6 Through storytelling my grammar has improved.

7 I think storytelling has helped me in learning my English lessons.

8 The atmosphere of the classes was friendly.

9 My understanding of the stories has improved compared to the beginning of the classes.

10 I enjoyed the classroom discussions.

11 After storytelling classes I have a more positive attitude toward English in general.

12 Now, I think I have a better relationship with my classmates. 13 I enjoyed the questions and answers posed in the classes. 14 I enjoyed writing summaries about the stories. 15 I like story books to have pictures. 16 I like to write annotations in storytelling classes.

17 I like to have both pictures and annotation writing in storytelling classes.

18 I like to have storytelling classes next year, too. 19 I think storytelling classes are time consuming. 20 Writing annotations helps me improve my writing. 21 Storytelling has encouraged me in learning English in general. 22 Pictures help me remember and understand stories better.


Title A Comparative Genre Analysis of English and Persian Business Letters Authors Moharram Sharifi (M.A) Department of Humanities, Miyaneh branch, Islamic Azad University, Miyaneh, Iran Ali Sharifi (M.A) Biodata Moharram Sharifi, M.A in TEFL. He is a faculty member of Islamic Azad university of Miyaneh branch, Iran. He has taught different courses in ELT in undergraduate courses. His research areas of interest include discourse analysis, language testing and language skills. Ali Sharifi, M.A in English language and literature. He is an independent researcher, and he has taught different courses of English literature in undergraduate courses. His research areas of interest include comparative literature, short story and poetry. Abstract

This study investigated rhetorical differences between Persian and English

business follow-up letters. Our goal was to investigate how information is

presented in business correspondence and what rhetorical strategies are used by

English and Persian follow-up business letter writers. To answer these questions

of an essentially pragmatic and ethno-linguistic nature, our research focused on

analyzing contrastively a corpus of authentic Persian and English business letters

in terms rhetorical moves. The analysis focused on rhetorical structure, mainly

drawing on the notion of move. This study focuses on the cultural preferences that

Persian and English writers show when engaged in follow-up business letter

writing. It will be shown that in the two languages there are differences in the

ways in which discourse patterns are organized. Considering generic features and

awareness of cross-cultural differences between Persian and English business

follow-up letters may help students and professionals in business communications

write effective and persuasive letters. In addition, syllabus designers by focusing

on the differences and similarities of letter writing styles in the two languages


may provide the courses in which these differences are highlighted and

emphasized in order to be aware of generic differences in the two languages.

Keywords: Follow-up letters; Text patterning; Genre Analysis; Persian; Move

1. Introduction

Business communication is purposeful social activity, by 'purposeful' meaning that, as in any

kind of communication, it serves to manifest a goal or an intent which, however ritual it may

be, expresses a given community's way of making things happen through language. Given the

goal-oriented nature of all human communication, the self-assertive character of manifesting

intent verbally, and the manipulative character of business dealing in general, we may

consider the common pragmatic function of business letter as being persuasion, i.e. getting the

addressee to comply in some way. Our research question becomes, then: how persuasion is

achieved in different cultures through the medium of a business letter. This study aims at

analyzing contrastively, the rhetoric of a selected corpus of Persian and English follow-up

business letters: text patterning, i.e. the pragmatic disposition is going to be investigated using

the notion of 'move', a move being a meaningful unit represented in linguistic (lexical-

grammatical) forms and related to the communicative purposes of the activity in which the

members of the community are engaged (Swales, 1990). Analyzing the move structure of a

text thus means assigning a pragmatic function to stretch of language and building the

schematic structure through which its communicative purpose is achieved. According to

Swales (1990), the schematic structure of a particular genre is the result of the convention of

specific discourse community. However, within the overall structure, writers can make

specific rhetorical choices, thus making cultural variation possible. This study considers one

of the most popular forms of business communication, i.e., the letter. Indeed, in business

communication the letter plays an important role in establishing and maintaining business

relationship, both within a company and with external contacts. To accomplish this, many

specific genres and subgenres have been developed, which have been the object of linguistic

investigation and which are taught in specific courses, as great importance is attributed to

them in business studies. Considering generic features and awareness of cross-cultural

differences between Persian and English business follow-up letters may help students and

professionals in business communications write effective and persuasive letters.

2. Theoretical Background


Bhatia (1993) believes that in a purely formal approach, genres consist of regular grouping of

stylistic and compositional elements. These configurational features are the means by which

genres are defined, irrespective of the conditions under which the types come to exist and the

social values attached to them in a given context. While formal features of the genre should

not be discarded as meaningless, because they do in fact characterize each genre, it should be

constantly kept in mind that they neither define nor constitute each genre: "holistic changes in

generic forms argue against equating genre with form …the form may change but the generic

label stay the same" (Devitt, 1993, p. 575).He states that genres are not only the result of a

recurrent situation; the construction of a genre also implies constructing the situation for that

genre. In other words, when writers select a genre, they also construct the social occurrence of

the genre, the shared knowledge surrounding it. This shared knowledge of the situation does

not refer to the physical world. It operates within the human activities of the community,

situation, and the relationships which come to be established through the use of genres. For

example, given the task of writing money chasing letters, an employee will choose the sub-

genre (threat, polite reminder) on the basis of their appraisal of the client. If genres are

typified responses to recurrent rhetorical situations and if such rhetorical situations plus form

and substance, they come to be established as expectations of the genre, the issue is whether

or not genres set constraints on the writer. This study, being in the framework of genre study,

focuses on the conventions through which both Persian and English business letter writers

communicate their meaning by follow-up letters. It aims to investigate the possible

differences of rhetorical moves between English and Persian follow-up letters in terms.

2.1 Genre Analysis

The term genre has a long story, dating back to ancient Greeks and their study of rhetorical

structure in different categories of the epic, lyric and dramatic. For many years the term has

been commonly used to refer to particular kinds of literature or other media of creative

expressions (e.g., art or film). More recently, however, it has been used in a range of

educational contexts to refer not only to types of literary texts, but also to the ''predictable and

recurring texts that are part of everyday life "(Eggins, 2004, p.55). As Bakhtin (1986) has

argued, learning genres is a fundamental part of language development, and it is our ability to

predict the compositional structure and length of genres that enables us to communicate

meaning.

2.2 Genre and ESP

Hyon (1996) stated that "research in ESP has been motivated by the potential of genre as a

tool for analysis and teaching the language required of non-native speakers in academic and


professional settings"(p. 695). In this context Swales' (1981, 1990a) research on the

introductory stage of academic articles has been especially influential. Swales' concern was to

address the difficulties which many students face, as well more experienced writers, in getting

started on academic articles, and he developed the Create a Research Space (CARS) model.

This model summarizes structural moves and steps to identify the regular and the predictable

ways in which introductions of academic articles are organized. The obvious implication of

Swales' research for EAP (English for Academic Purposes) teaching inspired research into

other sections of research papers, including research, discussion of results and abstracts.

Swales' model has been further extended to account for longer and more complex studies (i.e.,

academic dissertations: Dudley- Evans, 1994a) and grant proposals (Connor, 1996). As a

matter of fact, this line of research has been influential in EAP and ESP and it is considered a

helpful means to analyze a great variety of texts. The overall concern of ESP is to assist

students to gain access to the English language demands they encounter in their studies or

professions, i.e., to assist them in recognizing and learning the patterns of language required

in various academic and professional contexts. ESP scholars’ focus lies in analyzing

communicative purpose and formal language features of genres in these contexts.

2.3 Schematic Structure and Rhetorical Move

Bakhtin(1986) suggested that we recognize speech genres because they have predictable

compositional structure. As he says from the very beginning we have a sense of the speech

whole. Eggins (2004) believes that genres develop linguistic expressions through a limited

number of functional stages, occurring in a particular sequence. As we habitualize our joint

negotiation of communicative tasks, we establish a series of steps or stages. These stages are

called schematic structure of a genre. The term schematic structure simply refers to the stages,

step by step organization of the genre as Martin puts:

"Schematic structures represent the positive contribution genre makes to a text: a way of

getting from A to B in the way a given culture accomplishes whatever the genre in question

is functioning to do in that culture" (Martin 1989, p. 251) .

Martin points out that the reason that genres have stages is simply that we usually cannot

make all the meaning want to at once. Each stage in the genre contributes a part of the overall

meanings that must be made for the genre to be accomplished successfully.

Eggins (1994) mentions that once we begin thinking about dividing a text into stages we

must consider on what basis we will establish that two parts of a text constitute separate

stages. Eggins believes that there are essentially two kinds of criteria which in dividing a text

into stages we could use:


''1. Formal criteria: we could divide the text into stages/parts according to the form of the

different constituents. This approach emphasizes sameness, as we divide the text so that each

unite/stage is a constituent of the same type.

2. Functional criteria: we could divide the genre into stages/parts according to the function

of the different constituents. This approach emphasizes difference, as we divide the text

according to the different functions of each stage"(Eggins, 2004, p. 60).

2.4 Business Letter Writing

The letter is often an evidence of an arrangement or a contract, and must therefore be written

with care; even the shortest and most usual letters may have this importance. The need for

thought in writing is clear when we realize that in speaking words can be seen or heard

immediately, but reaction to a letter is not known until the answer is received. It is even more

important when we write a letter in a foreign language. If we do not know that particular

language very well, we are certain to translate some phrases from our own language; these

phrases may then convey quite a different meaning from that of intended. It is in any case

impossible to translate all business phrases literally, i.e. word by word or phrase by phrase, as

each language has its own generic characteristics. With this in mind, comparative genre

analysis of the same genres in different languages may cast lights on the underlying generic

structures of texts especially business letters which belong to an established genre. The genre

approach to business letters especially follow-up letters has a long standing rhetorical and

schematic structural tradition, and Bhatia (1993) is a great figure in this area. Although

analyzing language either spoken or written to reveal its genre-specific structures in different

contexts of situation is of great value, comparison of native and non-native language is

furthermore important for genre acquisitions which inevitably imply the interaction and

interplay of cultural factors. Contrastive genre analysis (and various textual levels) will

undoubtedly stimulate learners’ cross-cultural awareness of how genre constraints operate in

different languages, and will steer them to appropriate uses and help to avoid inappropriate

ones. The aim of contrastive genre analysis at this stage consists of showing the

interconnection between the communicative orientation of genre and its contextual placement

in different cultures as well as their impact (and manifestation) on various levels of rhetoric,

content and overall linguistic structure of the compared texts. As mentioned earlier, because

of cultural dimensions, the translation of the text may convey quite a different meaning from

that of intended meaning: therefore, it seems necessary at the age of international

communication in which English in dominant, attention should be paid on the cross-cultural


differences of business letter writing to have successful business letters. Business letters have

various forms; one of them is follow-up letters.

2.4.1 Follow-up Letters

According to Maggio (1980) the follow-up letter "relates to an earlier letter, mailing,

conversation, or meeting, is an effective and courteous way to tie up loose ends, to encourage

some action that you want, or build something already begun"(p. 3).

Follow-up letters are written to remind someone of an appointment, meeting, favor,

request, inquiry, invitation, payment, or work deadline; to inquire about an unacknowledged

letter, phone call, package, or gift; to sum up the decisions made in a conference, meeting, or

telephone call so that there is a record and so that our collections can be verified by others; as

part of an ongoing debt collection effort; to add new or further information a material to an

earlier mailing or contract; to verify a problem has been settled to the customer's satisfaction;

to express our appreciation or interest after business lunches, dinners, meeting, or conferences

or following visits by prospective members, students, guests; to encourage a sale after a

customer has shown some interest in one's products or services, or has been visited by a sales

representative. All of the above-mentioned letters are under the umbrella term follow-up

letters. The focus of this study is investigating of genre in Persian and English follow-up

letters.

2.5 Contrastive Genre Analysis

Genre research aims to group texts according to type and to identify and describe feature

which texts of a particular genre are defined not in terms of their language, but by feature

which could be described as external to the text itself. These include areas such as text

purpose, writer/reader relationships, and the medium of communication (e.g. newspaper

article, letter, e-mail message). The ways in which texts can be seen to differ from or to be

similar to one another in different languages are extremely complex. Biber (1988) has used

computer analysis of large corpora to demonstrate that different types of text vary from one

another along numerous independent dimensions, creating a very large number of different

text types. Thus, to take Biber’s own example we might expect to find that 'formal' texts are

marked by features such as frequent use of passive forms and nominalization, and that

'informal' texts display frequent use of personal pronouns and contractions; however, there are

genres in which texts typically display high levels of use of all these four features and others

that display low levels of use of all of them. Therefore, such multidimensional distinctions

render terms such as 'formal' and 'informal' far too broad to describe satisfactorily the

characteristics that distinguish texts from one another. Biber (1988) distinguishes between


genres and text types: genres he defines, much like Swales, as being group of texts with

shared external characteristics such as purpose. He uses "text type to refer to groups of texts

with similar text internal features such as syntactic patterns'' (p. 39). He points out that while

some genres tend to comprise texts that are normally very similar in terms of text types, there

are other genres in which great variety of text type is possible. This study considers a popular

form of business communication, i.e., the letter. To accomplish this, many specific genres and

subgenres have been developed, which have been the object of linguistic investigation and

which are taught in specific courses, as great importance is attributed to them in business

studies.

3. Methodology

This study is going to analyze authentic English and Persian business letters using the notion

of move, one of the identifying features of genres and thus a notion widely used in the

analysis of discourse patterns (Swales, 1990; Longacre, 1992; Bhatia, 1993). A move is a

meaningful unit represented in linguistic (lexico-grammatical) forms and related to the

communicative purposes of the activity in which members of community are engaged.

Analyzing the move structure of a text would thus mean assigning a pragmatic function which

its communicative purpose is achieved. If, then, this schematic structure is the result of the

generic conventions developed by a discourse community in response to the recurrent

rhetorical needs, cultural differences are still possible in the way moves are organized to

achieve the specific communicative goals of the text. To identify the genre of follow-up

letters within the broader category of 'business letter', the notion of schematic structure in

mapping the macro-structure of text is used. The methodology illustrated so far will be

applied to the analysis of Persian and English corpora of follow-up letters with the aim of

discovering whether any differences and similarities can be found in their discourse

organization patterns.

3.1 Materials

The corpus for the present study consists of authentic business follow-up letters, 30 English

and 30 Persian. The Persian corpus was collected during the period of study from Iranian

companies and English corpus was collected from English companies based in England. For

the purpose of confidentiality, the names and addresses are removed. The primary criterion in

collecting business follow-up letters was the communicative goal to be achieved, that is, the

letters were considered follow-up letters if, according to the definition of these letters, they


had the communicative purpose of relating to an earlier letter, mailing, conversation, or

meeting.

3.2 Data Collection and Data Analysis Procedure

Throughout the analysis, the overall rhetorical purpose of the text was taken into account. The

research procedure is primarily qualitative. Qualitatively, we took into account the rhetorical

purpose of the text when assigning a pragmatic function to a stretch of language: this enabled

us to label the stretch of language as a particular move. Linguistic indicators (lexico-

grammatical forms) were used to define boundaries of each move (Maureen's, 1993b).The

qualitative procedure has been integrated quantitatively, i.e., the occurrence of the various

moves in the two corpora was counted and their sequence established.

3.2.1 Rhetorical Move Analysis of English Corpus

The communicative purpose of the follow-up letters in English is obtained through the

following structural moves which are the most common ones found in the selected data:

(SUBJECT)

Move 1: OPENING SALUTATION

Move 2: ESTABILISHING A LINK

Step 1: thanking to the previous contacts /communications

And / or

Step 2: referring to previous contacts /communications

Move 3: ADDRESSING THE ISSUE

Step1: soliciting information

And / or

Step 2: specifying transaction/ specifying product/service details

Move 4:SOLICITING FURTHER CONTACT/COMMUNICATION

Step 1: expressing expectation for reply attention

Move 5: ENDING POLITELY

(CLOSING SALUTATION)


Only nine of 30 letters (30 percent) have a SUBJECT; therefore, it is not an obligatory

move. When the SUBJECT is present, it is situated before the OPENING SALUTATION.

Almost all of the letters have the OPENING SALUTATION which is always placed before

the ESTABILISHING A LINK. Similar to Persian business writing styles, OPENING

SALUTATION is generally formal. The addressee is identified as 'dear Mr. /Mrs. + surname',


thus denoting a preference for the V level of reference. However, this OPENING

SALUTATION is not equivalent to the Persian ones as far as the level of formality is

concerned. Indeed, in Persian salutation, as we will see, addressee is identified as' title+ Mr. /

Mrs. + surname'.


The most common moves presented by ESTABILISHING A LINK may be realized by

one or two of the following steps:

Step 1: thanking to previous contact/communication

Step 2: referring to previous contact/communication

In our English corpus, out of 30 letters 20 have "thanking to previous contact or

communication" step (66 percent) and all of the letters have "referring to previous contact or

communication". The 100% occurrence of this second step is not surprising because as the

name of follow-up letter suggests for itself, this letter refers to a previous contact, mail or

meeting. These steps can be realized by:

• In reply to your letter of 12 July

• Thank you for your enquiry of last week

• In reply to your letter of yesterday

• With reference to your enquiry of May 13th

• Thank you for your enquiry of April 18th

• We thank you for your enquiry dated

• We are pleased to have your enquiry

• Your enquiry of October 12th, which we welcome

Move 3: ADDRESSING THE ISSUE

This move can be realized by one of the following steps.

Step 1: soliciting information

Step 2: specifying transaction/specifying product/service details

Analyzing the corpus showed that the occurrence rates of step 3-1 and 3-2 were 40% and

100% respectively. For example:

• We are now able to send you our latest catalogue

• We have got over some of our difficulties. The extension plates which will enable us to

increase the length of the ovens have arrived

• Delivery can be made ex-stock and your order dispatched within 24 hours

• We are glad to say that we can supply any quantities of wire from stock to the exact

specification of your sample


• We informed that we can deliver a part of goods required from stock, in accordance with

the enclosed detailed offer

• After studying our prices and the liberal terms to the trade, you will understand why we are

working to the capacity at the moment to meet the demand

• A copy of our illustrated export catalogue will be sent to you today, together with a range

of samples of the various skins used in the manufacture of our gloves and shoes

• We enclose our official order from 15,000 yards, which we understand you can supply

from stock

• While appreciating the good quality of your suiting, we find the price of these materials

rather high for the market we wish to supply

• Will you please let me have the securities mentioned in your letter

• Please advise us by airmail when the goods have been dispatched

• Perhaps you would like to give us some idea of the terms on which you would be willing to

operate as your agent, and approximately what amount of stock you would which to hold

• We think we can do business for you if you are able to set a lower limit on your prices and

allow us to handle your goods on a consignment basis

Move 4: SOLICITING FURTHER CONTACT/COMMUNICATION

This move may be realized by one step that is, expressing expectation for reply/attention.

The survey of the corpus revealed that 66% percent of English follow-up business letters

included this step. This move is mostly realized by the use of imperative whose degree of

imposition is mitigated by the introduction of please:

• Please advise us by airmail when the goods have been dispatched

• I shall be pleased to hear what you have to suggest in this direction

• Please let us know what you wish us to do with it

• If this proposal is acceptable to you please let us know so that we can discuss details

• I shall welcome the opportunity of a talk to you. Please telephone me quoting the

reference number of this letter

• Should you require any further information, our representative will be pleased to call

on you


The ENDING POLLITELY move is realized in 11 letters (36%) and it is not as formal as

its Persian counterpart:

• I shall welcome the opportunity of talk with you

• We look forward to receiving your order in the near future


• We can assure you that you may count on our full co-operation in the matter

• We look forward to the opportunity of being of service to you

• It will be pleasure to serve you

• We will do our very best for you

• We are anxious to serve you

• We thank you for your assistance in the matter

• Please accept our apologies

CLOSING SALUTATION

Although this move is present in all letters, similar to SUBJECT move, this move is also

not an obligatory move since it is not obliged to occur and in the absence of this element, the

text would not be interpreted as the genre to which the text belongs (Babaii and Ansari, 2000).

Examples are as follows:

Yours faithfully

Yours sincerely

3.2.2. Rhetorical Move Analysis of Persian Corpus

The communicative purpose of the letters in Persian is realized through the following

structural moves which are most common ones present in the texts:

• Move 1: OPENING SALUTATION

• Move 2: ESTABILISHING A LINK

Step 1: referring/thanking to previous contact/communication

• Move 3: ADDRESSING THE ISSUE

Step 1: giving information

And / or

Step 2: request/specifying product

(Closing salutation)

Contrary to English corpus, SUBJECT move was not found in any of Persian corpus, and

this may be due pragmatically to the rhetoric of various cultures. Since the occurrence of this

move in English was not high, coming to any definite conclusion about the differences on this

move needs more study.


Similar to English corpus, Persian business letters have OPENING SALUTATION, but on

the level of formality there may be interesting differences. As we can see, in English corpus

the addressee is identified as ' Dear Mr. / Mrs. +surname', however in Persian corpus the

addressee is identified as ' Title alone or title + last name' as follows:


• modiriat e mohtaram e sâxt o ta?min

(Respectable manager of building and providing)

• modiriat e mohtaram e âmel janâb âqâye mohandes--

(Respectable manager of agent engineer)

• modiriat e mohtaram e bâzâryâbi va foroš- janâb âqâye---

(Respectable manager of marketing and selling)

• riâsat e mohtaram e šerkat e irân dizel—janâb âqâye mohandes ---

(Respectable director of Iran Dizel's company)

The OPENING SALUTAION move is realized by:

• bâ salâm ve ehterâm

(with hellos and greetings)

• ba salâm ve ehterâm va tašakor

(with hello and greetings and thanks)

• salâm alaykom

(hello)

• bâ salâm

(hello)

• ehterâman

(respectably)

• bâ ârezoye tofiq va salâmati

(wishing your health and success)


Analyzing our Persian corpus, we can realize this move in 25 of 30 letters by:

Step 1: referring/thanking to previous contact/communication

• peirov e nâmeh šomâreh

(Following the letter number)

• bâ tašakor az hamkâry hâye

(thanks for cooperations)

• ba tašakor az hamkâry hâye samimâneh ân šerkat, atf be nâmeh

(thanks for enthusiastic co-operations of that company, with reference to the letter)

• peirov e mozâkerât e hozory

(following in person talks )

• atf be qarâdâd e šomâreh

(With reference to contract number)


It is better to mention that in 9 letters referring to the previous contact and thanking to the

previous communication appear simultaneously after OPENING SALUTATION and in 7

letters referring to the pervious contact and thanking to the previous communication come

independently, the former after OPENING SALUTATION and the latter before the CLOSING

SALUTATION.

Move 3: ADDRESING THE ISSU

Analyzing our corpus, we may realize that this move consists of:

Step 1: Giving information

And / or

Step 2: Request / specifying product

In the corpus, 27 letters have the Giving information step realized by:

• be estehzâr mirasând (you are informed)

• bedin vasileh be šarh e zir (herewith as follows )

• bedin vasileh in šerkat e? lam midârad (herewith this company informs that)

• bedin vasileh be ettelâ mirasânad (herewith it is informed that)

• bedin vasileh elâm midârad (herewith it is informed that)

In addition to above mentioned step, this move is composed of request / specifying

product which appears in 19 letters. For example:

• xahešmand ast movâfeqat va dastoor farmâeed

(it is begged of you to order and agree)

• xâhešmand ast dastoor farmâeed

(it is begged of you to order)

• xâhešmand ast dastoor farmâeed eqdâm moqtazi be amal amadeh

(it is begged of you to order the necessary actions)

• xâhešmand ast barrasi va dar soorat a

(it is begged of you to consider and order)

• lezâ xâhešmand ast dastoor farmâeed

(therefore, it is begged of you to order)

• dar soorat e emkân nomoneh hâei az aqlâm

(if it is possible, a sample of goods)

• in šerkat mablaqe…barâye har qet?eh taxfif elâm midârad

(this company suggests the reduction price… for each piece)

• in šerkat âmâdeqi e xod râ barâye …. elâm midârad

(this company is ready for )


which appear in a regular order coming one after another. In Persian what happens seems to

be a little different: half less than English corpus, only in 30 percent of the corpus is the

thanking to pervious contact / communication appearing after the OPENING SALUTATION

and 50 percent of the letters appears before the CLOSING SALUTATION.

What may be interesting is that in English corpus, thanking to pervious contact and

ENDING POLLTELY has their own communicative purpose, whereas in Persian, there was

not found any ENDING POLLTELY move. Although appearing at the end of the letter, the

communicative purpose of this move is not ENDING POLLTELY, but thanking to pervious

contacts. Independency of thanking to pervious contact and ENDING POLLTELY is not

without reason. Given the type of moves that are to be found in the English corpus (OPENING

SALUTATION, ESTABILISHING FURTHERCONTACT COMMUNICATION and ENDING

POLLTELY), we believe that they are introduced for reasons of positive politeness. The

English writer tends to seek agreement and corporation from the beginning of the letter and to

share whatever is possible with the reader. Nothing that can be useful is left out. This

tendency is supported by the preference English writers show for the use of SOLICITING

FURTHER CONTACT/ COMMUNICATION which is absent in Persian corpus.

After the core information is communicated, sometimes a request move is introduced into

the Persian corpus. This is the move in which the sender asks the receiver to make some

changes as a consequence of the information given, and is the move in which most of the

negative politeness strategies are concentrated. These negative politeness strategies are

mitigated by illusion markers as' xâhešmand ast ' (it is begged). The English writer, instead

introduces a SOLICIT FURTHER CONTACT/ COMMUNICATION move which is absent

from the Persian corpus, again, the purpose is to show the receiver that he/she is being given

attention. As we mentioned earlier, in Persian we find, few if any, ENDING POLITELY

move. While in English 11 letters have this distinguishing move. Both in English and Persian

there were CLOSING SALUTATION whose occurrence in both corpora may not be obligatory.

In conclusion, we might say that any underlying, universal macro-schematic structure of the

follow-up business letters is shared with some differences by two cultures. It usually consists

of OPENING SALUTATION/ ESTABILISHING A LINK/ ADDRESSING THE ISSUE

AND CLOSING AND CLOSING SALUTATION. However, the move structure analysis

shows that different organization strategies are employed by Iranian and English writers,

based on different textual practices observable in the two cultures. The English writers tend to

construct the text with the addressee in mind by SOLICITING FURTHER CONTACT NAD

COMMUNICATION. The information is more thorough and detailed and ancillary


components of the subject matter (thanks, reference to previous communication, details) are

mentioned. The aim of such a strategy is that of creating a relationship of achieving closeness

with the reader. Iranian writers tend to go straight to the point and rely much more on the

reader's cooperation for interpretation. Persian follow-up letters tend to be essential. Even if

27 of the letters in Persian corpus contain on initial illocutions marker that introduces the

ADDRESSING THE ISSUE move, it may be hasty and/or incorrect to conclude that this

information has been introduced into the text as a means of guiding the reader. In fact, the

illocution marker is so formulaic that we are tempted to conclude that by the use of lexical

morphemes as 'dastoor dahid, dastoor befarmâeed' (please order), it is used to create distance

between the writer and the reader rather than to help him/her decodify the text.


In analyzing ESTABILISHING A LINK, we mentioned that this move is composed of two

steps, referring to previous contact/ communication and thanking to previous

contact/communication appearing after OPENING SALUTATION and before the CLOSING

SALUTATION respectively; therefore, we may say that unlike English corpus which has on

independent ENDING POLITELY move, in Persian corpus this move is realized by thanking

to previous contact/communication appearing at the end of 12 letters. For example:

• qablan az hamkâryhaye samimâneh ân šerkat e mohtaram sepâsgozâr

minemâyad

(previously, we thank for the cooperations of that company)

• qablan az dastoore mosâedi keh sâder xâhand farmood sepâsgozâr

minemâyad

(previously, we thank for your agreed order)

• mojadadan az zahamât e janâbâli va digar hamkârân e mohtaram

nahâyat e tašakor va emtenân râ dârad

(again, we thank you and your colleagues for )

CLOSING SALUTATION

All the letters have a CLOSING SALUTATION which appears as a stand-alone move:

• ba ehterâm (respectably)

• ba tašakor (with thank)

• erâdatmand (Sincerely Yours)

4. Interpretation and Discussion of the Results of the Analysis


The differences between the two corpora of letters can be illustrated by discussing mainly (1)

the number, type and frequency of move realized; and (2) their order of presentation.

Regarding (1) above, English writers tend to write more extensively and in a more thorough

and detailed way, with the immediate consequence that information is more easily retrievable.

As for (2), there are differences in the way in which the information is organized around the

core move. In both corpora there is a core move we have called ESTABILISHING A LINK

that contains what the receiver is expected to record to guarantee that the previous business

relationship has been established and will proceed correctly in the future. However, whereas

in the Persian corpus this move is rather simple, it tends to be more highly structured in

English with details being introduced within the move itself. In English the

ESTABILISHING A LINK move is introduced in the corpus by two independent steps,

thanking to previous contact or communication (63%) and referring to previous contact or

communication (100%).In agreement with Hinds (1987), we might say that English text is

more writer responsible, i.e., the person primarily responsible for effective communication is

the writer. The preliminary results of the present study would seem to state that the Persian

texts are more reader-responsible, i.e., the person primarily responsible for the communication

is the reader. Taken together, these analyses seem to suggest that definition of 'non-linearity'

attributed to Persian business writing style compared to the English one necessitates further

research and discussion. The striking differences between English and Persian business letters

make us to conclude that English is more reader friendly than Persian letter writing. These

results are consistent with Hinds'(1987) categorization of the rhetoric of various cultures. In

fact, Hinds categorizes them according to the degree to which the reader is required to make

inferences and to deduce meaning from a text, as opposed to the effort that the writer adopts

to make the meaning of his /her text explicit(immediately obvious) to the reader .He claims

that English uses a 'writer-responsible' rhetoric. As for Persian business letter writing style,

we may say that it is a little bit dry, and it might have little friendliness with the reader. The

lack of FURTHER CONTACT AND CONTACT and ENDING POLITELY make us to

conclude that Persian business follow-up letter writers go straight to the point and

propositional content of the letter.

5. Conclusions

Follow-up letters represent one of the most standardized and formulaic genres in business

communication. It is interesting, however, to note that the rhetorical preferences that emerge


from the two corpora documents present a SUBJECT move, which is rare in their Persian

counterparts; (1) English documents present SOLICITING FURTHER CONTACT /

COMMUNICATION and ENDING POLITELY which never appear in Persian documents:

(2) as is understandable within a writer responsible culture, English business writers tend to

introduce a great deal of information before CLOSING SALUTATION move, Persian

generally put a few move before the last move, leaving the responsibility to the receiver any

other necessary information to the reader (3) a SOLICIT FURTHER CONTACTS /

COMMUNICATION move is generally introduced in the English follow-up letters as a

positive politeness strategy before the CLOSING SALUTATION move, which is completely

absent in the Persian counterpart; and (4) the ENDING POLITELY move is fundamental in

the English corpus whereas it is not so in the Persian corpus. In addition, there are more

examples of Titles + First Name + SurName in the Persian corpus; (2) the initial illocution

marker that is often present in the Persian corpus is rarely, if ever, used in the English corpus.

As far as the English corpus is concerned, many of the discursive characteristics observed

seem to tally with comparative studies that have been done on other types of English writing

such as money chasing and sales promotion letters. As for the Persian corpus, however, not

much has been done. Persian business language is little studied. Nonetheless, the analysis of

the present corpus, seem to suggest that in spite of globalization, uniformity of expression in

the business community is generally limited to the conventions imposed by the genre used

and cultural variables still affect writing at the level of utterance or strings of utterances.

These variables are evident in the rhetorical choices made both at the macro -and micro-

textual level and in the resulting discourse patterns.

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Title

A Study of Low and High Proficiency EFL Learners’ Preferences for Teacher Talk

Authors

Mojtaba Soleimani Karizmeh (M.A)

Sabzevar Teachers’ Training University, Sabzevar, Iran

Mahdi Taherkhani (M.A) Sabzevar Teachers’ Training University, Sabzevar, Iran

Biodata

Mojtaba Soleimani Karizmeh is an English teacher and teacher trainer in Iran. He holds an M.A degree in TEFL from Sabzevar Teachers’ Training University, Iran. His research interests include teacher education and development, teaching English to children, and classroom research. Mahdi Taherkhani, M.A degree in TEFL from Sabzevar Teachers’ Training University, Iran. He has been an English teacher in some language schools and universities in Iran. His areas of interests include technology and language learning, CALL, and classroom research.

Abstract

This article reports an investigation into nine aspects of (a)rate of speech,

(b)repetition, (c)wait time, (d)pause, (e)display versus referential questions, (f)use

of learners’ mother tongue,(g) use of difficult grammar, (h)use of difficult

vocabulary, and (i)immediate versus delayed error correction in teacher talk (TT)

as preferred by two groups of low proficiency (LP) and high proficiency (HP)

EFL learners. A number of 213 EFL students consisting of 128 LP and 85 HP

EFL learners participated in this study. Data were collected through a multiple

item questionnaire developed for the purpose of this study. The study found that

the LP EFL learners prefer TT with certain features, such as slow rate of speech,

use of repetition, wait time, pause, and students’ mother tongue, use of simple

vocabulary and grammar, and approximately equal use of both referential and

display questions as well as immediate and delayed error correction. In

comparison, HP EFL learners’ preferred TT is characterized by faster rate of

speech, less repetition, wait time and pause, approximately equal use of display


and referential questions, a lower proportion of use of students’ mother tongue,

more extensive use of vocabulary and grammar, and roughly equal use of both

immediate and delayed error correction.

Keywords: Delayed error correction, Display question, Grammar, Immediate

error correction, L1, Pause, Proficiency level, Rate of speech, Repetition, Teacher

talk, Vocabulary, Wait time

1. Introduction

After a few decades of research on the characteristics of language used by language teachers

to address language learners in an ESL/EFL context, it is now common to refer to “a variety

of language sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching” (Richards

& Schmidt, 2002, p.543) as teacher talk (TT). This variety of language is characterized by a

simplification of speech in a number of features, the most important of which is

simplification of grammar and vocabulary, exaggerated pronunciation, a slower rate of

speech, repetition, and more frequent and longer pauses (Chaudron, 1988).

Appropriate teacher talk is apparently a necessary condition for EFL/ESL learners’

comprehension and production in an instructed language learning context. As a result, a

considerable number of studies have focused on teacher talk from different aspects, such as

analysis of discourse (Mehan, 1979; Sinclair and Brazil,1982), comparison of teacher talk to

native speakers versus non-native speakers (Wesche and Ready, 1985; Early, 1987), and

vocabulary acquisition through teacher talk (Horst, 2010). However, one neglected area of

investigation within the body of research on teacher talk is EFL learner’s preferences of

characteristics of teacher talk. It is not clear whether the features of teacher talk proposed by

Chaudron (1988) as being a simplified variety of language is consistent with EFL students’

preferences and expectations of TT. It is also not known whether there is a change in EFL

students’ preferences and expectations of teacher talk as their level of proficiency improves.

The purpose of this study is to examine TT especially as it is preferred by Iranian EFL

learners.TT seems to be of more significant importance in an EFL context, where it is highly

unlikely that the language learners find the opportunity to communicate in the target language

outside the classroom. Specifically, the study focuses on the preferences of two groups of LP

and HP EFL learners’ preferences and expectations of teacher talk.

Generally, the body of research in the area of TT in EFL/ESL context can be classified

under three main lines of research: comparison of TT to native speaker students (NSs) versus


TT to non-native speaker students (NNSs), the relationship between TT and students’

performance, and students’ and teachers’ perceptions of TT.

1.1.Comparison of TT to NSs versus TT to NNSs

One aspect of teacher talk which has been the focus of a number of research studies is the

hypothesis that language teachers use a different variety of speech when they address NNSs.

For instance, Long (1980) compared the interactional structures of teacher talk to NSs and

NNSs. It was found that the conversation between the teacher and NNSs was characterized

by more comprehension and confirmation checks on the part of the teacher and clarification

requests on the part of the students. Furthermore, Wesche and Ready (1985) found that

psychology classes composed of NNSs, as compared with psychology classes composed of

NSs were different in terms of rate of speech, number and duration of pauses, frequency of

tenses used, and amount of non verbal information. Teacher talk in these classes, they

indicated, was characterized by slower speed, longer pauses, more use of tensed verbs and

imperatives, less use of auxiliary and infinitive verbs, and more use of self-repetitions and

gestures.

Early (1987) conducted a study to see if there are any differences in conversational

interaction and classroom structure between regular classes composed of NS teachers and

NSs versus ESL classes composed of ESL teachers and NNSs. The results of the study

indicated that the ESL teacher talk was characterized by different frequencies of questions,

statements, and imperatives compared with regular teachers’ talk. It was also indicated that

ESL teachers employ more comprehension checks, self and other-repetitions, and expansions

than do regular teachers. However, no significant difference in this study was found in

distribution of question types or use of conversational frames across the two classes.

Similarly, Lynch (1988) concluded from a study on EFL learners’ reactions to TT that there

is a difference between interaction patterns of NS teachers with NSs and the interaction

patterns between NS teachers with NNSs on the basis of input, interaction and selection of

different information. In this study the NS-NNS interaction was characterized by replacing

idioms with more transparent expressions, more comprehension checks and pauses,

expression of more details in stories, use of more explicit logical links underlying character's

behavior in the story, and less socio-cultural gaps. It was concluded that "[native] speakers

tended to modify their decision about what narrative information to employ in telling a story,

according to their perceptions of how their[non-native] listeners were likely to cope" (Lynch,

1988 p. 112). It was also found in this study that there is a potential possibility that

sometimes English teachers make not only language or discourse adjustments while


interacting with NNSs, but also intellectual adjustments, which is not always desirable for the

NNSs.

1.2.The relationship between TT and students' performance

Various aspects of teacher talk have been found to have a relationship with students’

performance. Toffelson (1988) examined the relationship between different types of teacher

questions on students’ verbal performance in EFL/ESL classrooms. Results indicated a

positive relationship between teacher's referential questions and students' creative and

interactive responses. Teacher's display questions, on the other hand, stimulated more

imitative responses and less teacher-student interaction.

A relationship has also been shown to exist between various aspects of teacher talk

and NNS students' listening comprehension. Griffiths (1990) explored the effect of different

speech rates of teacher talk on students’ listening comprehension. In this study NNS students

performed better in listening comprehension test when they listened to a teacher talk with a

slower rate of speech. Asueyoshi and Hardison (2005) also found a positive relationship of

teacher's use of gestures and facial clues with students’ listening comprehension. On the other

hand, results of a study by Derwing (1996) showed a negative relationship of unnecessary

details and negative adjustments in teacher talk and students' listening comprehension.

The error correction in TT has also been found to correlate with students’ verbal

performance in the classroom context. Chaudron (1977) argued that teacher’s use of such

strategies as emphasis, repetition, and reduction in order to correct students’ mistakes

contributed to the students’ self-correction. MacIntyre (2007) argued that corrective feedback

could either increase or decrease the students’ willingness to communicate in the target

language, depending on how appropriately the corrective feedback is practiced by the teacher.

Allwright and Baily (1991) believe that corrective feedback can accelerate the learners’

process of language development on the condition that this feedback is appropriately geared

to the learners’ level of proficiency.

1.3.Students' and teachers' perceptions of teacher talk

Despite the apparent significance of EFL/ESL students’ perceptions and preferences of

different aspects of TT, to our best knowledge, only two studies have been carried out to

examine learners’ attitudes toward teacher talk.

In the first study, Matsumoto (2010) examined JSL (Japanese as a second language)

students' perceptions and attitudes of TT. Four aspects of teachers' rate of speech, use of new

lexicon and syntax, use of visual information, and use of English in TT were focused in this

study. Results showed that JSL learners liked their JSL teacher talk to be relatively slower


than a native speaker’s speech in a way that sounds natural, lexically and syntactically

relatively challenging, and accompanied with visual information. The JSL learners also

preferred their JSL teacher to speak Japanese in the classroom; however, in some cases, such

as grammar explanations, and when it is difficult to understand the meaning of new words,

students liked their teacher to use the students’ mother tongue.

In the second study, Yanfen and Yuqin (2010) examined students’ and teachers'

perceptions of teacher talk as well as the practice of IRF model of interaction proposed by

Sinclair and Brazil (1982). The results showed that ESL teachers used strategies such as

questioning, invitations, and giving directions in order to initiate their talk, informing,

prompting, encouraging, criticizing, and ignoring to an incorrect answer and commenting to a

correct answer. They concluded that: In initiating an interaction, invitation is the first

preferred choice by both teachers and students, but the least employed one. Questioning was

more preferred by teachers, but the least preferred by students. Yet, it was the mostly used

one in class. Giving directions was not preferred by teachers, but more used by them in class,

and students preferred it to questions. In ways of follow up, when students provided no

answers, or an incorrect answer, teachers usually preferred ways of prompting to get students

to work out the answer by themselves, and this was what teachers really did in class.

However, students preferred to be informed by the teacher instead. When students had

provided the expected answer, they still preferred to be commented, rather than being just

simply acknowledged. No matter whether the students provided or did not provide the

expected answer, encouragement was always welcome.

1.4.Features of teacher talk

Over a few decades of research on TT, various aspects of it have been investigated. About 40

years ago Sinclair and Brazil (1982) came up with a model for classroom interaction known

as IRF. In this model I represents initiation, R represents response, and F stands for the

follow-up move. This model has been, since, a prompt to a number of similar studies on TT.

Elaborating on the IRF model of teacher talk, Cullen (2002) established a difference

between the F move in an ESL/EFL classroom and outside the classroom context. While the

F move, he believes, is always optional and unpredicted outside the classroom, it is always

normal and predicted in the classroom context. He further distinguished two roles for the

follow up move: an evaluative role and a discoursal role. He argues that the evaluative follow

up is “always accompanied with a display question . . .[and] is to provide feedback to

individual students about their performance [and] to confirm, disconfirm, and modify [the

students'] interlanguage rules” (p. 119). In the discoursal F move, on the other hand, he


mentions that “the purpose is to pickup students' contributions . . . in order to sustain and

develop a dialogue between the teacher and the class. . . discoursal follow up typically co-

occurs with questions which have a referential rather than a display function” (p. 119).

Lynch's (1988) framework of TT includes three aspects of input, interaction, and

selection of different information. In this classification of TT features, input refers to aspects

of lexis, syntax, and phonology and interaction is when the teacher structures the interaction

in order to make it more comprehensible. In doing so, the teacher might use techniques such

as, comprehension checks and pauses. The third aspect, which seems to be nonexistent in the

previous literature, is the selection of different type of information on the part of teacher in

order to communicate with non-native speakers. In Lynch’s study, which investigated the

EFL learners’ reaction to teacher talk, native speakers chose different types of information in

order to talk to a non-native speaker, such as providing more details, descriptions with more

precision, making logical links underlying the behavior of characters in a story, and filling the

socio-cultural gap by interpreting gestures in a story.

Drawing on the existing research on TT in ESL context, Chaudron (1988) came up

with a comprehensive taxonomy of teacher talk. In this classification, different features of

teacher talk are: 1) suprasegmental features, such as pauses, volume, stress, and intonation, 2)

lexicalfeatures, such as use of vocabulary, idioms, and slang, 3) syntactic features, 4)

morpheme features, and 5) discourse features.

According to Early (1987), there are two dimensions of teacher talk: 1) interaction

features, such as questions, conversational frames, confirmation and comprehension checks,

clarification requests, and repetition and expansion of interlocutor's utterance and 2) features

of linguistic input which include length of T-units in words, number of S-nodes per T-unit,

and Type-Token lexical ratio.

O’Neill (1994) divided teacher talk into categories of verbal and non-verbal. Verbal

features include explaining lexis or structure, correcting, eliciting response, modeling,

explaining or clarifying task, summarizing, repairing breakdowns in communication,

storytelling and oral presentation of written material, and questioning. Non-verbal features,

on the other hand, include teacher's maintaining eye contact with as many students as

possible, using eye contact and body language to give emphasis or invite participation,

looking at the student who is answering the question, walking away from the student who is

talking to make him/her speak more loudly, and use of facial expressions to show interest,

doubt, or approval.


Finally, Xiano (2006) classified TT as formal and informal features. Formal features

refer to "the form of teacher talk, such as the speed, pause, repetition, modifications in

teacher talk" (p.13). Informal features "which refers to the features of the language that

teachers use to organize and control classes, include …the quality and quantity of teacher

talk, the questions teachers use, interactional modifications, and teachers' feedback" (p. 13).

1.5.Research questions

Two questions underlie the present study. The first research question in this study is: What

are the preferences of EFL students for different features of teacher talk. In order to find the

answer to this question, the researchers designed and validated the students’ preferences for

teacher talk questionnaire (SPTT Questionnaire). The theoretical framework behind this

questionnaire is Chaudran’(1988) taxonomy of teacher talk. This framework, which consists

of five aspects of suprasegmental, lexical, syntax, morpheme, and discourse features, has

been the most comprehensive taxonomy of teacher talk thus far.

The second research question in this study is: are there any significant differences

between the preferences of two groups of low and high proficiency EFL learners regarding

different aspects of teacher talk?

According to Krashen’s (1985) input hypothesis, input should be slightly beyond the

current level of competence of language learner. Therefore, being a major source of input to

language learners, it can be concluded that TT should be modified appropriately according to

the language proficiency of language learners.

2. Research Method

The study was conducted in a private English language institute in Mashhad, a city in

northeast Iran. In this institute, students receive EFL education through a communicative

approach. Students receive education in all four major skills of listening, speaking, reading

and writing. They are placed into 15 levels from elementary to advance by means of a

departmentally administered placement test or by passing previous level. Students are both

male and female all above 18 years age. The teachers in this institute are all non-native

speakers of English. They are encouraged to be as much interactive as possible in the class

and use such techniques as group work and pair work as much as possible. According to the

guidelines of the institute, teachers are encouraged to use only English language in their

speech, although they occasionally have to resort to the students’ mother tongue in

elementary or pre-intermediate levels.


2.1.Participants

A total number of 213 Iranian EFL students, consisting of 123 low proficiency (LP) and 85

high proficiency (HP) EFL learners participated in this study. The LP group consisted of the

learners either in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level of the EFL program. The HP group, on the other

hand, consisted of the learners in the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15thlevel of the EFL

program. The participants were both male and female, adult English learners.

2.2.Materials:

To our best knowledge, a valid and standard questionnaire to measure the preferences of

language learners for different aspects of TT has not been constructed so far, so for the

purpose of this study, we designed the SPTT Questionnaire. Since there were two groups of

low and high proficiency learners in the study, we had to translate the English version of the

SPTT Questionnaire into Persian language in order to use it for the low proficiency group.

All the steps in questionnaire design and validation were taken for both the English and

Persian versions of SPTT Questionnaires. Based on guidelines in Dornyei and

Taguchi(2010), the following steps were taken to design and validate the questionnaire.

Step 1: Choosing the format and designing items

The questionnaire was of five scale Likert type. Ten features of teacher talk, which were

considered most important, were chosen as the theoretical framework of the questionnaire.

Table1is a summary of these features:

Table 1 Features of Teacher Talk Feature Brief explanation

1) rate of speech The speed with which the teacher talks in class 2) repetition Repetitions that the teacher makes in his/her speech 3)wait time Teacher’s waiting time for a student to think before the

students are expected to talk 4) pronunciation The degree of similarity of teacher’s pronunciation to native-

like pronunciation 5) pause Teacher’s pauses in his/her speech 6) teacher’s display vs. referential questions

Whether teacher asks questions that he/she knows their answers or questions that he/she doesn’t know their answers

7) mother tongue Teacher’s use of students’ mother tongue in order to explain difficult words or complex grammar

8) Grammar difficulty Teacher’s use of complex grammar in his/her speech 9) Vocabulary difficulty Teacher’s use of difficult words and expressions in his/her

speech 10) Immediate vs. delayed error correction

Whether teacher corrects students’ errors immediately or later

Once the relevant points to be included in the questionnaire were chosen, the

designing process of a multi-item scale questionnaire began. This technique, which is the use


of multi-items in order to measure the same variable, is, according to Dornyei and Taguchi

(2010), the key to scientific questionnaire design. After preparing the first draft for each

questionnaire with 42 items, the second step was piloting the questionnaire.

Step 2: Piloting

In order to collect feedback on both the English and Persian questionnaires, they were piloted

at various stages to sample students and deficient items were either removed or modified. In

the final piloting, The 40 item Persian version of the questionnaire was administered to a

number of 50 LP EFL students and the 40 item English version to a number of 42 HP EFL

students and internal consistency reliability of multi-item scales were computed.

Step 3: Estimating the reliability of the questionnaire

After estimating the internal consistency reliability of scales, only those items with the

highest correlation coefficient were retained (see appendix 1). In this stage, for example, all

of the items related to Teacher’s pronunciation scale were remove because they proved to

have a Cronbach Alpha Coefficient of -0.27 in the Persian questionnaire. Having removed or

modified items with low reliability index, two questionnaires were obtained, the Persian

version consisting of 33items and the English version consisting of 31 items (see appendix 3).

2.3. Procedures

The researchers attended a total number of 14 low proficiency and 15 high proficiency EFL

classes individuallyso as to collect data. In every class, first, all the directions were given in

Persian. It was stressed that the results will not be reported to the teachers. It was also

explained that the questionnaire concerned the students’ general preferences for different

aspect of TT, and it must not be associated with the speech patterns of a particular teacher

that the participants had during a special course. The researchers were present throughout the

data collection in all classes and participants were encouraged to ask for any ambiguities that

they might have while filling in the questionnaire. It took about fifteen minutes on average

for each class to fill in the questionnaires.

2.4. Data analysis

The results elicited by SPTT Questionnaire from 213 participants in both the LP and HP

groups were subjected to SPSS for data analysis. In order to identify the preferences of EFL

learners for nine aspects of rate of speech, repetition, wait time, pause, display versus

referential questions, use of the students’ mother tongue, grammar difficulty, vocabulary

difficulty, and immediate versus delayed error correction in teacher talk, descriptive statistics

were used.


Furthermore, a series of independent-sample t-tests were run to see if there are any

significant differences between the preferences of two groups of LP and HPEFL learners for

the nine features of teacher talk mentioned above.

3. Results

Before presenting the results, two points concerning the numbers in this section need to be

mentioned. First, since the SPTT Questionnaire designed in this study was a five point Likert

type, the minimum value in all nine features of TT which will be discussed in this section is

one and the maximum value is five. Next, it should be reminded that, regarding each feature

of teacher talk, the value one indicates strongly disagreement, value two indicates

disagreement, value three indicates neither agreement nor disagreement, value four indicates

agreement, and value five is an indication of strong agreement on the part of the EFL

students for the features of TT. The results are presented around two research questions.

3.1.Research question one

What are the preferences of two groups of LP and HP EFL learners for different features of

teacher talk?

Teacher’s rate of speech, use of difficult grammar and use of difficult vocabulary and

expressions:

The results, as shown in table 2, indicated that the participants in the LP group preferred a

rather slow rate of speech (M = 2.53; SD = .81), use of a rather simple grammar (M = 2.23;

SD = .68),and limited use of difficult vocabulary and expressions (M = 2.65; SD = .81) in

teacher talk. On the other hand, the students in the HP group preferred a rather faster rate of

speech (M = 3.41; SD = .79) and more use of difficult vocabulary (M = 3.23; SD = .81) in

teacher talk. The HP group’s preference for use of difficult grammar in teacher talk (M =

2.92; SD = .80), although higher than the mean of LP group, indicates that the HP group

students still preferred use of less difficult grammar in TT.

Teacher’s repetition, wait time, pause and use of students’ mother tongue:

Both groups of LP and HP opted for some degree of repetition and wait time in teacher talk.

Although the LP group preferred more repetition (M = 4.04; SD = .62) and higher amount of

wait time in teacher talk (M = 4.16; SD = .64), the HP group participants also preferred some

degree of repetition (M = 3.40; SD = .70) and wait time (M = 3.70; SD = .74) in teacher talk.

As for two features of pause and use of students’ mother tongue, while the LP group students

preferred a moderate degree of pause (M = 3.54; SD = .80) and use of students’ mother


tongue (M = 3.66; SD = .89) in teacher talk, the HP group participants were shown to opt for

a lower proportion of use of students’ mother tongue (M = 2.84; SD = .87) and did not prefer

either the presence or absence of pauses (M= 3.05; SD = .82) in teacher talk.

Display versus referential questions and immediate versus delayed error correction in

teacher talk:

Surprisingly, although it was expected that the LP group preferred more display, rather than

referential questions, the result showed the opposite. According to the results, the LP group

preferred less display questions in teacher talk (M = 2.17; SD = .82)than did the HP group (M

= 3.17; SD = .81). The descriptive results for the last factor, immediate versus delayed error

correction, revealed that both the LP and HP groups preferred the two modes of error

correction almost equally (Mean LP = 3.20; SD = .78), (Mean HP = 3.03; SD = .91).

Table2 Descriptive Statistics of Features of TT Factor Group N Mean Std. Deviation

Std. Error Mean

Rate of speech Low proficiency 128 2.5391 .81172 .07175High proficiency 85 3.4196 .79541 .08627

Repetition Low proficiency 128 4.0430 .62597 .05533

High proficiency 85 3.4000 .70942 .07695

Wait time Low proficiency 128 4.1693 .64261 .05680High proficiency 85 3.7098 .74852 .08119

Pause Low proficiency 128 3.5417 .80680 .07131


Display versus Referential Questions

Low proficiency 128 2.1797 .82280 .07273High proficiency 85 3.1725 .81749 .08867

Mother Tongue Low proficiency 128 3.6699 .89230 .07887


Grammar Low proficiency 128 2.2305 .68635 .06067High proficiency 85 2.9206 .80476 .08729

Vocabulary Low proficiency 128 2.6582 .81923 .07241


Immediate versus. Delayed Error Correction

Low proficiency 128 3.2051 .78710 .06957High proficiency 85 3.0324 .91677 .09944

3.2.Research question two

The second research question in the present study is: Are there any significant differences for

the preferences of two groups of LP and HP EFL learners for features of teacher talk?


The results of the independent-sample t-test, as summarized in table 3, showed a

significant difference between LP and HP EFL students’ preferences for teacher’s rate of

speech (t(211) = -7.815, p < .05), teacher’s repetition (t(211) = 6.958, p < .05), teacher’s wait

time (t(211)= 4.782, p < .05), teacher’s pause (t(211) = 4.314, p < .05) teacher’s use of

display versus referential questions (t(211) = -8.646, p < .05), teacher’s use of students’

mother tongue (t(211) =6.654, p < .05), teacher’s use of difficult grammar (t(211) = -6.704, p

< .05) and teacher’s use of difficult vocabulary (t(2111) = -5.069, p < .05). However, no

significant difference was found between LP and HP EFL students’ preferences for teacher’s

immediate versus delayed error correction (t(211) = 1.468, p > .05).

Table 3 The results of T-test for SPTT Questionnaire

4. Discussion

The purpose of this study was to find out what the preferences of two groups of HP and LP

EFL learners are for the features of TT. The results showed that, the LP EFL learners prefer

TT with certain features, such as slow rate of speech, use of repetition, wait time, pause,

students’ mother tongue in order to explain grammar rule and difficult vocabulary, use of

simple vocabulary and grammar, and approximately equal use of both referential and display

questions as well as immediate and delayed error correction. In comparison with LP EFL

learners’ preferences, HP EFL learners’ preference for TT is characterized by faster rate of

speech, less repetition, wait time and pauses, approximately equal use of both display and

referential questions, a lower proportion of use of students’ mother tongue, more extensive

range of vocabulary and grammar, and roughly equal use of both immediate and delayed

error correction.

Although the study found that TT is preferred to be simplified in LP levels and more

challenging in HP levels, it should be mentioned that this is not to say that TT in HP levels is

TT feature T df Sig.(2-tailed)

Mean Difference

Std. Error Difference

Rate of speech -7.815 211 .000 -.88055 .11267 Repetition 6.958 211 .000 .64297 .09241 Wait time 4.782 211 .000 .45947 .09609 Pause 4.314 211 .000 .49069 .11375 Display versus. Referential

Questions -8.646 211 .000 -.99286 .11483

Mother Tongue 6.654 211 .000 .82580 .12410 Grammar -6.704 211 .000 -.69012 .10295 Vocabulary -5.069 211 .000 -.58101 .11462 Immediate versus. Delayed

Error Correction 1.468 211 .144 .17273 .11769


preferred to be similar to the kind of natural speech one might hear from native speakers

outside the classroom or TT other than the kind used in ESL/EFL classes. There are certain

features of TT as preferred by HP language learners such as rather slow rate of speech,

repetition, use of rather simple grammar or vocabulary, wait time, and teacher’s question

types which makes it different from TT outside ESL/EFL classes.

Two features of display versus referential questions and immediate versus delayed

error correction showed some interesting results. The findings from EFL students’

preferences for display versus referential questions in teacher talk seemed to be both

interesting and surprising. While it was expected that EFL students in the LP level will prefer

more display questions and those in the HP will prefer more referential questions, the

findings turned out to support the opposite pattern. According to the results, the LP EFL

students preferred more referential questions in teacher talk while the HP EFL students

preferred more use of display questions in teacher talk. Although the difference in preference

for either display or referential question was not very significant (see table 2 for means), but

it is still worth attention.

One interpretation for this anomaly could be the counter effect of teacher’s

questioning pattern in that particular level. It might be that EFL teachers in LP levels often

use an abundant degree of display questions and by the same token, EFL teachers in HP

levels often use too much of referential questions and the results would be that LP students

expect their teacher to give them more chance to engage in meaning focused interaction

through referential questions while the HP students expect their teacher to give them more

chance to practice form focused communication through display questions. However, more

generalizations concerning questioning pattern in LP and HP levels can only be made after

more research, especially classroom observation studies.

As for immediate versus delayed error correction, it was found that these two patterns

of error correction were equally preferred in both LP and HP levels. Accordingly, it can be

claimed that there is no preference for either immediate or delayed error correction in either

LP or HP groups. We are extremely cautious to make further conclusions in this regard. Error

correction, as Brown (2001) maintains, is an intricate process. He proposes a model for

treatment of classroom errors which introduces a multiple factor framework to be taken into

consideration when error correction decisions are to be made. Brown’s model of error

correction consists of ten aspects of error’s type, source of error, error’s linguistic

complexity, whether the error is local or global, whether the error results from incomplete

knowledge(error) or lack of attention (mistake) , learner’s affective state, learner’s linguistic


stage, pedagogical focus, communicative context, and teacher’s style. This intricate web of

factors provides a comprehensive basis for the way teachers treat errors. Therefore, it can be

concluded that learners’ judgment on the appropriateness of immediate or delayed correction

might have been affected by some of these factors, if not all, of which linguistic level is only

one among ten. In order to make further generalizations in this regard, we suggest further

research studies to be done using classroom observation methods.

The results in this study are consistent with Chaudron (1988) who claims that teacher

talk is a variety of language characterized by a simplification of speech in terms of grammar

and vocabulary, exaggerated pronunciation, a slower rate of speech, repetition, and more

frequent and longer pauses. A theoretical connection can also be traced between the results of

this study and Krashen’s (1985) input hypothesis, which claims that the input presented to the

language learners should be slightly above the proficiency level of the learner. Teacher talk is

a major source of input, especially in an EFL context where the students don’t have access to

the spoken language outside the classroom. Accordingly, it seems logical that various aspects

of it, including the ones examined in this study, should be adjusted and modified according to

the proficiency level of the language learners.

5. Implications for EFL/ESL instruction

First of all, it should be mentioned that this study has no intention of claiming how teachers

should talk in EFL/ESL classrooms, because the research method employed in the study does

not allow us to make such generalizations. Instead, all the implications and suggestions in this

section refer to the preferences of EFL students, which still could provide insight into teacher

talk from the perspective of EFL learners.

Next, although it is true that teaching English as a second language on the one hand

and teaching English as a foreign language on the other hand share many common features, it

seems that, in regard with TT, the two contexts might be dissimilar in terms of the students’

preferences and expectations of TT. In an ESL context, since the students are exposed to the

authentic target language outside the classroom, they might expect a more authentic and

challenging variety of TT inside the classroom as well. However, in an EFL context, such as

Iran, where student aren’t exposed to authentic target language outside the classroom context,

using authentic TT might not be favored by many students simply because it is

incomprehensible to them. Since this study was done in an EFL context, applying the results

of the study in regard with TT to ESL context should be dealt with cautiously.


The findings of this study do suggest that EFL students prefer a variety of TT

simplified in terms of rate of speech, use of repetition and pause, use of students’ mother

tongue, and use of grammar and vocabulary appropriate to their language proficiency. It can

also be suggested that EFL learners expect to be given the chance to engage in meaning

focused interaction through teacher’s referential questions as well as form focused interaction

through display questions in TT. Similarly, both immediate and delayed techniques of error

corrections are preferred by EFL learners.

EFL/ESL teachers should be aware of the students’ expectations and preferences for TT.

It seems that TT as a source of input can only be effective in language acquisition when it is

comprehensible for the language learner. We suggest that language teachers pay more

attention to the features of TT investigated in this study in order to make their speech more

comprehensible and interactive for the students. To this end, the SPTT questionnaire

designed and validated in this study can be used as a tool for getting feedback on EFL/ESL

students’ preferences and expectations of the teacher’s speech in each level of instruction.

6. Conclusion

The study has explored one neglected area of research on teacher talk, that is, teacher talk

from the point of view of the learners. To this end, we developed and administered the SPTT

Questionnaire to a number of EFL learners in both LP and HP levels. The analysis of the

questionnaire data suggest that LP EFL learners’ preferred a simplified variety of teacher talk

which is characterized by a slow rate of speech, use of repetitions, wait time, pauses, and

students’ mother tongue, use of simple vocabulary and grammar, approximately equal use of

both referential and display questions as well as immediate and delayed error correction. In

comparison with LP EFL learners’ preferences for teacher talk, HP EFL learners’ preferred

teacher talk is characterized by faster rate of speech, less repetition and wait time, and pause,

approximately equal use of display and referential questions, a lower proportion of use of

students’ mother tongue, more extensive range of vocabulary and grammar, and roughly

equal use of both immediate and delayed error correction.

This study has investigated the preferences of LP and HP EFL learners in one

language school with a limited number of participants. In this respect, this is one limitation of

the study and more research with wider contexts and more participants are needed in order to

make generalizations about teacher talk. However, the study contributes to the growing

insight into the nature of teacher talk and how it best works in relation to language learning.


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Appendices:

Appendix 1 Reliability coefficient of teacher talk features

Factor

Persian cronbach’ Alpha

N English Cronbach’s Alpha

N

Rate of speech .72 4 .61 3

Repetition .68 4 .71 4

Wait Time .66 3 .68 3

Pause .66 3 .63 3

Questions .70 3 .63 3

Mother Tongue .78 4 .63 4

Syntax .67 4 .73 4

Vocabulary .72 4 .62 3

Error correction .55 4 .73 4

Total 33 31

Appendix 2 The factors of SPTT Questionnaire (English version)

Factor 1: Rate of speech 1. I would like my teacher to talk as fast as native speakers. 2. I prefer my teacher to talk slowly in the class. 3. Teacher's fast speech makes it incomprehensible for me.Facto 2: Repetition 1. I like my teacher to repeat what he/she says in the class. 2. I think it's not a good idea that my teacher repeats what he/she says. 3. I prefer my teacher to say a sentence once, rather than repeating his/her speech. 4. Teacher repeating himself/herself helps me have a better comprehension of teacher talk. Factor 3: Wait time 1. I would like my teacher to give me more time to think about my answer when he expects me to speak. 2. Having more time to think before talking improves my speaking. 3. Teacher’s waiting for me to think before talking is very useful.


Appendix 3 The factors of SPTT Questionnaire (Persian version)

Factor 4: Pause 1. I prefer my teacher to talk with pauses in his/her speech. 2. Teacher's pause in his/her speech makes the speech unnatural. 3. Teacher's pauses make the speech more comprehensible. Factor 5: Referential versus Display questions 1. In speaking, I would like my teacher to ask questions that have obvious answers, rather than general questions. 2. For speaking, I like questions without obvious answers. 3. In speaking, I prefer questions that have obvious answers, rather than general questions. Factor 6: Mother tongue 1. I would like my teacher to occasionally use Persian language especially to explain grammar rules or difficult vocabulary. 2. Teacher’s use of Persian language to explain difficult grammar and vocabulary is very helpful. 3. Teacher’s use of Persian language to explain difficult grammar or vocabulary has a negative effect in my learning. 4. Teacher’s use of Persian language should be avoided in the English class. Factor 7: Syntax 1. It’s important that my teacher uses simple grammar in his/her speech. 2. I would like my teacher to use difficult grammar in his/her speech. 3. Teacher's use of simple grammar makes it more comprehensible for me. 4. Teacher's use of simple grammar makes it unnatural for me. Factor 8: Vocabulary 1. I would like my teacher to use difficult vocabulary and expression in his/ her speech. 2. Teacher's use of simple vocabulary makes the speech unnatural for me. 3. Teacher’s use of difficult vocabulary and expression in his/her speech is useful in student’s learning. Factor 9: Error correction 1. I would like my teacher to correct my mistakes immediately. 2. I would like my teacher to postpone correcting my mistakes until I finish my speech. 3. Teacher's error correction makes me forget what I was saying. 4. Teacher's immediate error correction helps me not to make those mistakes again.

Factor 1: Rate of speech .صحبتكندو روانمانندانگليسيزبانھاتند معلم دوستدارم .١ .كلمھبھكلمه و واضحصحبتكند معلم دوستدارم.٢ .معلمباسرعتكمدركالسصحبتكند ميدھم ترجيح.٣ .تند و روانصحبتكردنمعلمفھمسخنانشرابرايمدشوارميسازد .٤

Facto 2: Repetition .معلمآنچھراكھميگويدتكراركند دوستدارم.١ .بھنظرمجالبنيستكھمعلمگفته ھايش راتكراركند. ٢ .كھمعلمبھجايتكراركردنجمالتياكلمات،ھركدامرايكباربگويد ميدھم ترجيح. ٣ .تكراركردنمعلمباعثميشودكھازگفتھھايشدركبھتريبدستآورم.٤

Factor 3: Wait time .ل می پرسدزمانبيشتريرابدھدتااولدرموردآنچھميخواھمبگويمفكركنمزمانيكھازمنسوا معلم دوستدارم.١ .داشتن زمان بيشتر برای فکر کردن قبل از صحبت کردن باعث بھتر صحبت کردنم می شود.٢ .زمانيكه معلمازمنميخواھدصحبتكنم مفيد است اگرزمانبيشتريرا برای فکر کردن به منبدھد.٣

Factor 4: Pause .با مکث صحبت کند دوست دارم معلمم.١ .مكثكردنمعلمدرصحبتھايشباعثغيرعاديشدنصحبتويميشود. ٢ .مكثكردنمعلمدرصحبتشباعثميشوددركبھتريازگفتھھايويبدستآورم. ٣

Factor 5: Referential versus Display questions بپرسدكھيكجوابداشتھباشندسؤاالتيتلفيبرايآندارند،كھدانشآموزانجوابھايمخ سؤاالتي بپرسدميدھممعلم به جای اينکه ،ترجيحدر صحبت کردن. ١ .نظرمخوباستكه برای صحبت کردن،معلمسؤاالتيبپرسدكھزبانآموزانجوابھايمتفاوتيبرايآندارند به. ٢ .جايسؤاالتكلي،سؤاالتيبپرسدكھيک جواب مشخصدارندبه ،دوستدارممعلمدر صحبت کردن. ٣

Factor 6: Mother tongue .ھااززبانفارسيبرايتوضيحدادنگرامرولغاتسختاستفادھكندمعلم گا دوستدارم.١ .اززبانفارسيبرايتوضيحگرامرولغاتدشوارمفيداست معلم استفاده. ٢ .استفاده معلم از زبان فارسی برای توضيح لغات يا گرامر دشوار در يادگيری ام خلل ايجاد می کند. ٣ .تاجتناب معلم از استفاده زبان فارسی در کالس ضروری اس.٤

Factor 7: Syntax


Appendix 4SPTTQuestionnaire(English version)

Gender: Man Woman Date: Level: Number:

Following are a number of statements with which some people agree and some people disagree. We would like you to indicate your opinion after each statement by putting a in the box that best indicates the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement. Thank you for your help.

5 4 3 2 1

I would like my teacher to talk as fast as native speakers.

1.

I like my teacher to repeat what he/she says in the class.

2

I would like my teacher to give me more time to think about my answer when he expects me to speak.

3

I prefer my teacher to talk with pauses in his/her speech.

4

I think it's not a good idea that my teacher repeats what he/she says.

5

Teacher's pause in his/her speech makes the speech unnatural.

6

I prefer my teacher to talk slowly in the class.

7

I prefer my teacher to say a sentence once, rather than repeating his/her speech.

8

Having more time to think before talking improves my speaking.

9

Teacher's fast speech makes it incomprehensible for me.

10

Teacher repeating himself/herself helps me have a better comprehension of teacher talk.

11

Teacher’s waiting for me to think before talking is very useful.

12

Teacher's pauses make the speech more comprehensible.

13

In speaking, I would like my teacher to ask questions that have obvious answers, rather than general questions.

14

I would like my teacher to occasionally use Persian language especially to explain grammar rules or difficult vocabulary.

15

It’s important that my teacher uses simple grammar in his/her speech. 16 I would like my teacher to correct my mistakes immediately.

17

For speaking, I like questions without obvious answers.

18

.زگرامريسادھدرصحبتشاستفادھكند معلما استكه مھم. ١ .ازگرامر دشوارزبانانگليسيدرصحبتشاستفادھكند معلمم دوستدارم. ٢ .ازگرامرسادھصحبتشرابرايمقابلفھمترميسازد معلم ي استفاده . ٣ .ازگرامرسادھباعثغيرعاديشدنصحبتويميشود معلم استفاده.٤

Factor 8: Vocabulary .عدم استفاده ی معلم از لغات و اصطالحات دشوار باعث می شود درک بھتری از سخنانش بدست اورم. ١ .درصحبتش ازلغات و اصطالحاتدشواراستفادھكند معلم دوستدارم. ٢ .عاديبھنظربرسدغير باعثميشودصحبتویسادهازلغات معلم ي استفاده. ٣ .. مفيداستيادگيری در شوار در صحبت کردن ويدرازلغات و اصطالحاتد معلم ي استفاده. ٤

Factor 9: Error correction .نمايدتصحيح معلماشتباھاتمرابالفاصله كه دوستدارم. ١ .اشتباھاتمراپسازآنكھصحبتمبھپايانرسيدتصحيحكند معلم دوستدارم. ٢ .چھميخواستمبگويمميكندتااشتباھاتمراتصحيحكندباعثميشودفراموشكنم مراقطع صحبت معلم وقتي. ٣ .لحظھاشتباھاتمراتصحيحكندباعثميشودديگرايناشتباھراتكرارنكنم درھمان معلم اينكه. ٤


Teacher’s use of Persian language to explain difficult grammar and vocabulary is very helpful.

19

I would like my teacher to use difficult grammar in his/her speech.

20

I would like my teacher to use difficult vocabulary and expression in his/ her speech.

21

I would like my teacher to postpone correcting my mistakes until I finish my speech.

22

Teacher’s use of Persian language to explain difficult grammar or vocabulary has a negative effect in my learning.

23

Teacher's use of simple grammar makes it more comprehensible for me. 24 Teacher's use of simple vocabulary makes the speech unnatural for me. 25 Teacher's error correction makes me forget what I was saying.

26

In speaking, I prefer questions that have obvious answers, rather than general questions.

27

Teacher’s use of Persian language should be avoided in the English class. 28 Teacher's use of simple grammar makes it unnatural for me.

29

Teacher’s use of difficult vocabulary and expression in his/her speech is useful in student’s learning.

30

Teacher's immediate error correction helps me not to make those mistakes again.

31

1-strongly disagree 2- disagree 3- neither 4- agree 5- strongly agree

Appendix 5SPTT Questionnaire (Persian version) :شماره :تاريخ :سطح مرد زن : جنسيت

از شما درخواست می شود تا ميزان موافقت . لف ھر يک از انان باشنددر قسمت پائين تعدادی جمله وجود دارد که افراد ممکن است موافق يا مخا

با تشکر از شرکت شما در اين نظر سنجی. يا مخالفت خود را با ھر گزينه با گذاشتن عالمت در ستون مورد نظر نشان دھيد ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥

١ .صحبتکندو روانمانندانگليسيزبانھاتند معلم دوستدارم

٢ .معلمآنچھراكھميگويدتكراركند دوستدارم

٣ .معلمزمانيكھازمنسوال می پرسدزمانبيشتريرابدھدتااولدرموردآنچھميخواھمبگويمفكركنم دوستدارم

٤ .دوست دارم معلمم با مکث صحبت کند ٥ .معلمكلمھبھكلمه و واضحصحبتكند دوستدارم

٦ .جالبنيستكھمعلمگفته ھايش راتكراركند ظرمن به

٧ .مكثكردنمعلمدرصحبتھايشباعثغيرعاديشدنصحبتويميشود

٨ .ميدھممعلمباسرعتكمدركالسصحبتكند ترجيح ٩ .ميدھمكھمعلمبھجايتكراركردنجمالتياكلمات،ھركدامرايكباربگويد ترجيح

١٠ .تر برای فکر کردن قبل از صحبت کردن باعث بھتر صحبت کردنم می شودداشتن زمان بيش ١١ .تند و روانصحبتكردنمعلمفھمسخنانشرابرايمدشوارميسازد

١٢ .تكراركردنمعلمباعثميشودكھازگفتھھايشدركبھتريبدستآورم

١٣ .يشتريرا برای فکر کردن به منبدھدزمانيكه معلمازمنميخواھدصحبتكنم مفيد است اگرزمانب .مكثكردنمعلمدرصحبتشباعثميشوددركبھتريازگفتھھايويبدستآورم ١٤

كه سؤاالتي بپرسد، ترجيحميدھممعلم به جای اينکه در صحبت کردن .بپرسدكھيكجوابداشتھباشندسؤاالتيدانشآموزانجوابھايمختلفيبرايآندارند ،

١٥

١٦ .معلم گاھااززبانفارسيبرايتوضيحدادنگرامرولغاتسختاستفادھكند دوستدارم

١٧ .استكھمعلمازگرامريسادھدرصحبتشاستفادھكند مھم

عدم استفاده ی معلم از لغات و اصطالحات دشوار باعث می شود درک بھتری از سخنانش بدست .اورم

١٨

١٩ .نمايدتصحيح لماشتباھاتمرابالفاصلهكھمع دوستدارم

٢٠ .معلماززبانفارسيبرايتوضيحگرامرولغاتدشوارمفيداست استفاده

٢١ .دوستدارممعلممازگرامر دشوارزبانانگليسيدرصحبتشاستفادھكند


٢٢ .معلمدرصحبتش ازلغات و اصطالحاتدشواراستفادھكند دوستدارم

٢٣ .اشتباھاتمراپسازآنكھصحبتمبھپايانرسيدتصحيحكند معلم دوستدارم

٢٤ .برای صحبت کردن،معلمسؤاالتيبپرسدكھزبانآموزانجوابھايمتفاوتيبرايآندارند كه خوباست نظرم به

د می استفاده معلم از زبان فارسی برای توضيح لغات يا گرامر دشوار در يادگيری ام خلل ايجا

. کند

٢٥

٢٦ .ازگرامرسادھصحبتشرابرايمقابلفھمترميسازد معلم ي استفاده

٢٧ .عاديبھنظربرسدغير باعثميشودصحبتویسادهازلغات معلم ي استفاده

٢٨ .راقطعميكندتااشتباھاتمراتصحيحكندباعثميشودفراموشكنمچھميخواستمبگويم صحبتم معلم وقتي

٢٩ .جايسؤاالتكلي،سؤاالتيبپرسدكھيک جواب مشخصدارندبه ، دوستدارممعلمدر صحبت کردن

.اجتناب معلم از استفاده زبان فارسی در کالس ضروری است ٣٠

٣١ .باعثغيرعاديشدنصحبتويميشود ازگرامرساده معلم استفاده

٣٢ مفيداستيادگيری دراصطالحاتدشوار در صحبت کردن وی زلغات و ا معلم ي استفاده

٣٣ .اشتباھاتمراتصحيحكندباعثميشودديگرايناشتباھراتكرارنكنم لحظه درھمان معلم اينكه

کامال موافقم -٥موافقم -٤نظری ندارم - ٣مخالفم - ٢کامال مخالفم - ١


Title

Process-Product Approach to Writing: the Effect of Sampling on EFL Learners' Writing Performance, Measures of

Complexity and Fluency

Author

Parastou Gholami Pasand (M.A student) Guilan University, Guilan, Iran

Biodata

Parastou Gholami Pasand, M.A. student of TEFL at Guilan University, Guilan, Iran. Her

research interests include English language skills and components and Socio-cultural Theory.

Abstract

Writing is one the most important skills in learning a foreign language. The nature

of second language writing has become clearer nowadays. Needless to say, there

are different approaches to writing such as product approach, process approach

and more recently process-product approach. The aim of this study is to answer

the question that whether the use of a model text in process-product approach to

writing and asking the learners to continue the text rather than copying it can have

a positive impact on EFL learners’ writing performance in terms of the

complexity and fluency of their writing . After training a number of EFL learner

on using process approach, we held a two-session writing class. In the first session

students wrote in the process approach, and in the second one they were given a

model text to continue in the process-product approach. The writing performance

of the students in these two sessions was compared, by using a paired t-test. Based

on the results, it was concluded that continuing the model text in process-product

writing can have a positive impact EFL learners’ complexity in writing, but its

influence on their writing fluency is not very significant.

Keywords: FL writing, Process-product approach, Model text, Writing

complexity, Fluency

1. Introduction


Writing is one the most important skills in learning a foreign language, the nature of which

has become clearer nowadays. It involves the development of an idea, the capture of mental

representations of knowledge, and of experience with subjects.

Writing performance of EFL learners is usually evaluated in terms of complexity, fluency

and accuracy. The present study focuses on fluency and complexity. We consider complexity

as the total number of content word divided by the total number of T-units. Fluency is also

measured in terms of the quantity of writing, by considering the total number of words

written divided by the number of minutes spent for writing.

The aim of this study is to engage EFL learners in a kind of process-product approach to

writing in which they will be presented with a sample text but instead of copying it they are

asked to continue the text based on their own ideas. The main issue in this regard is whether

writing in this way has any positive impact on the students' writing performance.

Therefore, the research question of this study is twofold:

1-Does using a model text in process-product approach and asking the students to continue it

affect the complexity of their writing?

2- Does using a model text in process-product approach and asking the students to continue it

affect their writing fluency?

There are also two hypotheses:

H1: using a sample text in the process-product approach to writing and asking the EFL

students to continue it on their own will have a positive impact on the complexity of their

writing.

H2: using a sample text in the process-product approach to writing and asking the EFL

students to continue it on their own will have a positive impact on their writing fluency.

2. Review of literature

Although research in process approaches to writing and also product approaches abound,

there is a lack in literature regarding process-product approaches to writing in Iranian EFL

context.

2.1. Product-based Approach

There are different approaches to teaching writing. One of the earliest approaches is product-

based approach in which as stated by Tangpermpoon (2008), students will start from pre-

writing to composing and to correcting. In this approach what is emphasized is raising

students’ awareness, especially in grammatical structures. According to Nunan (1999), in


this approach the focus is on the final product which should be a coherent, error-free text and

students will initiate, copy and transform models provided by textbooks or by teachers.

Modeling is at the center of this approach and it has always been regarded as a beneficial

source for providing feedback to students as well as being an effective teaching tool, if

appropriately integrated into the context of writing process (Saeidi & Sahebkheir, 2011).

Murray (1980) refers to some disadvantages of using model texts in L2 writing classes,

the main of which is that model texts prevent L2 learners’ creativity. Particularly the way that

model texts have been used in the product-based approach, in the way of reading, analyzing

and writing (Cited in Saeidi & Sahebkheir, 2011).

Escholz (1980) and Walson (1982) claim “[product-based approach] is too remote from

learners’ own writing problems, since learners are just duplicating someone else’s writing”.

Furthermore, Escholz point outs that the product-based approach encourages the learners to

use the same plan in different settings, apply the same forms, regardless of content, thereby

inhibiting writers rather than empowering or liberating them. On the other hand, when

models are appropriately integrated into the content of the writing process, they become

useful teaching tools. Models can lead students to be aware of various aspects of writing such

as style, vocabulary, organization and structure (ibid.).

2.2. Process-based Approach

In this approach the focus is on the steps involved in drafting and redrafting a piece of work

(Nunan, 1999). Its chief concern is to discover what writers do when they write, by focusing

on different stages that the writers will go through. Matsuda (2003) states, the notion of

writing as process was introduced to L2 studies by Vivian Zamel (1976), who argued that

advanced L2 writers are similar to L1 writers and can benefit from instruction emphasizing

the process of writing. Rather than the view of writing as a reproduction of previously learned

syntactic or discourse structures, the process-based approach emphasized the view of writing

as a process of developing organization as well as meaning.

In addition, as is cited in Tangpermpoon (2008), O’Brian (2004) defines the concept of this

approach as an activity in which writing is regarded as the discovery of meaning and ideas.

Schmitt (2002) notes that this approach saw the composing process as recursive,

explanatory and generative. Myles (2002) also believes that, “the process approach to

instruction with its emphasis on the writing process, meaning making, invention and multiple

drafts, is only appropriate for second language learners if, they are able to get sufficient

feedback with regard to their errors in writing”. Therefore, process-based approach to

writing, by giving an opportunity to learners to receive feedback, allows students time to


reflect and seek input as they reshape their plans, ideas and language. (ibid) Furthermore, the

process-based approach is seen more effective than the product-based approach, since it

allows the student to explore and develop personal approach to writing. (Sutikno, 2008)

But in spite of all its advantages, lack of a good model can be seen as a drawback in this

approach. According to Torghabeh, Hashemi & Ahmadi (2010), the model can partly

eliminate the burden of devising content from the learners.

2.3. Process-Product Approach to Writing

As cited in Tangpermpoon (2008), Brooks et al. (1990), believe that if we teach the writing

approaches separately this will result in unbalanced L2 writing performance. Therefore, by

integrating these approaches to writing, EFL learners can transfer the skills they have gained

from each approach from one mode to another and have a much better writing performance.

Writing teachers can start teaching EFL learners the rhetorical patterns in the product-based

approach and familiarize them with different text organizations through working on models,

and combine it with feedback parts and interaction in the process-based approach.

2.4. Model Essays

As stated by Sahebkheir (2011), the prose model approach of teaching writing maintains that

writers can develop and improve their writing performance through directed reading. What

L2 learners write depends on what they read and reading can improve their L2 writing skills.

Given the opportunities to learn rhetorical modes, L2 learners can eventually apply their

knowledge of those modes to their writing. The necessity of model essays in an academic

writing textbook was emphasized as a factor enabling L2 writers to focus on the various

aspects of target language. However, there are also several objections to using model essays

in an L2 writing context. The process to impart meaning in L2 cannot be achieved by

referring to written texts. In addition, it is argued that, model essays prevent L2 learner’s

creativity, which is an important aspect of L2 writing.

3. Research Method

3.1. Participants

The participants of this study were twelve students, half of them were males and the other

half females, at intermediate level .They study English as a foreign language in one of the

institutions in Iran .All of the participants were adult students between 13 to 15 years old.

3.2. Materials


Two kinds of tasks were used in this study which required the students to write in English .In

the first task the students were asked to write according to the process approach. The topic of

writing was selected based on the students’ interest. After generating ideas by having a

classroom discussion they started to write going through different phases of drafting,

revising, redrafting and editing. In the second task which was done based on process-product

approach, the students were asked to write about the same topic after a model text was

explained and discussed in terms of its organization, structure, etc. They were required to

continue the model text in their own way.

3.3. Procedure

After four sessions of training the participants on how to write first in a process approach and

then according to process-product approach, they were asked to participate in the first session

of our writing classrooms. In the first session, after providing some topics, the students were

asked to choose their topic of interest, and then discussed it in pair and shared their ideas with

the class. In the next phase, they started writing their first draft in pair, then the papers were

exchanged and each pair received peer feedback on their writing. The teacher researcher’s

role was scaffolding and helping students during writing and also in the feedback part. This

procedure was repeated for writing the second draft, and at last the students wrote their final

draft in pair.

In the second session, the participants were firstly asked to read a model text which was

prepared based on the topic they wrote about in the previous session. The model text was

prepared based on a short essay written about the subject of writing with some modifications

to suit it to the level of students. After reading and class discussion about the text

organization, lexical items, grammatical points and so on, the students started writing their

own paper continuing the model text. They went through the same steps of the process

approach to writing. Also in each session students were asked to write the total amount of

time they spent o writing their papers.

3.4. Analysis

To compare the students’ writing performance, we should have measured complexity, and

quantity of their writing. For measuring complexity the total number of content word in the

students’ papers written in each session was divided by the total number of T-units used by

them, in their papers, then the mean score of the students’ complexity in writing was

compared using a paired t-test. The quantity of their writing was also measured by

considering the total number of word divided by the number of minutes spent for writing.


This was also done for the two sessions, and the means were compared by using a paired t-

test.


Table 1shows the results of the paired t-test comparing the mean scores of students’

complexity in writing. As can be seen there is a significant difference between the

performances of the students when model text was present.

Note: p<.05

Table 2shows the results of the paired t-test for comparing the quantity of students’ writing

when model text was present. As the table indicates there is not a considerable difference

between the amounts of students’ writing in the absence or presence of the model text.

Note: p<.05

5. Conclusion

The main focus of our study was to find the impact of using a model text on students writing

performance in an EFL writing classrooms based on process-product approach. We have

asked the subjects of our study to participate in a two-session preparatory writing class and

they were required to write in two different sessions, one based on the process approach and

the other according to an integrated approach in which a model text was also provided. we

aimed at investigating whether the use of a model text in process-product approach and

asking the learners to continue the essay rather than copying from the text will have any

impact on the complexity of their writing and its quantity .Based on the results of the study

and in light of the first question, it can be concluded that using a model text will have a

positive impact on the learners’ writing complexity, therefore the first hypothesis is accepted.

With regard to the second research question, it is found that using model texts will not have a

Mean t Sig. d.f.

Session 1 5.33 2.32 2.01 5

Session 2 5.97 2.32 2.01 5

Mean t Sig. d.f.

Session 1 3.41 2.11 2.01 5

Session 2 2.33 2.11 2.01 5

Table 1-Paired t-test for scores of complexity in the first and second i i

Table 2-Paired t-test for scores of quantity in the first and second writing


significant positive impact on the quantity of the students’ writing, so the second hypothesis

cannot be accepted.

The most important limitation of this study is that because of the time limits and

restrictions in conducting this research in an institution, it was not possible to access more

samples of students’ writing. Therefore, further research is needed to ensure the impact of

using model text in the way that was used in this study i.e. by having the learner to continue

the model text rather than imitating it, on their L2 writing performance. Also more

longitudinal studies are needed to investigate the impact of model texts on increasing the

writing complexity and quantity of EFL learners using process-product approach.

References

Kitamura, M. (2012). Development of Japanese EFL college students’ English writing skills: An

examination of subordinators in essays.

Matsuda P. K.(2003). Second language writing in the twentieth century: A situated historical

perspective. In Kroll (ed.) Exploring the dynamics of second language writing. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Montague, N. (1995). The process oriented approach to teaching writing to second language

learners. New York State Association for Bilingual Education Journal.V 10. P 13-24.

Myles, J. (2002). Second language writing and research: the writing process and error analysis in

student texts. TESL-EJ V 6. No.2.

Nunan, D. (1999). Second Language Teaching and Learning. U.S.: Heinle & Heinle

Saeidi, M., Sahebkheir, F. (2011). The effect of model essays on accuracy and complexity of

EFL learners’ writing performance.Middle- East Journal of Scientific Research. 10(1): 130-137.

Sahebkheir, F. (2011). The effect of model essays on developing accuracy and complexity of EFL

learners’ writing in Iranian context. ICT for Language Learning.

Schmitt, N. (2002). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. (Ed.). London: Arnold & Oxford

University Press.

Sutikno, M.K. (2008). Responding to students’ writing.(Teaching writing or assessing it?)

Retrieved May 12, 2012 fromhttp://www.bpkpenabur.or.id/files/ Hal.%205159%20 Responden

%20to%20Student.pdf

Tangpermpoon, T. (2008). Integrated approaches to improve students’ writing skills for English

major students. ABAC Journal, V.28. No. 2, pp.1-9.

Torghabeh, R. A., Hashemi, M. R. & Ahmadi, H. Sh. (2010). Writing through literature: a novel

approach to EFL writing instruction. Iranian EFL Journal, V.6. Issue 4.


Title

The Role of Cultural Nativization in Comprehension of Short Stories in Intermediate EFL Learners

Authors

Farzaneh Emadian Naeini (M.A)

Yazd University

Razie Alishvandi (M.A) Yazd University

Biodata

Farzaneh Emadian Naeini, M.A TEFL student in Yazd public university, Iran. She got her B.A in TEFL from Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan. Her main areas of interest and research include language strategies, new methods of teaching English literature, ESP, and studying language deficit in aphasia. Razie Alishvandi, M.A student in TEFL, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran. Her areas of interest and research include Second and First Language Acquisition, ESP, Socio-pragmatics, and Language Testing.

Abstract

Although, teaching reading skills to non-native speakers of English is considered

as a unique challenge and problem by scholars like Celce-Murcia (2007), it has

not been adequately discussed in the context of L2 literary texts. therefore, the

main aim of this study was to investigate the role of cultural nativization in

comprehension of L2 short stories by Iranian EFL learners. This study was carried

out with two groups of 57 learners each. The first group, all of whom were at

intermediate level, read the original short story while the second group read the

nativized one. A set of multiple-choice questions on the original story was

administered to the control group and another set of multiple-choice questions

based on the nativized story was administered to the experimental group. The

result of the research revealed that cultural nativization positively influenced

comprehension of short stories. It can be inferred from this study that one of the

great problems that L2 readers have to tackle is the load of words carrying cultural

points which are unknown to L2 readers. The results of this study imply more


attention to teaching the cultural points in the text in order to enhance the

proficiency of non-native speakers of English in reading skills.

Keywords: reading comprehension, schema theory, cultural nativization

1. Introduction

Reading is an interactive process which involves the reader and the reading material in

building meaning .When readers bring relevant background knowledge to the reading

process, they will be more efficiently able to comprehend the unfamiliar and newer elements

in the text.

According to Chastain (1988), reading is known as a receptive skill in which the reader

receives the intended message by the writer. As Celce-Murcia (2007) stated, the ability to

read requires that the reader draws information from a text and combines it with information

that the reader already has. Chastain (1988) mentions that an active reader uses his own

background knowledge to recreate the writer’s intended meaning.

As Richards and Schmidt (2002) defined, comprehension is “The identification of the

intended meaning of written or spoken communication”. Chastain (1988) stated the reading

goal is to read for meaning or to recreate the writer’s message. Reading is not to improve

pronunciation, practice grammatical forms, and study vocabulary at all because reading

involves comprehension.

Reading is not to ascertain meaning by referring to the dictionary. Reading is the interaction

between the reader and the text .If the reader does not know some words or patterns

immediately, he continues reading until he understands the general meaning intended by

writer.

Since reading, according to Chastain (1988), signifies comprehension, reading process

suggests an active cognitive system operating on the written text to reach an understanding of

the message. The reader activates background and linguistic knowledge to recreate the

writer’s intended meaning.

This view is theoretically supported by schema theory. Linguists, cognitive psycholinguists,

and psycholinguists have used the concept of schema/schemata to understand the interaction

of key factors influencing the process of comprehension.

Schema theory, simply put, states that all knowledge is organized into unites. Information is

stored in these unites of knowledge or schemata. The importance of schema theory to reading

comprehension lies in how the reader uses schemata. The theory, as stated by Anderson


(1999), envisions an information-processing model of mind in which knowledge is stored in

related unites that can be recalled and activated to operate on new information. Thus, the

reader creates meaning through the interaction between his background knowledge and the

reading. The written material does not have any meaning on its own until the reader recreates

the intended message by the writer. This is done through an interaction which happens in the

reader’s mind between the text and the reader’s background knowledge.

The influence of cultural background knowledge on reading comprehension has been

investigated by most empirical research (Abu-Rabia, 1996, 2003; Carrel, 1987; Droop and

Verhoeven, 1998; Johnson, 1981; Pritchard, 1990; Steffensen and Joag-dev, 1992;

Steffensen, Joag-dev, and Anderson, 1979; and, Yeut Hung Chan, 2003).

The concept of nativization, according to Richards and Schmit(2002), is” The adaption a

language may undergo when it is used in a different cultural and social situation”.

Alptekin (2002, as cited in Razi, 2003) introduced the notion of cultural nativization in

comprehension of the target language short stories. He extensively employed modification to

the original English text through using more culturally familiar words. Cultural nativization,

as Alptkin(2006) defines, is “sociological, semantic, and pragmatic adaptation of the textual

and contextual cues of the original story into the learner’s own culture, while keeping its

linguistic and rhetorical context essentially intact”(p.500).

Alptekin (2006) contended that nativization through the semantic dimension involves the

adaptation of culture-specific notions and structures, conceptual and lexical changes. As

Alptekin (2006) argued, nativization, unlike simplification, maintains natural comprehension

components. Moreover, the processing of the original and nativized texts should be identical.

Thus, this study aimed to investigate the role of cultural background knowledge in L2

reading comprehension of two groups of participants with the same cultural background and

one text-a short story-in two different contexts. That is, the culturally unfamiliar words in the

target/original text are changed to the culturally familiar/known ones in the modified version.

2.Method

2.1.Participants

A total number of 114 intermediate learners studying at Sheikhbahaee University and Isfahan

University participated in this study. A number of 74 participants were from Sheikhbahaee

University and 40 participants were from Isfahan University. The participants from each

University were divided into two equal groups, one of which received the original short story


and the other group received the nativized version of the short story. The participants’ age

ranged from 19-21.

2.2.Instrument

The researcher developed two types of eight multiple-choice reading comprehension

questions. In one set of the tests, the comprehension questions were based on the original

story, while in the other set of the tests, the questions were based on the nativized version of

the study. The questions were the same in two types of the tests except for particular words or

phrases which were nativized. Multiple-choice questions were used because they are the most

objective form of questions.

The number of comprehension questions in the tests depended upon the length and content

of the story. Thus the tests based on the story, which was 1043 words in length, included

eight questions. (Appendix A).

The story was piloted in order to decide on the needed time to read the story and answer the

comprehension questions. The seven learners who participated in the pilot study were

excluded from the main phase of the study.

2.3.Nativization Procedure

The title of the story “The Japanese Quince’’ was changed to The Young Cypress since the

researcher wanted to keep the symbolic meaning of the tree and some of its physical

attributes; furthermore, the adjective young is used for the Cypress because the Japanese

Quince is a tree with about 1 meter height and the researcher wanted to keep this physical

feature of the tree.

The name of the main character Mr. Nilson is modified to Mr. Moddaee. Nilson might be

analyzed as’’ Nil’s son”- son of Nil or nothing. The name of Mr. Moddaee, in Persian culture,

is associated with someone who speaks a lot but does nothing. So the reader considered the

name Mr. Moddaee as closely as possible in meaning to the name Mr. Nilson.

The noun dressing room is changed to bedroom, since in most Persian houses there is no

special room attached to a bedroom for sorting clothes.

The Campden Hill was changed to Khalvat Hill, because the den in English means a place

where people meet secretly or illicitly. Thus the researcher chose the word Khalvat to refer to

Campden.

The name Square Gardens was changed to Park. Since, in Iranian culture, garden is not a

general place for public, the word Park was used instead.


The word blossom is modified to stamen because the Cypress doesn’t bear blossom and

instead it has stamen.

Sixty Fahrenheit was replaced with twenty eight Centigrade in order to refer to the

temperature.

Tintos and sweetish liquor which are the names of special types of wine, were simply

modified to the word wine. The same way, if an English person hears the word Shadly, can

not recognize that Tintos is a kind of wine.

Brown mustache was changed to dark mustache, because most middle-age Iranian men have

dark brown or black mustache.

The clause he took up an ivory backed hand glass was changed to he looked into an ivory

mirror. Hand-glass is a kind of mirror which enlarges the picture.

Gray eyes were replaced with dark eyes, since most Iranian men have dark eyes instead of

light-color eyes.

Frock coat is a kind of long coat mostly used by English men, while Iranian men mostly wear

a medium-sized coat. Therefore, the word frock coat was changed to coat.

Dining room was simply changed to kitchen, since, in Iranian houses, there is no specific

room as dining room.

Sideboard, which is a flat topped piece of furniture with cupboards and drawers, was replaced

with counter in the kitchen.

Morning paper was simply replaced with newspaper, because in Iran there is no special

morning newspaper delivered to the people at their house door by a postman.

Cuckoo clock was modified to its mostly known synonym-pendulum clock.

A blackbird, which is a songbird, was changed to a black songbird, since an Iranian reader

would mistake a blackbird for a crow.

The phrase five yards was changed to 4/5 meters because the Persian unit of distance is meter

or kilometer.

The name of Mr. Tandram refers to the person doing tannery. Therefore, the researcher

selected the name Mr. Dabbagh as it brings to the reader’s mind a person who changes some

material (skin) into some useful material (leather).

Trushes is a kind of songbird which is not black. Thus, it is modified to its synonymous word

songbirds- in order to avoid mistaking it for blackbirds.


Garden window was changed to the word gate which separates the garden/yard from outdoor

area.

French window, which is a pair of glazed doors, opening to a yard or balcony, was replaced

with balcony window in order to prevent the reader to think that French window is a type of

window made up of French material.

The above-mentioned modifications were carried out by the researcher in order to nativize

the short story The Japanese Quince.

2.4.Data collection procedure

The required data for this study was collected through the fall semester, 2011. To this aim,

two sets of the stories were administered to the two groups of the participants. That is one

group received the original story and the other group of the participants received the nativized

version of the story.

3.Results

In order to investigate the effectiveness of nativization of short stories in reading

comprehension, two sets of tests, one based on the original short story and the other based on

the nativized version, each had eight multiple-choice questions were administered to two

groups of participants. Each group had 57 participants of intermediate level.

Table 1

Group Mean N Std. Deviation

Nativized 3.27 37 1.44

Original 3.24 37 1.47

Total 3.25 74 1.45

As illustrated in Table 1, the descriptive statistics-mean and standard deviation-were

calculated for each group of participants from Sheikhbahaee University. Results show that

the mean score of the nativized group was a little higher than that of the original group.

Standard deviation also indicates a little higher diversity in the distribution of the scores of

the original group.

Table 2

Group Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error

Mean

Nativized 7.10 20 1.44 0.32

Original 6.55 20 1.23 0.27


As depicted in table 2, the descriptive statistics-mean and standard deviation were also

calculated for each group of participants from Esfahan University. Results reveal that the

mean score of the nativized group was 0.55 higher than that of the original group. Standard

deviation also depicts higher diversity in the distribution of the scores of the original group.

Table 3

Group Mean N Std.

Deviation

Std.

Error

Mean

t-

value

df Sig

(2-

tailed)

Nativized 4.61 57 2.33 0.30 2.42 38 0.02

Original 4.40 57 2.11 0.27

As illustrated in table 3, the descriptive statistics- mean and standard deviation- were as well

calculated for each group of participants from both Universities. Results show that the mean

score of the nativized group was higher than that of the original group. Also, an independent-

samples t-test was conducted to see whether the difference in the mean score of the two

groups of participants is significant or not. The results indicated a significant difference in the

mean score of the two groups. (t (38)= 2.42, P<0.05).

4. Discussion and conclusion:

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of cultural familiarity-nativization-on

reading comprehension of the readers.

The literature acknowledge that cultural familiarity and background knowledge of readers

widely influenced the reading comprehension (e.g., Anderson, 1999; Alptekin, 2006; Oller,

1995; Pulido, 2004; Steffenson et at., 1979).The results of the present study revealed that

nativization of the short story had little influence on reading comprehension of the

participants from sheikhbahaee university but greatly influenced reading comprehension of

the participants from Isfahan university. The results also indicated that nativization of the

short story had significant influence on reading comprehension of the whole participants. The

significant difference between the performance of two groups of the participants suggested

that the readers who received the nativized version of the short story performed better than

the readers who read the original version with which they were unfamiliar. In other words,

cultural background knowledge of the readers facilitated the reading comprehension process.


Therefore, modification of short story from the target language culture into Persian culture

facilitated the EFL learners’ comprehension of the short story in this study. The findings can

be supported by some reasons as follows:

First, the nativized story can help learners to activate their relevant schemata more

effectively than the original stories do. That is, the culture- specific cues reflecting the target

language culture in the original short story were adapted in the nativized version in order to

reflect the Persian culture.

If a contrast is made between the two versions of the stories in terms of the basic elements

of fiction-setting, character, plot, style and theme-it becomes obvious that the style of writing,

plot and theme are totally the same in two versions, while physical appearance of the

characters were modified in the nativized version.

This study mainly concentrates on the role of nativization of the short story on the

intermediate EFL learners’ comprehension. This study has its own limitations as well as other

studies. First, the participants of this study were intermediate learners. The second drawback

of the present study is that just one short story was employed as the required material.

References

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comprehension in second language: A comparison of three different social contexts.

International journal of Applied linguistics ,6(1),81-107.

Abu-Rabia, S. (2003). Cognitive and social factors affecting Arab students learning

English as a third language in Israel. Educational Psychology, 23(4), 347-360.

Alptekin, C.(2006). cultural familiarity in inferential and literal comprehension in l2

reading. System, 34, 494-508.

Anderson, N. J. (1999). Exploring second language reading. Boston, MA: Heinle &

Heinle.

Carrel, P.L.(1987).content and formal schemata in ESL reading. TESOL Quarterly, 21,

461-481.

Celce-Murcia, M.(2007). Teaching English as a second or Foreign Language (3rd ed.).

Us: Heinle & Heinle, PP.151-154

Chastain, K.(1988).Developing Second-Language Skills: Theory and practice. (3rd

ed.).Orlando, US: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

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Oller, J .W. (1995). Adding abstract to formal and content schemata: Results of recent

work in Peircean semiotics. Applied Linguistics, 16, 273-306.

Pritchard, R.(1990). The effects of cultural schemata on reading processing strategies.

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Pulido, D. (2004). The effect of cultural familiarity on incidental vocabulary acquisition

through reading, The Reading Matrix, 4(2), 20-53.

Razi, S. (2003). An investigation into the impact of cultural knowledge on reading

comprehension. Poster presented at the 3rd International ELT Research Conference on

Languages for Life, Canakkale, Turkey.

Richards, C.J., & Schmidt, R. (2002). Longman Dictionary of Language Taeching &

Applied Linguistics.Essex, UK, Pearson education limited. P. 99.

Steffensen, M.S., & Joag-Dev.,C.& Anderson, R (1979). A cross-cultural perspective on

reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly 15(1),10-29.

Steffensen, M.S., & Joag-Dev.,C.(1992). Cultural knowledge and reading. In J.C.

Alderson, &, A. H Urquhart.(Eds.), Reading in a foreign language(pp.48-61) London,

UK:Longman.

Yeut Hung Chan, C. (2003).cultural content and reading proficiency: A comparison of

mainland Chinese and Hong Kong learners of English. Language, culture and

curriculum, 16(1).

Appendix A

Questions based on the original short story:

1. What is the significance of morning paper in this story?

He had nothing else to do except reading newspaper.

He liked reading newspaper.

He was obsessed with the latest economic news.

He wanted to search about a new type of wine.

2. Mr. Nilson ate his breakfast at 8:30 A.M because:

a. He was in hurry.

b. He was punctual.

c. He wanted to go to work.

d. He was hungry.

3. What does the word whose refer to?


a. bushes

b. tree’s

c. trees

d. black song bird’s

4. What can be inferred from these sentences? “Morning like this!”he thought ; “and here I am the only

person in the square who has the –to come out and--!”

He was enjoying the beautiful scene.

He was the only person there.

He was the only person enjoying the beautiful scene.

He thought that he was the only person there enjoying the beautiful scene.

5. Why didn’t Mr. Nilson and Mr. Tandram speak with each other although they were neighbors for some

five years?

Because of the awkward position of Mr. Tandram .

Because of being married .

Because of being married they hadn’t had a chance to speak to each other .

Because of not having had occasion to speak to one another .

6. Did Mr. Nilson know the name of the tree?

a. He was doubtful about it.

b. He didn’t know but he pretended to forget it.

c. He didn’t know but he was shy to ask it.

d. He knew it but wanted to see if Mr. Tandram knew it too.

7. What was Mr. Nilson’s viewpoint toward the tree?

a. He thought that it was attractive but useless.

b. He thought that it could alleviate his queer sensation.

c. He thought that it was so alive and pretty.

d. He thought that the blackbird’s singing made it attractive.

8. What do you think about Mr. Tandram?

a. He was an awkward man.

b. He was a nice fellow.

c. He was foolish.

d. He didn’t have a complex character.

Appendix B:

Questions based on the nativized version of the short story:

1.What is the significance of newspaper in this story?

a. He had nothing else to do except reading newspaper.

b. He liked reading newspaper.


c. He was obsessed with the latest economic news.

d. He wanted to search about a new type of wine.

2.Mr. Moddaee ate his breakfast at 8:30 A.M because:

a. He was in hurry.

b. He was punctual.

c. He wanted to go to work.

d. He was hungry.

3.What does the word whose refer to?

a. bushes

b. tree’s

c. trees

d. black songbird’s

4. What can be inferred from these sentences? “Morning like this!”he thought ; “and here I am the only

person in the square who has the –to come out and--!”

a. He was enjoying the beautiful scene.

b. He was the only person there.

c. He was the only person enjoying the beautiful scene.

d. He thought that he was the only person there enjoying the beautiful scene.

5. Why didn’t Mr. Moddaee and Mr. Dabbagh speak with each other although they were neighbors for

some five years?

a. Because of the awkward position of Mr. Dabbagh .

b. Because of being married .

c. Because of being married they hadn’t had a chance to speak to each other.

d. Because of not having had occasion to speak to one another.

6. Did Mr. Moddaee know the name of the tree?

a. He was doubtful about it.

b. He didn’t know but he pretended to forget it.

c. He didn’t know but he was shy to ask it.

d. He knew it but wanted to see if Mr. Dabbagh knew it too.

7. What was Mr. Moddaee’s viewpoint toward the tree?

a. He thought that it was attractive but useless.

b. He thought that it could alleviate his queer sensation.

c. He thought that it was so alive and pretty.

d. He thought that the black songbird’s singing made it attractive.

8. What do you think about Mr. Dabbagh?

a. He was an awkward man.

b. He was a nice fellow.


c. He was foolish.

d. He didn’t have a complex character.

Appendix C

The nativized words and phrases:

Original version Nativized version

The Japanese Quince

Mr. Nilson

Dressing room

Campden Hill

Square garden

Blossom

Sixty Fahrenheit

Tintos and Sweetish liquor

He took up an ivory backed hand-glass

Gray eyes

Frock coat

Dining room

Sideboard

Morning paper

Cuckoo clock

A blackbird

Five yards

Mr. Tandram

Thrushes

Garden window

French window

The Young Cypress

Mr. Moddaee

Bedroom

Khalvat hill

Park

Stamen

Twenty eight centigrade

Wine

He looked into an ivory mirror

Dark eyes

Coat

Kitchen

Counter

Newspaper

Pendulum clock

A black songbird

Four and half

Mr. Dabbagh

Songbirds

Gate

Balcony window


Title

The Relationship between Verbal Creativity and Speaking Skill of IELTS Candidates

Authors

Samira Baghaei (M.A)

Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran

Mohammad S. Bagheri (Ph.D) Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran

Biodata

Samira Baghaei M.A. in TEFL. She has been Teaching English at different language institutes. Her research interests include creativity and language teaching. Mohammad S. Bagheri, Ph.D. in TEFL. He is currently the Dean of Humanities Faculty at Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran. Dr. Bagheri has published books and articles extensively and has presented a number of articles at local and international conferences. His main interests are international exams, multiple intelligences, learning strategies and assessment.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to study the relationship between verbal creativity

and speaking skill. The roles of gender and age were also considered as other

variables of the study. To fulfill the goals of the research, 48 IELTS candidates

(thirty male and eighteen female volunteers)16-41 years of age were selected as

the participants. Based on the age range, four age groups were considered for this

study. To make sure of the participants’ proficiency, just those candidates whose

overall IELTS score was more than 5.5 were chosen to participate in this study.

All the candidates took IELTS speaking test and Torrance Test of Creative

Thinking-Verbal form A (TTCT).The findings of this study indicated that there

was a positive and significant relationship between verbal creativity and speaking

skill of Iranian IELTS candidates. On the other hand, by comparing the verbal

creativity scores of different age groups, it was revealed that participants of the

fourth age group (31-41 years old) did significantly better than the others. The

findings also suggested that gender was not a determining factor in verbal

creativity.


Keywords: Verbal creativity, Speaking skill, IELTS

1. Introduction

Nowadays, experts consider creativity as a fundamental knowledge for every change

and innovation (PirKhaefi, 2001). Creativity is a capability and a talent which is

common among human beings and everyone potentially has this talent with different

rates from birth. Today, in most scientific resources, creativity is considered as a

common talent and experts believe that all human beings have the talent to be

creative. Therefore, we can take many actions to develop these talents (Asadi, 2006).

Torrance (1974) considers verbal creativity as particularly creative thinking

ability which measures fluency, flexibility, and originality in the form of verbal. The

verbal form in Torrance tests is related to forms and sentences. Mednick and Mednick

(1967) define that verbal creativity is the ability to see the connections between

different ideas with each other and the ability to combine these ideas into new

associations. Guilford (1967) considers the verbal creativity as the ability of divergent

thinking, which is thought to explore this newest frontier an assortment of alternative

answers to a question of the same magnitude.

This study is an attempt to explore the relationship between verbal creativity

and speaking skill. Speaking has a significant role in human’s life. Speaking is the

most vital tool in communication. It is the productive skill in the oral mode. It is more

complicated than it seems and involves more than just pronouncing words.

Gower, Phillips, and Walter (1995, pp. 99-100) noted down that from the

communicative point of view, speaking has many different aspects including two

major categories – accuracy, involving the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and

pronunciation practiced through controlled and guided activities, and fluency,

considered to be ‘the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously’.

Tarigan (1985, p. 21) noted that “speaking is a human’s behavior which

exploits physical, psychological, neurological, semantic, linguistic factors extensively,

so it’s considered as the most important tool in human’s social control.”

2. Statement of the Problem

Speaking skill which is a productive skill is considered as the best manifestation of

the proficiency. Speaking is assessed on the ability to communicate fluently and


accurately. Although creative speaking can be a good manifestation of creative

thinking, there is lack of literature concerning the relationship between verbal

creativity and speaking skill. As such, the present study is an attempt to explore the

relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill. It also aims to determine the

relationship between verbal creativity, sex, and age.

3. Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether there is any relationship

between verbal creativity and speaking skill. Most specifically, the researchers aim to

figure out if there is any relationship between verbal creativity, sex, and age.

Based on the purpose of the study, this study seeks answers to the following

questions.

1. Is there any significant relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill

among Iranian IELTS candidates?

2. Is there any relationship between verbal creativity and gender?

3. Is there any relationship between verbal creativity and age?

4. Literature Review

To the best of our knowledge, no study has addressed the relationship between verbal

creativity and speaking skill. This attempt is the first of this kind. But the literature on

creativity is vast.

4.1 Studies on Creativity

Ai (1999) studied the relationship between creativity and academic achievement

among a representative sample of 2264 students in Spain, employing three creativity

tests as well as teachers’ ratings. The results indicated that the creativity scores

obtained via teachers’ ratings were highly correlated with achievement scores;

however, creativity scores obtained via standardized creativity tests were rarely

related to achievement.

Naderi, Abdullah, Aizan, Sharir, and Kumar (2009) also conducted a study in

order to investigate the relationship between creativity and academic achievement

among one hundred and fifty three Iranian undergraduate students studying at

Malaysian universities. They employed the Khatena-Torrance Creative Perception

Inventory (KTCPI) for testing creativity, and used the Cumulative Grade Point

Average (CGPA) as a proxy of academic achievement. The results of their study


revealed that, together with age and gender, creativity explained 14% of the variance

in academic achievement.

4.2 Studies on verbal creativity

Landry (1974) investigated the relationship between second language learning and

verbal creativity. He used two samples. The first sample was the group of second

graders at a school and the second sample was drawn from the upper graders (fourth,

fifth and sixth grades).The results revealed that there were no differences at the

second grade level. But for the upper graders, the differences were significant and a

cross-over interaction had occurred with boys in the non-foreign language in

elementary school situation scoring the highest and the girls in the foreign language in

elementary school situation scoring second highest.

Franco Justo (2008) assessed the effect that teachers’ positive expectations

may have on their students’ verbal creativity. He worked with an experimental teacher

who held high expectations of the creativity of students, and a control teacher whose

positive, favorable expectations of pupils were not high. The results showed a

significant increase in the verbal creativity variables evaluated (fluency, flexibility,

and originality) in the experimental group in comparison to the control group.

Cheek and Stahl (1986) examined the relationship between shyness and verbal

creativity. They found that the negative relationship between shyness and creative

performance was substantial when the trait of shyness was salient, due either to the

private self-consciousness of the subject or to anticipation of evaluation.

Torrance (1962) examined changes in performance on creativity tests and

found the following generalized pattern: an increase in creative thinking abilities from

age 3 to 4, a small drop upon entrance to kindergarten, a sharp decrement at about

grade 4, and then, with variations by sex and certain sub-tests, except for a small

decrement at grade 7, a steady growth through grade 11. Raina (1970) investigated the

relationship between age and total creativity along with its components and reported

that total creativity, originality and elaboration were positively and significantly

related to age. Passi (1972) observed significant developmental trends of creativity

scores along grades ninth through eleventh.

4.3 Studies on speaking skill

O’loughlin (2002) investigated the impact of gender in oral proficiency testing. The

data consisted of the audio-taped performances of 8 female and 8 male test-takers

who undertook a practice IELTS interview on two different occasions, once with a


female interviewer and once with a male interviewer. The scores later assigned by 4

raters (2 males and 2 females) to each of the 32 interviews were also examined in

relation to the gender of both raters and test-takers using multifaceted Rasch bias

analysis. The results from both the discourse and test score analysis indicated that

gender did not have a significant impact on the IELTS interview.

Wigglesworth and Elder (2010) in a testing context, investigated the

relationship between three variables in the IELTS oral module (planning, proficiency,

and task). Their objective was to determine whether differences in performance

emanated from 1 or 2 min of planning time. Also, it aimed to realize the most

effective strategies utilized by candidates in their planning. Neither the analysis of the

scores nor the discourse analysis illustrated any significant differences in performance

according to the amount of planning time learners were equipped with.

Speaking skill is one of the most important manifestations of using language.

But the effect of creativity on the improvement of speaking skill has been neglected or

underestimated up to now. This research is an attempt to explore the relationship

between creativity and speaking skill.

5. Methodology

This part gives the information about the participants, instruments and procedure.

Afterwards, data analysis procedure is explained.

5.1 Participants

The participants were chosen from Iranian IELTS candidates. All of the candidates

were native speakers of Persian. In order to make sure whether all of the participants

have enough proficiency, just those candidates whose overall IELTS score was more

than 5.5 were chosen to participate in this study. Forty-eight students from a private

language institute constituted the sample. Out of all available candidates, 30 males

and 18 females who were at an average age range of 16 to 41 years old participated in

the study. Based on the age range, four age groups were considered for this study.

Age groups were defined as the following: (1) 16-20 years old, (2) 21-25 years old,

(3) 26-30 years old, (4) 31-41 years old. The first age group consisted of 4

participants, the second one 18 participants, the third one 20 participants and the last

one 6 participants.


5.2 Instruments

Two instruments were utilized in this study. The first one is the Torrance Test of

Creative Thinking (1966). The second one is the IELTS speaking test.

The TTCT was developed by Torrance(1966). It is most widely used test of

creativity (Davis, 1997) and is the most referenced of all creativity tests (Lissitz &

Willhoft, 1985). There are two forms (A and B) of the TTCT- Verbal and two forms

(A and B) of the TTCT-Figural. The test-retest reliability coefficients of the TTCT-

Verbal and Figural ranged from 0.59 to 0.97 (Torrance, 2000b). The TTCT-Verbal

was used in this study. The TTCT-Verbal has two alternate forms A and B. They can

be administered from kindergarten to adults. They consist of six timed activities. Each

activity takes either five or ten minutes. For this study, TTCT-Verbal form A was

used. The TTCT-Verbal form A consists of six activities. The first ones require to

produce questions, causes and consequences for a situation depicted in one picture,

the fourth demands for creative ideas to improve a product, the fifth requires ideas to

use tin cans and the six to provide solutions for an imaginable situation. This test

evaluates three factors: fluency (the subject’s ability to produce a large number of

ideas with words), flexibility (the subject’s ability to produce a variety of kinds of

ideas, to shift from one approach to another), and originality (the subject’s ability to

produce ideas that are away from the obvious, common or established).

IELTS or ‘International English Language Testing System’ is an international

standardized test of English language proficiency. The IELTS test has four parts-

Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. The IELTS speaking test is 11 to 14

minutes long with three parts. The first part of the test consists of personal questions

about the candidates. These questions can be about the candidates, their families,

hobbies, education or other familiar topics. In part 2, the candidate is given a topic

card and is asked to talk on a particular topic. In part 3, the examiner and candidate

engage in a discussion of more abstract issues which are linked to the topic promoted

in the second part. The four, assessment criteria for the speaking test are:

Fluency/Coherence

Vocabulary (flexibility, variety, and appropriateness)

Grammatical Range/Accuracy

Pronunciation


5.3 Procedure

In order to answer the research questions, the following procedures were adopted.

The participants were informed of the purpose of the study, and asked to take part

voluntarily in the study.

Firstly, an IELTS test which encompassed speaking, listening, reading and

writing was administered to assess the candidates’ overall scores. IELTS tests were

scored by experienced IELTS teachers. The IELTS test results were used to select

qualified candidates for the rest of the study. The candidates’ IELTS speaking scores

were also picked up through this test. Afterwards, the verbal creativity assessment

was carried out. As, it took about 30 minutes to answer all the questions of the TTCT-

Verbal, administering the test individually was not possible. Therefore, the test was

administered in the group mode. All of the related instructions of the TTCT-Verbal

form A were explained to the participants. The TTCT-Verbal administration followed

closely the guidelines of its directions manual.

To make sure of inter-rater reliability of the verbal creativity test, participants’

creativity tests were scored by the two raters and the correlation between two sets of

scores was obtained. Then, the averages of the raters’ scores were taken as the overall

verbal creativity scores for future computations.

The participants’ scores in IELTS speaking test and TTCT-Verbal were

considered as the quantitative data for the study. The correlation was run to find the

relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill. Two -way ANOVA was

used to find out the relationship between verbal creativity, gender and age.

6. Data analysis

In the process of data analysis, the 16th version of Statistical Package for the Social

Sciences (SPSS) software was used. To ensure inter-rater reliability of the verbal

creativity test, participants’ tests were rated by two independent raters. Then, both

Pearson and Spearman correlations were obtained. As Table 1 shows,the correlations

between the raters’ scores are .966 and .954. Thus, based on the Spearman-Brown

prophecy formula (Henning 1987, p.82), inter-rater coefficient is .98. It can be concluded

that these two sets of scores are highly reliable. Then, the averages of the raters’ scores

were taken as the overall creativity scores for next computations.

Table 1 Inter-rater correlation between the creativity scores


Second rater First rater Pearson correlation Sig.

.966 .000

Spearman’s rho Sig.

.954 .000

In order to find the relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill, the

correlation was run.As Table2 shows, the correlational analyses revealed a positive

relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill at the 0.05 level of

significancewith Pearson correlation being 0.446 and p = 0.001.

Table 2 Correlation between the Verbal Creativity and the Speaking Skill

Speaking Skill

Verbal Creativity Pearson Correlation

Sig.

N

.446

.001

48

In the next step, the role of gender and age was considered. To achieve this goal, Two-

way ANOVAs were run on males’ and females’ verbal creativity scores and the

participants’ age groups separately. According to Table 3, it can be concluded that the

difference between the means of the males and the females is not significant, meaning

that there is no relationship between verbal creativity and gender.

Table3 also indicates that the significance level for the effect of age is .000.

This implies that there is a significant relationship between verbal creativity and ageat

the 0.05 level of significance.

Table 3 Two-way ANOVA to Compare the Participants’ Verbal Creativity Scores

Source Type III Sum of Squares

df Mean Square F Sig.

Corrected Model Intercept Age GENDER Age GENDER Error Total Corrected Total

6660.233a

306683.767 5831.182 272.919 989.612 10206.419 496866.652 16866.652

7 1 3 1 3 40 48 47

951.462 306683.767 1943.727 272.919 329.871 255.160

3.729 1.202E3 7.618 1.070 1.293

.003 .000 .000 .307 .290


As mentioned before four age groups were considered for this study. Age groups

were defined as the following: (1) 16-20 years old, (2) 21-25 years old, (3) 26-30

years old, (4) 31-41 years old. The first age group consisted of 4 participants, the

second one 18 participants, the third one 20 participants and the last one 6

participants.

Table 4 shows the result of the post hoc test. According to Table 4, the mean

difference in three of the comparisons was significant. The comparison of four age

groups indicated that the participants of group four (31-41 years old) did significantly

better than the others. But the comparison between other groups did not show any

significant difference among them.

Table 4 Scheffe test to Compare the Differences among Age Groups

(I) Age

level

(J)Age

level

Mean Difference

(I-J) Std. Error Sig.

95% Confidence Interval

Lower Bound Upper Bound

1 2 -12.1649 8.82982 .598 -37.9326 13.6028

3 -12.0694 8.74918 .597 -37.6017 13.4630

4 -40.7069* 10.31101 .004 -70.7971 -10.6167

2 1 12.1649 8.82982 .598 -13.6028 37.9326

3 .0956 5.18976 1.000 -15.0495 15.2406

4 -28.5420* 7.53009 .006 -50.5167 -6.5672

3 1 12.0694 8.74918 .597 -13.4630 37.6017

2 -.0956 5.18976 1.000 -15.2406 15.0495

4 -28.6376* 7.43537 .005 -50.3359 -6.9392

4 1 40.7069* 10.31101 .004 10.6167 70.7971

2 28.5420* 7.53009 .006 6.5672 50.5167

3 28.6376* 7.43537 .005 6.9392 50.3359

7. Discussion

The ultimate goal of the present study was to find out whether there is any significant

relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill of IELTS candidates or not.

The comparison of the learners’ verbal creativity and their speaking performances

was done through a correlation on the learners’ verbal creativity and speaking gain

scores. Based on the results of Table 2, the Pearson correlation was .446 and the

significance level was .001 which is less than 0.05. So, it was concluded that there


was a positive and significant relationship between verbal creativity and speaking

skill of IELTS candidates. Concerning the role of gender, according to Table 4.3, the

significance level reported for the effect of gender is .307 which is larger than .05. So,

it was concluded that gender did not have a determining role in the creativity level of

the candidates.Concerning the role of age, Table 3 indicated that the significance level

for the effect of age is .000 which is less than .05. That is to say, there was a

significant relationship between verbal creativity and age. Table 4 revealed that the P

value in the comparison between group four (31-41years old) and three other groups

was less than .05, hence just these three comparisons were significant. Based on the

mean differences of group four and three other groups which are presented in Table 4,

group four had a higher verbal creativity level.

All in all, the results of the present study supported the positive effect of the

verbal creativity on the speaking skill. When concerning the effect of creativity on

language learning, the results of this study are in line with past research. Landry

(1974) who investigated the relationship between second language learning and verbal

creativity found that there were no differences at the second grade level. But for the

upper graders, the differences were significant.

Rezaei & Almasian (2007) investigated the relationship between creativity

and language proficiency. The results showed that creativity and degree of strategy

use and also creativity and language proficiency were significantly correlated. As far

as the participants' strategy use scores were concerned, no particular difference among

high and low creativity subjects was discovered.

Sutrisno (2007) explored the relationship between creativity and the achievement

in learning English. The results showed a positive and significant correlation between

creativity and scores on the achievement test.

Considering the role of gender, the present study is in line with the studies that

have found no gender differences in creativity (e.g., Ogawa, Kuehn-Ebert, & De Vito,

1991; Runco, 1991; Saeki et al., 2001).

8. Conclusion

The main objective of the present study was to find out whether there was any

relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill among Iranian IELTS

candidates. Additionally, this research was an attempt to see if there was any relationship


between verbal creativity and gender. The relationship between verbal creativity and age

was also investigated in this research. The results showed that there was a significant

relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill at the .01 level of significance.

The results also indicated that in verbal creativity, gender was not a determining factor

and the comparison of four age groups indicated that the participants of group four (31-41

years old) did significantly better than the others.

Based on the results of this study, language teachers can be assured of the

positive role of creativity in their students’ speaking skill. So, teachers can design their

course instructions in a way that they would take the students out of routines and help

them to improve their creativity. Furthermore, this study removes doubt from syllabus

designers and materials developers’ mind if they are uncertain about the inclusion of

improving creativity in language programs.

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Title

The Effect of Task Types (Static and Dynamic Contexts) on Listening Comprehension in an Information Processing Perspective among Iranian

Intermediate EFL Learners

Authors

Anis Behzadi (M.A) Payame Noor University, Sirjan, Iran

Gholam Reza Haji Pour Nezhad (Ph.D)

University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Biodata

Anis Behzadi M.A. in TEFL. She has been teaching as a lecturer at Sirjan Payame Noor University and as a teacher at different English language institutes in Sirjan, Iran. Her research interests include task based teaching, cognitive and metacognitive styles and strategies, psycholinguistics , motivation, photographic memory. Gholam Reza Haji Pour Nezhad Ph.D. in TEFL and is presently an assistant professor at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. He has published academic articles and books worldwide and has done ample research into language assessment and evaluation. His research interests center around psycholinguistics and test development, performance, and evaluation.

Abstract

Listening comprehension has been a thorny concern for the EFL learners who

seem to fail to cope with the listening task in most cases. In fact, listening has

always been a problematic phenomenon for English foreign language learners.

One great driving force of this problem can be attributed to the kind of text which

should be comprehended. However in recent years, there has been an increased

focus on L2 listening ability due to its perceived importance in language learning

and acquisition. The present study investigated the effect of static and dynamic

task/text types on listening comprehension among intermediate EFL learners.

Spoken texts were categorized into three broad types (static, dynamic, & abstract).

In fact, texts which describe an object or give an instruction are static, those that

tell a story or recount an incident are dynamic. To comprehend every kind of

spoken texts, students should apply some specific strategies. This study had a

pretest-posttest experimental design, comprising two different listening tasks/texts


implemented in two groups, one group (Experimental group) practiced dynamic

tasks/texts while another group (Control group) practiced static tasks/texts. The

sample consisted of 45 students in each group. Before starting the training

sessions, one pre-test was administered to both groups. After finishing the practice

period, the post- test was given as well. To analyze the result, ANOVA were used.

The result showed that both groups had improvement after training sessions, but

the experimental group outperformed the control group. Females in the

experimental group performed better than males in the experimental group and

males in the control group performed better than females in the control group.

Keywords: Listening Comprehension, Static and Dynamic Contexts,

Intermediate EFL Learners

1. Introduction

Listening is the Cinderella skill in second language learning. It lies at the heart of language

learning, but it has long been the most neglected and the least researched skill in second

language learning, acquisition, teaching, and assessment. Listeners may be unable to process

information quickly enough to make sense of what is said. This problem could be due to

different factors including cognition and metacognition factors. Over 50% of the time that

students spend functioning in foreign language is devoted to listening. Rost (1991) pinpointed

the importance of listening in the language classroom as the supplier of the input for students.

More concisely, without comprehensible input at the right level, learning cannot take place.

Therefore, listening is a fundamental and vital skill in the acquisition of languages

(Nunan,2002). In the light of cognitive theory, O' Mally and Chamot (1990) classified

learning strategies into three major types: metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, and

social/affective strategies. This classification would prove useful and has since been drawn

up on by Vandergrift (2003). Strategies are learners' deliberate attention to their

comprehension processes in order to construct meaning (Vandergrift, 1999).There are many

different types of listening, which can be classified according to the number of variables

including the purpose for listening or type of task , the role of listener, and the type of text

being listened to. These variables are mixed in many different configurations, each of which

will require a particular strategy on the part of listener (Anderson, 2002). Listening purpose

isan important variable, for instance, listening to a news broadcast or a lecture to get

mainidea involves different processes and strategies from listening to a sequence of


instructionfor operating a new piece of a computer software requires different listening skills

andstrategies. Actually, the purpose of listening is changed according to specific text and

task. This article is mainly composed to answer the question of whether there is any

significant difference between students’ listening performance in these two texts.

2. Background of the study

It was not until the late 1940s that listening was considered as a field of investigation. This

vital movement was done by “fathers of listening “ such as Nichole , Brown ,and Weaver.

Anderson (2005) stated that listening comprehension plays a fundamental role in second and

foreign language acquisition and is critical to the communication process. Nunan (2006):

Task is a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating,

producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing

their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to

convey meaning rather than to manipulate form. Nunan (2002) points out that tasks differ

from grammatical exercises in that learners are free to use a range of language structure to

achieve task outcomes-the forms are specified in advance. Brown (1985) and Yule (1985)

categorized spoken text into three broad types, static, dynamic & abstract. In fact, texts that

describe an object or give an instruction are static, those that tell a story or recount an

incident are dynamic texts. Another factor to consider is that no two students learn in the

same manner. Buck (2001) states that listening comprehension consists of two overlapping

operations decoding and meaning building. Fundamentally, decoding encompasses the

listener mapping the acoustic features of the incoming speech signal onto representations of

target language sounds, then into word sounds, then into words and phrases in their

vocabulary, prior to generating abstract concepts which carry the literal meaning of the input.

Cohen (1998) defines LLS as “the steps or actions consciously selected by learners either for

the learning of a second language, the use of it, or both”. Noordin, (2010) investigated the

effect of task difficulty on using socio-effective strategy in listening comprehension. The

results of this article revealed that experimental group generally tended to use more socio-

affective strategies for any difficult task, while control group used these strategies for easier

tasks or difficult at a certain level. Wenden (2009) claims that metacognitivite knowledge is

essential for successful learning because students' understanding of themselves, the task they

engage in and the strategies available to them directly impact all their decisions about

learning. She goes on to argue that metacognition consists of a knowledge element and a


strategic element. She defines the latter as "general skills through which learners manage,

direct, regulate, guide their learning, i.e., planning, monitoring and evaluating".

3. Methodology

3.1. Participants

In the current investigation, 90 intermediate students were chosen from 201 English students

learning English in different language institutes. Then, they were divided randomly into two

groups, experimental group and control group, and 45 subjects in each one. Their age rang

was between 18 and 32.


Different kinds of research instruments were constructed for the current study including

proficiency test, listening test, listening texts / tasks. Listening comprehension test of GEPT

with 35 questions in total.

3.3. Data Analysis

Both qualitative and quantitative data analyses were performed. To address these issues, the

researcher used the SPSS statistical software package and ANOVA. They were used to

compare English listening performances of experimental group and control group. Besides ,

the qualitative method was also added in this study to investigate the role of using 'Static

and Dynamic' texts among Intermediate EFL learners .

4. Results

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the pre-test

Mean Std.

Deviation

Variance Skewness Kurtosis min Max

24.6222 5.37698 28.912 -.133 -.933 14.00 34.00

In table 1 the descriptive statistic for pre-test was shown. According to this table, the mean

scores is 24.6222.

Table 2 Descriptive statistics of the pre-test belonging to male's group

Group mean Std. Deviation


Experimental 24.5500 6.41113 41.103 -.323 -1.285 14.00 32.00 Control 24.1579 5.00292 25.029 -.140 -.861 15.00 32.00


Table 2 showed the descriptive statistic of students' scores in pre-test according to students’

classification in groups. In this table, the function of the participants in men's group was

statistically analyzed. As the table shows, the mean score of the experimental group

(dynamic) is 24.5500 and the mean score of the control group (static) is 24.1579. According

to this, there is no special difference between the men in the experimental and the men in the

control group.

Table 3 Descriptive statistics of the pre-test belonging to female’s group

Group mean Std. Deviation


Experimental 25.4000 5.19615 27.000 -.182 -.527 15.00 34.00

Control 24.2692 5.18118 26.845 .151 -.921 14.00 33.00

Table 3 showed the descriptive statistic of students’ scores in the pre-test according to

students classification in experimental and control group .In this table the function of

participants in the female's group was statistically analyzed. As the table shows the mean

score of experimental group is 25.4000 and the mean score of control group is 24.2692

.According to this, there is no special differences between the men in the experimental and

control group. Table two and three analysis revealed that the significance statistic lead to the

conclusion that there were no significant differences between the experimental (dynamic) and

control (static) group in pre-test. Once this point became clear, the study was carried out with

these two groups. During six weeks, the experimental group practiced dynamic listening

comprehension task/text while the control group practiced static listening comprehension. On

the last day of class, the instructor administered the post-test to both groups. The scores

obtained by pre and post tests were statistically analyzed to see whether there was a

statistically significant difference between these two groups.

Table 4Test of Homogeneity of Variances

Pre-Test

Leven Statistic df1 df2 Sig.

.966 3 86 .413

As table 4 shows, the homogeneity of variances of different groups in Pre-test was revealed.

To analyze this hypothesis, the researcher used "Leven" statistic. According to Leven

statistic, if the significance is more than 0.05, the homogeneity of variances will be accepted.

Therefore, according to table 4, the significance = 413> 0.05. Therefore, the homogeneity of

variances in different groups of pre- test (male and female) was accepted as well.


Table 5 The results of the One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for

Pre-test

Sum of

Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Between

Groups

22.564 3 7.521 .254 .859

Within

Groups

2550.592 86 29.658

Total 2573.156 89

Table 5 is related to analysis of variance, the most important parts of it is the level of

F. The low level of F and high level of significance (P value) 859> 0.05 shows the equality

between groups. According to the result of table 5, the equality between groups is accepted.

We conclude that the mean of Pre-test in different groups is equal.

Table 6 Descriptive statistics of the post-test

Mean Std.

Deviation


26.9667 5.01559 25.156 -.225 -1.024 16.00 35.00

In table 6 the descriptive statistic for post-test was represented. According to this table, the

mean score is equal to 26.9667.

Table 7 Descriptive statistic of Pre-test and Post-test

Mean Std. Deviation Variance Skewness Kurtosis min Max

24.6222 5.37698 28.912 -.133 -.933 14.00 34.00

26.9667 5.01559 25.156 -.225 -1.024 16.00 35.00

According to this table the mean score of students of experimental and control group in

pre-test is 24.6222 and the mean score of student in post-test in both groups is

26.9667.This analysis is used to reveal the significant effects of dynamic task/text types on

listening comprehension. It led to the conclusion that there was a difference between dynamic

and static task/text types. In other word, the students in experimental group performed

significantly better than the participants in the control group.

Table 8 Descriptive statistics of the post-test belonging to male group

Group N Mean Std. Deviation

Variance Skewness Kurtosis Min Max

Experimental 45 26.5500 2.89237 8.366 -.775 .020 20.00 30.00


Control 45 28.2105 5.66254 32.064 -.390 -1.260 18.00 35.00

In this table the descriptive statistic of post-test between male in two groups was showed.

According to this, the mean score of experimental group is 26.5500 and the mean

score of control group was 28.2105. It showed that men in the control group were

performed better than the men in the experimental group.

Table 9 Descriptive statistics of the post-test belonging to women group Group N Mean Std.

Deviation Variance Skewness Kurtosis Min Max

Experimental 45 30.8800 2.61916 6.860 -.569 -.842 26.00 34.0

0

Control 45 22.6154 4.14803 17.206 .945 .755 16.00 33.0

0 In this table the descriptive statistic of female experimental and female control group was

presented. As the table showed, the mean score in the experimental group is 30.880 and the

mean score in the control group is 22.6154.Therefore, it showed that the women in the

experimental group were performed better than women in the control group.

Table 10 Test of Homogeneity of

Variances(post-test)

Leven Statistic df1 df2 Sig.

.451 3 86 .806

To prove the homogeneity of variances in post-test the Leven statistic was used. As the

table showed the significance =0.806> 0.05. Therefore the hypothesis of homogeneity

between groups is accepted and proved.

Table 11 The results of the One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for post-test

Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups 907.998 3 302.666 19.558 .000

Within Groups 1330.902 86 15.476

Total 2238.900 89

Table 11 showed the analysis of one way of variances (ANOVA) for the post-test. As the

table presented the data, the 0.000=significant > 0.05. It showed that the hypothesis of

equality of mean in post-test was rejected. It means that, at least, two groups from four

groups had got different means. To understand in which group the means are different Tukey


Test was used as well. The exact classification of Tukey test was shown in the following

table.

Table 12 Tukey HSD comparison of means of pos-test(Tukey HSD)

(I) Group (J) Group

Mean Difference (I-J) Std. Error Sig.

Male experimental Female

experimental

-4.53000* 1.87341 .002

Male control -1.61123 1.09854 .554

Female control 3.33462* 1.90312 .006

Female experimental Male experimental 4.84280* 1.89021 .002

Male control 2.80237 1.76441 .123

Female control 8.27312* 1.36578 .000

Male control Male experimental 1.89402 1.87601 .554

Female

experimental

-2.73458 1.10092 .123

Female control 5.82390* 1.87521 .000

Female control Male experimental -3.40095* 1.90834 .006

Female

experimental

-8.70781* 1.75621 .000

Male control -5.71356* 1.78900 .000

Meaningful contrast*

Tukey test was shown in exact specification .For male and female experimental groups the

significance (P value) =002< 0.05, there is a meaningful difference within these groups. The

significance of male control is 554> 0.05, and the significance of female control is 0.06. It

shows that there is a meaningful difference within the male/female experimental and female

control group. In the second row of the table ,the significance of female and male

experimental group is 0.02 <0.05 , the male control group significant is 123>0.05 , and the

significance of the female control group is 0.000< 0.05. Here, between the female

experimental and male experimental and female control is a meaningful differences. In the

third row of scores ,the significance of male control and male experimental is 554> 0.05

,the significance of female experimental is 123>0.05 and the significance of female

control is 0.00< 0.05.According to the table, there is a meaningful difference between male

control and female experimental group. According to the fourth row of table the significant of

female control and male experimental group is .006<0.05, the significant (p value) of control


group is .000< 0.05, and the significance of male control group is.000<0.05.Therefore, there

is meaningful differences between female control and male control group. The most mean

differences is between the female experimental and the least mean differences is between the

female control group.

Graph 1 (Pre-test) Gragh 2 (Post-test)

According to plotbox in graph 1,there is no specific difference between control and

experimental group in Pre- test. However. asplotbox in graph 2 shows , the function of

experimental group in post-test was better than control group. Therefore, the experimental

group outperformed control group.

Graph 3 (Pre-test) Graph 4 (Post-test)

According to the graph 3, in the pre-test, the function of four groups (Experimental male)

(Control female), ( Experimental female) ,(Control male) was the same , there were no

specific differences among the groups. As graph 4 shows the function of female in

experimental group was better than the function of males in experimental group. However,


males in control group outperformed females in control group. Therefore, it is concluded that

the dynamic text/task had effect on listening comprehension of participants in experimental

group.

5. Conclusion and discussion

The current study attempts to investigate the dynamic and static task/text types effect on

listening comprehension among intermediate EFL students. Listeners use a wide range of

strategies to understand extended explanations and other kinds of oral texts (such as news

reports, lectures and debates) on a range of unfamiliar topics in a variety of work, personal,

community and academic contexts. The purpose of the dynamic (narrative text types) is to

develop learners’ overall ability to listen for meaning and to demonstrate understanding

through discussion. Therefore, in this kind of listening comprehension in the current study:

1-Learners developed a critical awareness and apply it to what they have heard.

2-Learners used interactive skills to engage in discussion about a heard text.

In this study it was also proved that the participants struggle with some barriers in processing

listening information:

1: Affective barriers

Some affective influence might distract learners from learning the target strategies. The

affective factors that play a negative role in strategy acquisition include anxiety, distress,

frustration, and resistance in both static and dynamic text types.

2: Habitudinal barriers

Some learners reported that they were more inclined to resort to their old "survival kit," i.e.,

their former listening habits, than to try the listening strategies introduced in the training.

Although not all of the former listening habits disadvantaged comprehension, some did draw

learners away from activating the potential strategies in the comprehension process. The

habitudinal barriers found were: listening for every spoken word, relying on persian subtitles,

and non-purposeful listening.

3-Information processing barriers

1.3: obstacles pertaining to spoken-word recognition

Learners reported the obstacles in strategy use that were complicated by spoken-word

recognition problems.

2.3: obstacles pertaining to processing speed

3.4: obstacles pertaining to input retention


Some learners experienced difficulties in retaining perceived input for further processing(in

static group). These difficulties might result from learners' memory limitations or capacity in

the sensory register or/and short-term memory. This type of obstacle caused a breakdown of

listening strategy application.

4.3: obstacles pertaining to processing distraction

Some learners reported that their attention was distracted or information processing was

interrupted while they tried to apply strategies in listening. Possible reasons are that, for EFL

listeners, the perceptual attention or processing capacity can become overloaded with

language processing, leaving little space for strategic processing.

5.3: obstacles pertaining to interpretation

Some learners experienced problems regarding interpretation of the perceived input (static

group), even though some comprehension strategies were used. Learners were unable to find

the appropriate meaning or interpretation of particular vocabulary items, expressions, or

entire text. The reasons for this might be associated with learners' command of

contextualizing the input, activating related schemata, or simply lack of cultural awareness.

6.3: obstacles pertaining to fatigue

Some learners mentioned fatigue as one of the causes in the malfunction of spoken word

processing (in dynamic group).

To sum up, as the result of statistics showed, there was difference between students

performances in listening comprehension between experimental (dynamic) and control

(static) groups. It is clear that the dynamic texts/tasks had a positive effect on the

experimental group. The students had a mental block when they listened and practiced static

text types.

References

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Appandix

Extracted Intermediate Listening Comprehension Test Group.................... Gender..................

This listening test will test your ability to understand spoken English. In this test, each conversation , short talk and question will be spoken Just one time. They will not be written out for you. There are three parts to this test. Part I You will hear 15 questions. After you hear a question, read the four chices in your test booklet and decide which one is the best answer to the question you have read. Example: You will hear George came home quite last night, didn’t he? You will read A. Yes, since May first B. Yes, he had to work overtime C. No, he hasn’t yet D. No, he ‘ll be fine The best answer to the question “George came home quite late last night, didn’t he? Is B: “yes, he had to work overtime” therefore, you should choose answer

8.A.Yes, he deserved to win t. B.I know he ‘d get into trouble C. Yes, I read it in the paper D,I heard that 10 years ago

1-A.Can I take a message B. Ok, I ‘ll let him know He will back by 11 o’clock D. I’m sorry, he’s not here yet

9,A.The janitor well repair it tonight B. I’m busy, do it yourself C. If he hit her, he should be fired. D. No,it is due this afternoon

2-A, No the due date is firm B. the more specific the better C. You may add one more extra page. D No, it’s long enough already


10.A.I already joined last year B. No, it does not need a box C . No, I don’t eat sweet things D .Sorry, I’m not a member

3- A. May be you need to diet? B.I cannot read the lable either. C. you need to stretch it, that’s all D. No, it’s long enough already

11-A.where can I read the notice B.A one month deposit is too high C. Is that in our rental contract D. Rent is deposited every month

4-A. I will wash it right away B. sure .let me get for you C. No , he hasn’t had walk yet. D. Oh, no It’s slipped my mind

12-AOkeyI ‘ll be careful. B. Is a five hundred ok? C. How about the medium? D. Okey, 9000 is fine.

5-A. He must study harder B. He should study what he like C.I think his grades are fine. D.I also think be should get a job.

13.I don’t care for jewelry B. Yes, it is very lifelike C. It has many good quality D. It’s too systematic

6-A.Yes ,I ll have the lobster B. Yes, that sounds delicious. C I prefer to eat in the evening . D. I agree seafood must be fresh

14-A. yes, but she acts younger B. That’s y too young to have kids C. She’s my daughter D. she likes little kids.

7. A. so all she wants is fear B. Mary does respect Marcus Yes C. Yes, I ;’m sure she ‘ll lose D. I’m glad Marcuse was promoted

15.A.The public didn’t release them B . No, the broadcast is tomorrow C. I haven’t heard them either D. In my opinion they are negative

Part II.

In part 2 , you will hear 10 conversation . You will hear a question about conversation. After you hear the question, read the four choices in your test booklet and choose the best answer to the question you have heard.

Example: You will hear: (woman) Hi, how are things going at the office lately?

(Man) Great! We are having a great year so far. Sales are up, and everybody is motivated . How are things going at your company?

(woman) Unfortunately, business is not good, and management just announced more layoffs. Question: What is going to happen at the woman’s workplace?

You will read: A. It will be closed down. B. me employed will lose their job C. she will have to move her desk D. Her manager is going to quit.

The best answer to the question “ What is going to happen at the woman’s workplace?” is B Therefore , you should choose B.

21- A. He thinks it excludes men B. He is afraid his friend will laugh C. He thinks men are superior to women D. he dislikes social studies

16.A. He is optimistic B. He is dull C. He is very judgmental D. His doesn’t like work

22-A. He is looking for a job B. She is his art history teacher C. He is writing an article D. She wants to work in his company

17. He is telling her something B. He is insulting her C. He is teasing her D. He is teasing with her


23- A. He never eats out B. He love fast food C. He is a vegetarian D. He eat healthily

18. that he dislike the city B. that he wants to be cowboy C. that he inherited a ranch D. that he raises cattle for a living

24- A. He is very romantic B. He spends money on Helen C. He is considerate of Helen D. He appreciates all the arts

19. A. his charming personality B. his fashion sense c. His legal research skills D. his reasoning abilities

25- A. fun is the most important B. competition builds a strong character C. violence is acceptable D. parents should control their children’s behavior

20.A. he had a really good time B. he’s sorry he missed it. C. He didn’t like the food D. It lasted far too long

Part III

In part 3, you will hear several short talks. After you hear each question choose the best answer to the question

you have heard.

31- A. Why it is important B. what to do after an accident C. To sell legal services and advice D. To teach people how to avoid blame

26- A. dangerous European serial killer B. Dangerously high temperatures C. A highly contagious disease D. A critical shortage of water

32- A. To record damage done to your car B. there are no witnesses C. It’s not clear who is responsible D. The other party does not reveal his her identity

27.He only reads scholarly books B. He loves detective stories C. He enjoy all types of literature D. He likes to read about people life

33-A. Religion in history B. Welesh sources of legend C. Legend past and present D. Medieval heroic

28- A. He wants to finish watching a movies B. He has to do some yard work first C. His mom won’t give him a ride D. He hasn’t finished his homework yet

33-A. Religion in history B. Welesh sources of legend C. Legend past and present D. Medieval heroic

29-A.It brings up painful memories B. He is too young to hear about it C. The information is too secret D. His grandfather is too tired too tell stories

35_A.Japanese education b. The advice of the Empress C. the influence of his servants D. His study of the west

30- His girlfriend won’t let him go the party B. Only singles are allowed at the party C. He is dating two women at once D. His ex-girlfriend is stirring up trouble


Title

The Effect of Different Online Planning Conditions on EFL Learners' Writing test Performance in Terms of Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency:

The Concept Mapping Strategy in Focus

Authors

Najmeh Farshi (M.A) University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Mansoor Tavakoli (Ph.D)

University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Saeed Ketabi (Ph.D) University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Biodata

Najmeh Farshi, M.A. graduate of TEFL in the University of Isfahan, Iran. Her research interests are language teaching and assessment. Mansoor Tavakoli, is an assistant professor at the University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. He has published many articles in various journals in the area of English language teaching and learning. His research interests are language research and assessment. Saeed Ketabi, is an associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. He has published numerous articles in the area of English language teaching and learning. His main areas of interest are English Teaching Methodology and Materials development.

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to explore the effect of different online

planning conditions on EFL learners' writing test performance in terms of

complexity, accuracy, and fluency. The effects of two online planning conditions

(i.e. unpressured online planning with application of the strategy of concept

mapping, and pressured online planning without the application of the strategy of

concept mapping) on EFL learners' complexity, accuracy, and fluency of their

written productions in testing context were investigated. Iranian intermediate-level

EFL learners (N = 40) were assigned to the two task conditions. The results

obtained from t-test revealed that the opportunity to engage in careful online

planning, with utilization of concept mapping as a writing facilitator strategy, does

not enhance the complexity and fluency of written performance significantly, but


quite the opposite, it reduces the discourse measures in testing context. For

accuracy, unpressured online planning condition helped the dramatic performance

of test takers in terms of proportion of error free T-units of all T-units, although

the difference was not significant (P= 0.09).

Keywords: Accuracy, Complexity, Concept mapping, Fluency, Pressured online

planning, Unpressured online planning

1. Introduction

How planning affects oral or written performance in classroom context is an interesting issue

which has been explored with reference to fluency, complexity, and accuracy which

demonstrate a learner’s language proficiency (Wendel, 1997; Skehan, 1998; Ortega, 1999,

2005; Ellis, 2003; Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Sangarun, 2005). However, there is a need to

explore this subject in language testing context because test takers may not be able to use

their planning time effectively. The care they take in order to avoid errors may stop them to

use all of their language resources to the best advantage (Wigglesworth & Elder, 2010).

It is desirable to achieve more accuracy, complexity, and fluency when language is

performed, but at the same time it is not effortless. This issue shows that human's attentional

capacity is limited and selective, so attendance to one area may decrease attendance to others

(Skehan, 2009). The importance of trade-off between form and meaning has led researchers

to the study of the effects of different procedural options such as careful online planning on

aspects of language production (Skehan & Foster, 1999; Yuan & Ellis, 2003).

Although the planning processes in speaking and writing have considerable similarities

(Ellis & Yuan, 2004), for both pre-task and online planning, writing processes can entail

longer time than speaking processes; so the extra time provided for planning can be destroyed

easily during the writing chance, since learners may take this opportunity to revise their text

and correct their mistakes (Ojima, 2006). In writing contexts, concept mapping as a strategy

has been said to make the process of writing easier (Pieronek, 1994; Renner, 1992; Rey,

2000; Washington, 1988, as cited in Ojima, 2006, p.568). Since concept maps represent ideas

that are put together in a network of relationships, they can help ESL learners to link the

received information to their prior knowledge, and organize their thoughts (Chularut &

DeBacker, 2003).

Since to the best of the authors' knowledge there was no study to investigate the effects of

online planning conditions on candidates' writing test performance, the purpose of this


research was to determine how pressured and unpressured online planning, with concept

mapping applied specifically in unpressured online planning in testing context, affected EFL

learners' writing test performance in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency.

2. Theoretical background

2.1 Task-based learning

Language planning as a problem solving activity seems inevitable, as the linguistic contents

and forms need to be decided for effective language production. There are two main kinds of

planning: pre-task (i.e. the planning that is done before learners perform a task) and online

planning (i.e. the planning that occurs on-line while learners are actually performing a task).

Online planning can take two forms. It can be pressured (i.e. learners are required to perform

the task rapidly by specifying a time limit) or unpressured (i.e. they are given an unlimited

amount of time to perform the task) (Ellis, 2005).

Humans seem to have limited processing capacity. Second language learners experience

difficulty in attending to form and meaning of their intended linguistic message at the same

time. But when planning time is provided, the limitations can be overcome and the quality of

the produced language is promoted (Yuan & Ellis, 2003).

The fluency and complexity of EFL learners’ spoken production is generally increased

when planning time is provided (e.g. Ellis, 1987; Skehan and Foster, 1997; Wendel, 1997;

Wigglesworth, 1997; Mehnert, 1998; Ortega, 1999; Yuan and Ellis, 2003; Ellis, 2005). But

task characteristics and conditions can highlight some inconsistencies in the results (Elder &

Wigglesworth, 2003).

Levelt's (1989) speaking model has three processing phases for language production: (1)

conceptualization, in which the content of the message is decided, (2) formulation, in which

the linguistic form of the language is determined and (3) articulation, in which the message is

articulated. Based on this model, Yuan and Ellis (2003) studied the effect of both pre-task

planning and on-line planning on L2 oral production. They proposed that, learners' better

formulation and monitoring of their oral message at their provided planning time leaded to

enhanced quality of their performance. In other words, pre-task planning enhanced

complexity and fluency while on-line planning increased accuracy and grammatical

complexity.

Ahmadian and Tavakoli (2011) in their study investigated the effects of simultaneous use

of unpressured online planning and task repetition (i.e. careful online planning without task


repetition, pressured online planning with task repetition, careful online planning with task

repetition, and pressured online planning without task repetition) on complexity, accuracy,

and fluency of EFL learners' oral production. The results revealed that the opportunity to

engage simultaneously in careful online planning and task repetition enhanced accuracy,

complexity, and fluency significantly.

To date, there have been many studies of the effects of planning on spoken production, but

the number is not very large when it comes to the effect of planning on written production.

In other words how and where planning benefits writing production, is vague yet. In written

context, Ellis (1987) examined the effects of no-planning, pre-task planning, and unpressured

online planning on accuracy of learners' written production of English past-tense forms. He

found that accuracy levels were higher in unpressured online planning group in compare with

two others. In another study, Ellis and Yuan (2005) investigated the effect of unpressured and

pressured online planning on complexity, accuracy and fluency of EFL learners' written

productions. While the difference in fluency was not significant between the two groups, the

unpressured group produced more syntactically complex and more correct language than the

pressured group.

Writing models of language production seem similar to Levelt's (1989) speech model in

terms of processing phases (Ellis, 2005). For example, Kellog's (1996) writing model

proposes (1) formulation, in which the writing goals are established and the lexical and

syntactic frames are encoded, (2) execution, in which the language is produced and (3)

monitoring, in which the writer may read and edit the produced text. De Larios, Marin, and

Murphy (2001) who investigated the influence of planning upon written production, analyzed

the time that Spanish writers of English devoted to three aspects of the writing process. They

suggested that task conditions influenced the ways that the writers allocated their planning

time to formulation processes. Additionally, more proficient learners were better planners.

Hayes and Gradwohl Nash (1996) propose that, planning and action are closely connected in

writing. In other words the memory limitations, overcome by online planning, result in better

quality of writing. So unpressured online planning can be a favorable condition in which

additional time helps for conceptualization, formulation and monitoring in written production

(Ellis & Yuan, 2005).

2.2 Planning in testing situation

The results of planning in classroom contexts may be rather different from those of testing

contexts. One reason may be that learners feel pressured in the latter, because how they

perform the task is more important than in the classroom contexts (Ellis, 2005). Moreover,


studies that have examined the effects of planning in language assessment setting have

produced less consistent results than in classroom context research. For example

Wigglesworth (1997) explored the effects of planning time on discourse measures of

complexity, accuracy, and fluency with very different results. Added to this, while planning

in Tavakoli and Skehan's (2005) study proved to be highly rewarding in testing context, it

had the opposite effect on unstructured tasks, and subtle effect on other task types in

Wigglesworth's (2000) research. Also Iwashita, Mc Namara, and Elder (2001) found that

planning before a monologic story-telling task had no influence on test takers' performances.

Wigglesworth and Elder (2010) explored the impact of different levels of planning time on

learners with different proficiency levels, in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency.

They also investigated how test-takers used and perceived the provided planning time. Their

intermediate and advanced candidates had to perform three tasks with one, two, or no

planning time. The provided feedback from the test-takers revealed that, while candidates felt

grateful for having planning time before their oral productions, they did not use it

appropriately, and many had been lost during their planning period. Another possibility

according to the researchers could be the humans' memory restraints which allowed for

proper use of planning preparations only during the first few utterances of the candidates' oral

performance.

It is of considerable importance to study the effects of planning on language production in

assessment settings as testers are expected to elicit the ‘best performance’ from test-takers

(Ellis, 2009).

2.3 Concept mapping

The idea of concept mapping originally appeared in Cornell University. It was recognized as

a graphical system of knowledge representation which is developed by creative thinking

(Novak, 1992) and as a process of awakening foreknowledge and combining it with new

information (Beidogan & Bayindir, 2010). It works on the principles of schema theory with

students generating words relevant to the topic and describing ideas about that topic in a

pictorial form (Ojima, 2006). Concept maps are designed to alleviate the recognition of

concepts' relations (Beidogan & Bayindir, 2010) and to facilitate application, analysis, and

synthesis of information (Novak, 2010). They may also reduce learners' anxiety and make

their performance better on comprehension tests (Liu, 2011).

Flower and Hayes (1981) state that when writers try to plan what they intend to say, they

form an internal and abstract representation of their knowledge that can even be represented

as a single keyword. In this way concept maps can be experienced as facilitators of the


writing processes by enhancing learners' abilities to create appropriate concept illustrations

and combine them into thoughts (Pieronek, 1994).

Schultz (1991) explored the influence of concept mapping strategy on L2 writing. The

results showed that students improved their writing abilities and became motivated to

participate in the discussion. The study suggested the concept mapping strategy as a useful

pre-writing tool to enhance students’ writing performance. In another study, Liu (2011)

investigated the effect of using computerized concept maps during the pre-writing phase on

learners’ writing performance. Ninety-four participants were divided into high-level, middle-

level, and low-level learners. All the participants received three kinds of treatments (no-

mapping, individual-mapping, and cooperative mapping) during nine weeks in order to

complete three writing tasks. It was found that low-level and middle-level learners enjoyed

benefits from individual and cooperative mapping compared with no-mapping treatment.

Furthermore, the individual-mapping treatment made high-level learners' performances

significantly better than theirs with other two treatments. The results suggested that concept

maps can help writers to visualize their thinking, and then notice what is lost or not relevant

to the main idea of the topic during the planning process.

Ojima (2006) also explored whether and how concept mapping as a form of pre-task

planning could benefit the writing performance of three Japanese ESL learners. Each of the

learners was expected to accomplish for compositions, written with and without the

application of concept mapping strategy. Then the texts were analyzed in terms of

complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Also the learners’ application of the strategy during their

writing process was accessed through questionnaires and interviews. It was found that Pre-

task planning generally had a positive effect on complexity and fluency of the learners'

written performances. Moreover, the feedback given by each learner revealed that each

learner uniquely applied the concept mapping strategy in their writing, suggesting that ESL

learners have their individual experience and motivation in line with task conditions when

they try mapping.

Although some classroom-based research has investigated how learners use their planning

time (Wendel, 1997; Ortega, 1999, 2005; Sangarun, 2005), this issue is yet to be explored in

a language testing context.

Furthermore, the extent of empirical research on mapping as a language planning strategy is

limited and most of the studies were done in L1 writing contexts (e.g. Sturm & Rankin-

Erickson, 2002) .To the best of the authors' knowledge there has been no study to investigate


the effect of concept mapping as an online unpressured planning strategy in writing from a

testing perspective. This study was aimed at examining this lacuna.

2.4 Complexity, accuracy, and fluency

L2 performance is constructed by the three dimensions of complexity, accuracy, and fluency

(Ellis, 2003, 2008; Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005). Originally, fluent versus accurate language

usage was acknowledged in the 1980s in order to show development of oral L2 performance.

Complexity as the third component was added in the 1990s. Then these measures were used

as dependent variables in SLA studies (Housen & Kuiken, 2009). For CAF to be valid, they

have to show the difference among subjects, both over time and across tasks (Pallotti, 2009).

Deviation from the norm is typical of an error (Ellis, 2008). In this regard, accuracy can be

concerned with more control over the interlanguage system, and fluency, represents the

ability of learners to communicate meaning in real time (Skehan, 1996) by prioritizing

meaning over form (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005). Finally, elaborateness and richness of

learner's linguistic L2 system speak about the linguistic complexity (Ellis, 2003).

Trade-off among these three traits turns a thorny issue because they each represent one

aspect of learner's linguistic system. Foster and Skehan (1996) say that the trade-off is

between accuracy and complexity. Wendel's (1997) study shows increasing of fluency at the

expense of accuracy. Yuan and Ellis (2003) similar to Wendel propose the trade-off to be

between fluency and accuracy. They suggest that unpressured online planning increases

complexity and accuracy but negatively affects fluency.

How to reliably, efficiently, and validly gauge CAF is central to SLA research since the

components of the triad are all multidimensional (Housen & Kuiken, 2009). CAF have been

measured by various quantifiable means to capture dimensions of performance (e.g.

proportion of clauses to T-units or percentage of dependent clauses to all clauses for

complexity, the proportion of error-free T-units of all T-units (EFT/T) and error-free clauses

of all clauses (EFC/C) for accuracy, and the average number of words, T-units and clauses

per text for fluency (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Iwashita et al., 2008). In regard to complexity,

Biber et al. (2011) challenged using T-units and clausal subordination for assessing

grammatical complexity in written contexts. They applied the analyses of advanced written

texts to evaluation of L2 student writing. Their corpus-based analyses of advanced academic

texts showed that complex noun phrase constituents (rather than clause constituents) and

complex phrases (rather than clauses) better capture the complexity aspect of the produced

language in written contexts. So, clausal subordination measures are characteristics of oral

performance rather than written one.


To the best of the authors' knowledge there has been no or little research on the

relationship between planning and writing performance from assessment perspective,

therefore this study is significant in that it tries to investigate the effect of on-line planning on

discourse measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency of candidate's written performance

in testing context.

3. The present study

This study was a between-group design that aimed to examine the effects of different online planning

conditions on complexity, accuracy, and fluency of EFL learners' written production in testing

context. The independent variables are unpressured online planning and pressured online planning: Unpressured online planning with the application of the concept mapping strategy

Pressured online planning without the application of the concept mapping strategy

The dependent variables of the study are complexity, accuracy and fluency of EFL learners'

written production. Based on the purpose of the present study, the following research

questions were addressed:

1. Does unpressured online planning, with application of the concept mapping strategy,

affect EFL learners' written production in terms of complexity in testing context?


affect EFL learners' written production in terms of accuracy in testing context?


affect EFL learners' written production in terms of fluency in testing context?

To investigate these research questions, the following hypotheses, with regard to the

presented review of literature in testing context, were formulated:

1. Unpressured online planning, with application of the concept mapping strategy, has

no significant effect on EFL learners' written production in terms of complexity in

testing context.


no significant effect on EFL learners' written production in terms of accuracy in

testing context.


no significant effect on EFL learners' written production in terms of fluency in testing

context.

4. Method


4.1 Participants

The population from which the participants were selected included intermediate level EFL

learners who enrolled in English classes at one of the English language centers in Iran. Forty

English students taking EFL courses took part in this study voluntarily. Participants were

both male and female with the age ranges from 18 to 40. The participants were randomly

assigned to two planning condition groups (i.e. unpressured and pressured) to deal with the

internal validity of the study. To determine the language proficiency levels of the

participants, a proficiency test was needed. The participants had already been considered as

intermediate level learners according to the language center’s standards and the placement

tests that they had taken (such as the Full-course placement test with the estimated reliability

of 0.8).

4.2 Materials

a. The Full- Course Placement Test

The Top Notch proficiency test (i.e. Full-Course Placement Test), was administered in order

to identify the students' proficiency level. The test contained 140 multiple choice items

including 60 grammar items, 60 vocabulary items, 10 reading comprehension items and 10

listening comprehension items. The allotted time for answering the questions was 95 minutes.

Easy administration and objective scoring were the advantages of the Full-Course Placement

Test. It was considered to be appropriate for Iranian learners since they have much

experience taking tests in a multiple-choice format during formal schooling. The reliability of

the test was estimated at 0.8, based on the students' test scores.

b. A prompt

The selected prompt for this study was chosen from Writing for the TOEFL IBT by Lin

Lougheed (2008). The prompt was the stimulus or command. It comprised some

contextualized sentences which were planned over students' decision making and reasoning

to be written about. That is, the candidates wrote according to what they listened to. The

result of this stimulus was the candidates' response, manifested in their written productions.

The prompt presented for this study was an argumentative decision making text providing

some input for the candidates to write about (see appendix 2). The candidates were free to

add their own ideas to their writings, based on the prompt they had received. The prompt text

is on the effect of TV on school performance. It tries to find whether there were links

between television viewing habits and children's performance in school.

4.3 Planning conditions


Online planning can be pressured (i.e. learners are given a time limit to perform a task) or

unpressured (i.e. they are provided with an unlimited amount of time to perform a task) (Ellis,

2005). In this study, planning time appeared in two forms such as unpressured and

pressured).

a. unpressured online planning

In the unpressured online planning condition, participants were required to write according to

what they had received through the prompt. They had to approach the given topic and

develop their own ideas on that. After receiving the prompt, they did not start writing

immediately. But for the first five minutes of their time, they were asked to seek help from

the strategy of concept mapping in order to plan their writing. Then, they had ample time to

write according to their plans. They were asked to write at least 200 words.

b. pressured online planning

In the pressured online planning condition, the candidates were required to perform a writing

task immediately after receiving the given prompt. They were given fifteen minutes to

complete their writings. Actually they did not have any time for planning. They were asked to

write at least 200 words. Fifteen minute time given was based on the study of Ellis & Yuan

(2005) in which they gave seventeen minutes to the performers to write in pressured online

planning condition.

In pressured online planning condition, no strategy was asked to be used by the performers

for the purpose of planning. Actually there was no planning and the whole given time was

dedicated to immediate writing. Table 1 briefly shows a description of the two planning

conditions in this study:

Table1 planning conditions

Planning conditions Description

Unpressured online

planning

performers had enough time to plan their productions and make use of

this opportunity to attend to the content and/or expression of their

performance

Pressured online

planning

Performers were required to produce text rapidly and thus had limited

opportunity to attend closely to content and/or expression.

c. The concept mapping strategy

Before administrating the writing test, the strategy of concept mapping was taught in

unpressured online planning group. In order to teach this strategy, a previously prepared short

text on paper was given to each participant. The mapping of the text had also been attached

(see Appendix 3). The reason behind the instruction was that explicit instruction on planning


is useful, because ESL learners need some practice in order to get familiar with the concept

mapping strategy and use it effectively in their written products (Ojima, 2006).

In unpressured online planning condition the participants were told to write according to what

they had received through the prompt. They had to approach the given topic and develop their

own ideas on that. But after receiving the prompt, they did not start writing immediately. For

the first five minutes of their planning time, they sought help from the strategy of concept

mapping in order to plan their writing by generating words related to the topic, sorting and

linking them.

4.4 Measurement of variables

a. Complexity measures

Complexity has been commonly defined as the size, elaborateness, richness, and diversity of

the learner’s linguistic L2 system (Housen & Kuiken, 2009).

Biber et al., (2011) stated that the writing complexity is fundamentally different from the oral

complexity. Actually, in academic writing an extensive use of clausal subordination is not

very typical. In this regard, writing complexity can be captured by three non clausal features:

prepositional phrases functioning as noun modifiers, attributive adjectives, and nouns as

nominal premodifiers.

b. Accuracy measures

Accuracy refers to the degree of deviancy from a particular norm (Wolfe-Quintero et al.,

1998). It will be measured by global units expressed in terms of the proportion of error-free

T-units of all T-units (EFT/T) and error-free clauses of all clauses (EFC/C). Both proportions

will be expressed as percentages (Skehan & Foster, 1997).

c. Fluency measures

Fluency can be defined as ‘the production of language in real time without undue pausing or

hesitation’ (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005). This will be measured in terms of the average number

of words, T-units and clauses per text (Wigglesworth & Storch, 2009).

5. Results With the exception of nominal premodifiers (i.e. an aspect of written complexity) and

proportion of error free T-units of all T-units (i.e. an aspect of accuracy), the results of the

tests generally demonstrated that the pressured online planning group performed better than

the unpressured one.


The first research question addressed the issue of whether the unpressured online planning

time when the strategy of concept mapping was applied to, marked a difference in the

discourse measure of complexity in the candidates' written texts in assessment setting. This

research question was investigated in regard to three aspects of written complexity:

attributive adjectives, nouns as nominal premodifiers, and post modifying prepositional

phrases (Biber et al., 2011).

In order to investigate the first research hypothesis, three independent-samples t-tests were

conducted to compare the number of attributive adjectives per text (AA), the number of

nominal pre-modifiers per text (NP), and the number of post modifying prepositional phrases

per text (PP) for different planning groups.

Table 2 The summary of the descriptive statistics of the complexity measures

Measures

Levene's Test

for Equality of

Variances

t-test for equality of variances

F Sig. t df Sig. (2-

tailed)

Mean

Difference

Std. Error

Difference

AA

2.503 .122 1.43394E0 38 .160 1.05000E0 7.32246E-1

NP

.039 .845 -.820 38 .418 -5.00000E-1 6.10004E-1

PP .531 .471 1.152 38 .256 .85000 .73762

The first independent samples t-test showed that there was no significant difference in the

number of attributive adjectives for the pressured online planning group (Mean=3.6,

SD=2.7), and the unpressured online planning group (Mean=2.5, SD=1.8; t (38) =1.4,

p=0.16). The magnitude of the difference in the means was small (eta squared= 0.04). The

second independent sample t-test result demonstrated that the use of nominal pre-modifiers

for pressured online planning group (Mean=2.3, SD=1.9), and unpressured online planning

group (Mean=2.8, SD=1.9; t (38) =-0.8, p=0.4) was insignificant, and the magnitude of the

difference in the means was very small (eta squared= 0.01). Moreover, there was no

significant difference in the number of post modifying prepositional phrases per text for

pressured online planning group (Mean=4.1, SD=2.4), and unpressured online planning

group (Mean=3.3, SD=2.1; t (38) = 1.1, p=0.2) with a small magnitude of the difference in

the groups means (eta squared= 0.03).

The above descriptive statistics showed that there was no significant difference between the

pressured, and the unpressured online planning groups in terms of written complexity in


testing context, so the first hypothesis was confirmed. The results demonstrated that the mean

scores of the pressured group for attributive adjectives, and post modifying prepositional

phrases were better than the unpressured group, meaning that the former outperformed the

latter. In terms of nominal premodifiers there was a very slight difference between the two

groups with the unpressured online planning group obtaining a higher mean score.

The second research question addressed the issue of whether the unpressured online

planning time when the strategy of concept mapping was applied to, highlighted a difference

in the discourse measure of accuracy in the candidates' written test performances. This

research question was investigated in regard to two aspects of accuracy: proportion of error

free T-units of all T-units (EFT/T), and proportion of error free clauses of all clauses

(EFC/C).

Table 3 The summary of the descriptive statistics of the accuracy measures

Measures

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

EFT/T 1.290 .263 -1.717 38 .094 -8.78000E0 5.11413E0

EFC/C 3.832 .058 .139 38 .890 .68000 4.87482E0 To examine the second research question, two independent samples t-tests were conducted

to compare the proportion of error free T-units of all T-units, and the proportion of error free

clauses of all clauses in the two planning groups. For the first conducted independent sample

t-test, the proportion of error free T-units to all T-units per text was analyzed. The results

proved that there was no significant difference in this proportion for the pressured online

planning group (Mean=13.9, SD=13.9), and the unpressured online planning group

(Mean=22.6, SD=18.1; t (38) =-1.7, p=0.09), and the magnitude of the difference in the

means was considered to be large (eta squared= 0.07). Actually, the difference between the

two groups was near significance with the unpressured planning group's dramatic

performance. For the second test, there was no significant difference in the proportion of

error free clauses to all clauses for pressured online planning group (Mean=38.9, SD=17.9),

and unpressured online planning group (Mean=38.3, SD=12.3; t (38) =0.05, p=0.8). The

magnitude of the difference in the means was very small (eta squared= 0.00006).

The obtained results proved that there was no significant difference between the two

planning groups in terms of written accuracy in testing context, which confirmed the second

research hypothesis.


In the third research question, whether the unpressured online planning with utilizing

concept mapping as a writing strategy benefited the candidates' writing test performances in

terms of fluency was explored. For this purpose three independent sample t-tests were

conducted, and fluency was measured by means of number of T-units per text (TPT), clauses

per text (CPT), and words per text (WPT).

Table 3 The summary of the descriptive statistics of the fluency measures

Measure

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

TPT

Equal

variances

assumed

8.04

.007

1.048

38

.301

.75000

.71589

CPT

Equal

variances

assumed

.238

.628

1.340

38

.188

2.10000

1.56726

Equal

variances

not assumed

1.340

37.81

.188

2.10000

1.56726

WPT

Equal

variances

assumed

5.26

.027

2.145

38

.038

1.66500E1

7.76296

For three measures, the pressured online group outperformed the unpressured one, and this

difference was significant for the average number of word per text in pressured online

planning group (Mean=119, SD=30.2), compared with the unpressured online planning group

(Mean=102, SD=17.7; t (29) =2.1, p=0.04).

The independent-samples t-tests showed that there was no significant difference in T-unit

numbers for pressured online planning group (Mean=8.2, SD=2.9), and unpressured online

planning group (Mean=7.5, SD=1.4; t (27.4) =1.04, p=0.3) with a very slight difference

magnitude (eta squared= 0.02). Also, there was no significant difference in clause numbers

for pressured online planning group (Mean=20.3, SD=4.7), and unpressured online planning

group (Mean=18.2, SD=5.1; t (38) =1.3, p=0.18). The magnitude of the difference in the

means was considered to be small (eta squared= 0.04). With regard to the results, the third

hypothesis was partially confirmed.


6. Discussion and conclusion

The findings of this study showed that online planning proves to be counterproductive in the

case of fluency, and complexity. In the case of accuracy, although online planning had a same

influence on the percentage of error free clauses for both groups, it appeared rewarding when

it came to proportion of error free T-units of all T-units. The influence of unpressured online

planning on this accuracy measure did not prove to be statistically significant but it was near

significance. In this sense, unpressured online planning with application of the concept

mapping strategy, only had a positive influence on accuracy in regard to percentage of error

free T-units.

Although it is not possible to statistically find the amount of concept mapping effect on

written text accuracy, it appears unlikely that unpressured online planning has been mainly

responsible for the considerable achievement. It seems that when the concept mapping

strategy is applied to the unpressured online planning time, it eases the synthesis and

utilization of information (Gowin & Novak, 1998) that favors accuracy with providing the

better chance of outcome monitoring (Ellis, 2005).

To further shed light on concept mapping, significant findings were captured that are

discussed here. As an illustration, a number of T-units, clauses, and words as criteria were lay

out to detail the fluency measure of the written test performance. Pressured group performed

better than the unpressured group considering the criteria, and carried out the written test

significantly better for the number of words. The pressured group did not have extra time for

planning and specifically for mapping. This can be the key to the noticeable differences since

comfort with the process of concept mapping is an important factor contributing to the

successful utilization of the strategy. When students try to connect the ideas of their maps,

they may totally get lost. They may even be unable to choose the right words or phrases (Gul

& Buman, 2006). It is in testing context that usually students feel more anxious than what

they feel in classroom setting (Ellis, 2005). Probably this can be an explanation for the

negative results for fluency in the testing situation when concept mapping has been utilized

during online planning time. Students may have found their maps chaotic and confusing

under the pressure of assessment setting. It means that in pressured online planning group in

which concept mapping strategy has not been applied to, the participants have not get

confused by their mapping demonstrations and have wasted their allotted time less than the

other group dealing with their map figures. As a result, they have produced more fluent

written texts in terms of the number of words, clauses, and T-units.


In regards to complexity, with the exception of the unpressured group being very slightly

better than the other group in number of nominal premodifiers, pressured group was better

than the unpressured one in other written complexity measures.

Attentional resources are selective and limited and students have to prioritize form or

meaning (Skehan, 2009). Although planning is said to compensate for the memory limitation

(Yuan & Ellis, 2003), it is been of no use maybe because of the stressful situation that is

usually inevitable in testing contexts where how the learners perform the tasks is cared about

a lot. It implies that (1) this profound attention dedicated to accuracy during testing

performance when on-line planning is unpressured, may have damaged the effect of planning

on complexity (Ellis 2005). In testing context, some candidates are so nervous to be able to

benefit from their provided planning time. Because when they know they are being tested,

they may concentrate on avoiding errors (Wigglesworth & Elder, 2010). This care they take

in order to avoid errors may stop them to use all of their language resources to best

advantage. For complexity, it seems that even the strategy of concept mapping applied to the

planning time is not able to change the situation. And this strategy itself has been a help to

direct the participants' attentions to using the correct forms rather than concepts. Actually,

the strategy usage has been less involved in organizing the conceptual frameworks (Novak,

2010), and sorting, relating, or adding new concepts to create meaning, that are its principal

features (Gul & Buman, 2006; Ojima, 2006), but probably in the study's assessment situation,

it has dealt with monitoring and editing without any special advantage to formulation and

execution of written texts (see Kellog, 1996).

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of online planning time on measures of

complexity, accuracy, and fluency of writing test performance. In line with previous studies

which have led to mixed results in assessment setting (Wigglesworth, 1997, 2000; Tavakoli

& Skehan, 2005; Iwashita et al., 2001; Wigglesworth & Elder, 2010), this study carries the

implication that planning delivers no favorable climate in testing context in which learners

feel too pressured (Ellis, 2005) to find their way during their planning time (Wigglesworth &

Elder's, 2010). Therefore, an important area of inquiry is to investigate how the language

resources can be best used in written performance in testing situation. In this sense, what

happens during planning time in assessment setting is in need of meticulous research.

7. The study implications


The study explored that unpressured online planning, with application of the concept

mapping strategy, had the potential to positively affect on EFL learners' written texts

accuracy in testing context but it had a negative influence on fluency and complexity of their

written productions. As a result, in highly stressful testing situations, learners who are given

planning time may have a better writing performance in terms of accuracy. When accuracy is

in focus in written texts, the concept mapping can prove useful for monitoring and editing. In

fact, learners can utilize and gather the information more accurately with regard to their

previously produced maps. But the maps themselves can be sources of chaos when

complexity and fluency become important in writing tests. If testers provide planning time for

test takers, they should make sure that the extra time does not add to the learners' anxiety.

A limitation needs to be acknowledged in this research procedure. The instruction of the

concept mapping strategy occurred in a short time. Santhanam, Leach and Dawson (1998)

state that how students accept the concept mapping strategy and how they adopt it in long

time, are both affected by characteristics of the instruction. The limited time dedicated to the

instruction and that students were not able to become comfortable with applying the strategy

by practicing, may have caused the ineffective utilization of mapping.

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Appendix 1: The prompt text

Does television affect school performance?

Does television affect school performance? Many researchers have found that there are strong links between

television viewing habits and children's performance in school. Studies have shown that children who spend a

lot of time in front of the TV get lower grades than their peers who watch little or no TV. It has also been shown

that children who have television sets in their bedrooms earn lower test scores than children with no television

sets in their bedrooms. There are those who see TV as a potential educational tool. However, there are actually

very few programs on TV that Teach children important academic or thinking skills. Most programs aimed at

children, such as cartoons, for example, contain little valuable content. Children, who spend more time watching

TV, spend less time doing homework or interacting with other people. They learn to be passive rather than

active. Research supports the view that parents interested in supporting their children's success in school should

keep the TV turned off.


What affects shopper's mood?

Appendix 2: Concept mapping instruction text

What affects a shopper's mood?

What affects a shopper's mood? Research shows that person's work, personal life or even the weather can have

a great effect on what and how much a person buys. Shopkeepers can also influence shopper's mood. They

spend a lot of time with such things such as lighting and colors to have a good sale. Researchers have found that

hearing familiar music in stores also has a positive impact on shopper's mood.

Person's work

Personal life

Weather Shopkeepers

Lighting Color Music

Positive impact


Title

Translation of Idiomatic Expressions in Subtitling

Author

Sima Ferdowsi (M.A) Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran

Biodata

Sima Ferdowsi is a lecturer of translation at Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran. Her research interests include interpretation, audiovisual translation, and translation for children.

Abstract

In this study, efforts have been made to investigate the translation of idiomatic

expressions in English language films subtitled into Persian to detect the effects of

the applied strategies on comprehending the films. The idioms have been

classified based on the taxonomy presented by Cowie and McCiag (1983). The

data have been gathered from three American movies; Trumanshow (1998),

Midnight Run (1988) and Rain Man (1988) which were subtitled into Persian. To

gather the required data, the three mentioned films have been viewed and their

transcriptions have been used to compare the source text idioms with their

translations. After identifying the used strategies in translating idioms, the impact

of these translation strategies on the overall product of subtitling have been

detected. The analysis of the rendering of each idiomatic expression indicated that

the following strategies have been used in translating idioms for subtitling:

mistranslation, semantic equivalent, paraphrasing, literal translation, deletion,

idiomatic translation, under translation and over translation. Furthermore, the

study founded that adopting these strategies had some specific effects on the films

such as: lack of synchronicity, creating incoherent sentences, non conveyance of

humor of the scene, violation of collocational patterns of Persian and non

conveyance of the information of the movies.

Keywords: Screen translation, subtitling, idiom, translation strategies


1. Introduction

Subtitling as a mode of audiovisual translation has received great attention today. A lot of

studies have examined different aspects of this type of translation. However, as Gottlieb

(1992) mentions the special set of constraints and features of subtitling have made perfect

conveying of meaning difficult in subtitling. It seems that one of the problematic areas in

subtitling is the matter of dealing with idioms and translating them. This paper deals with the

issue of translating idioms in subtitled movies to find answers for these questions:

1- What strategies are used in the translation of idioms in subtitled films?

2- What are the effects of the used strategies on the comprehension of the films?

2. Theoretical issues

2.1. Subtitling

Screen translation as proposed by O’Connell (2000) is a general term which covers various

language transferring techniques used to make audio visual material such as television

programs, films, videos and DVDs available to wider audiences than the original language

format of such products allows. Gottlieb (1992) classifies screen translation into subtitling

and dubbing.

Subtitling as the first subcategory of screen translation, according to Ivarsson and Carroll

(1998), dates back to the arrival of film industry. Efforts were made to convey the dialogue of

the actors of the early silent films to the audience. The result of these efforts was a kind of

text which is now called "intertitles" (Carroll, 1998). These intertitles were explanatory texts

or dialogue written on paper or cardboard which were filmed and inserted between sequence

of the film to keep the audiences informed about what was said or happening.

In the area of silent films, the translation of films was a relatively easy task. The

original intertitles were removed, translated, printed on cardboard, filmed and inserted in the

film. With the invention of talkies, sound films, in 1927 there was no need for intertitles and

they disappeared from the scenes, as the audience could hear the actors themselves. While

talkies solved the problem of silent films, but this time the problem appeared in a new form.

Although, audiences could hear the dialogue of the film and get the information without

using intertitles, the original dialogue of the film was not understandable to all viewers. This

happened when the original film was shown in other countries with different languages

(Ivarrson, 1992). Thus, subtitling as a form of audiovisual language transfer was born. It is a

complex form of translation in which the spoken language (source language) of a television


program or film is translated into the written language of the viewing audiences (target

language). Rosa (2001) calls subtitling an interlingual translation which according to

Jakobson (1959) is the “interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other languages” (p.

233). It tries to create correspondence between the “group of linguistic varieties (dialects and

accents) of the source text language and the system of the target text language”. (Rosa, 2001,

p. 213)

Subtitling has been classified into five different groups. Which are:

1) Interlingual versus Intralingual Subtitling:

According to Gottlieb (1998) interlingual translation includes both change of mode

and language, as it transfers the oral language of the film into written language,

whereas, intralingual translation is done in the original language and within one

culture.

2) Open versus Closed Subtitles:

Open subtitles are received with the original film or television version and are not

optional. On the other hand, closed subtitles are “optionally added to the original

version” and have a flexible characteristic, in the sense that they can be omitted from

the television scene (Gottlieb, 1992, p.163).

3) Live Subtitling:

The concept of live subtitling was introduced by Karamitroglou (1999). In live

subtitling, not unlike simultaneous interpreting, subtitles are being inserted live on the

screen with a time lag of only a few seconds. So far, this method has been mainly

used for the benefit of the hard of hearing in order to transfer live interviews, news

broadcasts, etc.

4) Pivot Subtitling:

This kind of subtitling has been introduced by Gottlieb (2001). Here the programme

is first subtitled into a pivot language (often English), which is better known in the

TL culture than the SL. The exact timing of all subtitles is downloaded to a disk.

Then, subtitles in new language versions are produced by using the timing of the

pivot subtitles and merely translating the words on the disk. No further technical

work needs to be done. The practice of pivot subtitling implies potential pitfalls such

as repetition of translation errors present in the pivot subtitles or the transfer of pivot

language features not acceptable in the TL.


5) Subtitling for the Blind:

According to Ivarrson and Carroll (1998), a system has been developed in Sweden in

which the subtitles in the teletext are transmitted to a speech synthesizer, which

allows blind viewers to receive an oral rendering of the subtitles via an earphone.

Blind viewers hear both the original sound and the translation. However, the system

has not yet been put into operation commercially.

However, it should be stated that in this paper the term subtitling refers to open

interlingual subtitles, which transfer original dialogue from one language into another and

from spoken dialogue into a written condensed translation which appears on the screen.

It is stated that subtitling has both advantages and disadvantages. For example, hearing

the original sound of the movie (Ivarrson & Carroll, 1998) and having a strong educational

value, both in the acquisition of foreign languages as well as in the improvement of reading

capacities (Cintas 2001) can be named as some of the advantages of subtitling. However,

those who are against using subtitling claim that subtitles divert the viewer’s attention from

the picture. Therefore, either miss major parts of the film itself while reading the subtitles, or

only read a fragment of the subtitle, thus missing relevant information. Furthermore, subtitles

obscure parts of the picture and distort the composition of the film as an artistic production.

Subtitling like any other form of translation has its own limitations. These constrains

are the direct results of the nature of subtitling. The first fact in subtitling is the shift of mode,

which due to distinguishing factors of spoken and written language causes special limitations

for translators. The second types of constraints are the results of reduction in subtitling, which

according to Ivarrson and Carroll (1998) are classified into partial reductions and total

reductions. The last factor that influences the final result in subtitling is the issue of keeping

synchronicity with audiovisual elements.

2. 2: idioms

Mollanazar (1997) defines idioms as “the combination of at least two words which cannot be

understood literally and which function as a unit semantically” (p. 49). Idioms according to

Baker (1992) have neither flexible patterns nor transparent meaning. Rather they are “frozen

patterns of language” which do not let any kind of “variation in form under normal

conditions” unless a speaker/ writer intentionally wants to “make a joke” or “attempts a play

on words” (p.63). Then she clarifies the point by listing five items which cannot be done on

idioms.

1. Change the order of the words in it (e.g. * the short and the long of it).

2. Delete a word from it (e.g. * spill beans).


3. Add a word to it (e.g. * the very long and short of it).

4. Replace its word with another (e.g. * the tall and the short of it).

5. Change its grammatical structure (e.g. * the music was faced).

Carter (1987, p. 66) introduces a comparable sets of characteristics to describe idioms

and asserts that idioms are “1) non-substitutable or fixed collocations, 2) usually more than

single word units, 3) semantically opaque”.

Furthermore, Mollanazar (1997) in comparing idioms with proverbs offers the

following characteristics to idioms and states that idioms:

A. are part of a sentence

B. sometimes have variant elements

C. are not intended to teach anything

D. are used in every type of text

E. are figurative extensions of word meaning

F. are more common and frequent

G. are sometimes used literally. (pp. 53-54)

2.3: Problems of Translating Idioms

Idioms encompass an integral part of language and are a very complex and problematic area

in translation. Baker (1992) classifies the difficulties of translating idioms into three

categories.

1.A SL item may have no equivalent in the TL. Baker puts culture specific idioms and

fixed formulae which are used in formal correspondence such as yours faithfully and

sincerely yours in this category.

2.A SL idiom may have a similar counterpart in the TL, but they may be used in different

contexts and have different connotations. For example, to go to dogs (to lose one’s

good qualities) can be used for both a person and a place, whereas its German

counterpart can only be used “for a person and often means to die or perish”. (p. 69)

3.A SL idiom may have both literal and idiomatic meaning at the same time. The

translator cannot reproduce “the play on idiom” unless “the target language idiom

corresponds to the source language idiom both in form and meaning”. (Baker, 1992,

p. 69)

2.4: Procedures of Translating Idioms

There are two fundamental procedures for translating idioms. The first step is recognizing

that a set of words function as an idiom, this will prevent the translator to give a literal


translation for it. The second step is choosing the best strategy to give a TL equivalent for the

idiom.

2.5: Strategies of Translating Idioms

Baker (1992) introduces five ways for translating idioms and fixed expressions.

1- The first strategy for translating idioms is trying to create idioms that have the same

meaning and form of the SL one. For example, the English idiom to be all ears can be

translated to گوش بودنسراپا or the idiom a wolf in a ship’s clothing can be rendered as

در لباس ميش گرگي which is its identical idiom in Persian.

2- Finding an idiom which has the same meaning but different form or “different lexical

items” from that of the source idiom is the second way for translating idioms (p. 74).

Baker (1992) cites the English idiom to carry coals to Newcastle which is culturally

specific. One cannot understand the significance of this idiom without realizing that

the residents of Newcastle do not need coal since they apparently produce it in vast

quantities. This idiom has the parallel idiom زيره به كرمان بردن in Persian.

3- The third way according to Baker (1992) is translation by paraphrasing, i.e. giving

the meaning of the idiom in the TL. This is the most common ways of translating

idioms and will be used in cases where the translator cannot find a similar idiom in

the TL or he/she believes using an idiom is inappropriate because of the stylistic

differences of the two languages.

4- Giving a literal translation of the TL idiom is another strategy which can be used by

translators. Such a strategy would be adopted if the metaphorical potentials are

similar, the literal version is acceptable in the TL or the idiom has been lexically

modified so it is difficult to find its meaning in the dictionary.

5- Omission is given by her as the last resort for translating idioms and believes that

omission may occur in cases where the previously mentioned methods cannot be

used.

3: Theoretical Framework of Analysis

In order to analyze the extracted data from the dialogue and transcripts of the films under

study, the researcher has used the classification of idioms proposed by Cowei and McCaig

(1983) as her theoretical framework. They classify idiomatic expressions into four main

categories regarding their structural types.

1- Phrasal verbs, which are subdivided into three groups.


a) Verb + particle such: as back away, size up etc.

b) Verb + preposition such as: run into, abide by etc.

c) Verb + the combination of both a particle and a preposition such as: put up

with, set up as etc.

2- Phrases, which includes four subcategories.

a) Noun phrase (NP), such as a blue fit, the common touch etc.

b) Adjective phrase (Adj P), such as not fit to watch his feet, free with one’s

money etc.

c) Prepositional phrase (Prep P), such as in the nick of time, under his nose etc.

d) Adverbial phrase (Adv P), such as none too soon, as fast as his legs could

carry him etc.

3- Clause patterns, which includes five subcategories.

a) Verb + complement pattern [V+ comp], such as go bersak, go native etc.

b) Verb + direct object pattern [V + O], such as blink the fact, spill the beans

etc.

c) Verb + direct object + complement [V+ O + comp], such as drive somebody

mad, paint the town red etc.

d) Verb + indirect object + direct object pattern [V +IO + O], such as blow a

kiss, spun somebody a yarn etc.

e) Verb + direct object + adjunct pattern [V+ O+ A], such as play it straight,

cast somebody’s net wide etc.

4. Methodology

4.1: Data collection

In this study, the data was gathered by analyzing the Persian subtitles of the three American

movies: Trumanshow, Midnight Run, and Rain man. The reason for choosing these three

films from among eleven other movies was twofold. First, the researcher could find more

instances of idiomatic expressions in the mentioned films. Secondly, according to Morgan

(2001) there is a relationship between film and subtitles, i.e. “the better the film the easier it is

to translate it well” (p.164). Paying attention to this point, the researcher chose these three

films which are well-known and have received different awards such as: Golden Globe, Best

Original Score for a Movie and Oscar.


4.2: Procedure

The procedure for obtaining the required information consisted of three parts; viewing the

films, using the transcripts and focusing on the Persian subtitles of each film.

The procedure of film viewing itself consisted of three stages:

Stage I: At this stage, the researcher watched the films to get the overall idea of them

and to carry out a spell-check of the Persian subtitles. That is, the subtitled version of each

film was studied to identify spelling errors in them. Although, some spelling errors in the

Persian subtitles of the chosen films were observed they were neither in the form of idiomatic

expressions nor had they any effect on the understanding of the idioms in subtitles. Since they

had no effect on this study, the obtained results were omitted in the analysis.

Stage II: At this stage, the researcher focused on the Persian subtitles of the films, with

emphasis on the linguistic contents of subtitles without being influenced by the film

soundtrack. To do so, it was decided to place the speaker on the off mode, since the

researcher could not have access to the Persian subtitles in any other way. This was done

since it was thought that having the knowledge of the original language of the film – English

– may have an influence on the researcher and prevented her to extract and understand the

problems of the subtitles. Through this process, idiomatic instances based on the subtitles

were extracted.

Stage III: At this last stage of viewing films, the researcher had a full viewing of the

subtitled films. This let her to pay attention to the overall impression created by the subtitles

in relation to the film, thus instances of idiomatic expressions which were not recognized in

the second stage or left out were identified. Finally, the obtained results through this stage

were compared with those of the previous stage and a final list including idiomatic

expressions was prepared.

In order to have a clear understanding of the dialogue of the film, the researcher used

the English transcript of each film while watching the film. Furthermore, the Persian subtitles

of films were used to compare the SL dialogue of the films with their given translations.

5. Data Analysis

The collected data has been analyzed after being classified on the basis of the Cowie and

McCaig (1983) classification.


Title of film

Number of

phrasal verb

idioms

Number of

clause pattern

idioms

Number of

phrase

pattern

idioms

Number of

sentence

pattern

idioms

Total number

of idioms

Truman show

6 10 5 6 27

Midnight Run 7 12 1 8 28

Rain man 21 11 3 4 39

Total

34 33 9 18 94

5.1: Numbers of different categories of idioms that appeared in the movies

As it has been mentioned before the focus of this study is the translation of idiomatic

expressions in subtitled films. Here the unit of translation used for analyzing the data is one

subtitle, i.e. the amount of text seen on the screen at one time. It should be added that the

focus of attention in each UT is idioms. In other words, the researcher has chosen the

involved idioms in each UT as the data of her study.

6. Discussion

The results of data analysis show that several strategies have been used in translating idioms

for subtitles. These strategies and the percentage of their use have been displayed in the

following table.

Type of Strategy Frequency %Percentage

Mistranslation 24 25.53%

Semantic Equivalent 22 23.4%

Paraphrasing 18 19.14%

Literal Translation 14 14.8%

Deletion 11 11.7%

Idiomatic Translation 2 2.12%


Under Translation 2 2.12%

Over Translation 1 1.06%

6.1: the percentage of used strategies

7: Analyzing the Applied Strategies in Translating Idioms

Regarding the first research question which was looking for the applied strategies in

translation idioms, it was found that the following strategies have been used by subtitlers:

7.1: Deletion

Deletion is defined by Kovacic (1994) as the total elimination of parts of a text, which in this

study refers to the elimination of idioms. Deletion can be due to cultural and social

considerations. Furthermore, subtitling constraints sometimes force translators to omit few

words in order to shorten the TL utterance. Deletion strategy accounted for 11.7% of the

strategies identified in this study. Consider the following example:

Truman show:

[Harold]: catch you latter.

[Truman]: yeah, of course.

هارولد ...................... -

باشه حتما –ترومن

Truman show:

[Truman to Marlon]: don't you ever get restless? Itchy feet?

شدي؟براي چيزي وسوسه ن .......................... . تو تا حاال -ترومن

Comment: In the two above examples, the idioms catch you latter and Itchy feet are

omitted in the subtitles regardless of their shortness. This deletion may be due to the

translator's inability to find an appropriate Persian equivalent for them.

7.2: Under Translation (condensation)

According to Ivarsson and Carroll (1998) condensation refers to the partial omission of a text

in order to make it shorter and more suitable for subtitling. Thus, timing factor again is the

major reason of condensation. This strategy only forms 2.12% of the overall strategies

identified in this study. Consider the following examples:

Midnight Run:

[Tony]: we would like to have a word with you.


[Jack]: yeah, about what?

ما مي خوايم با -توني هات صحبت كنيم

در مورد -جك چي؟

Midnight Run:

[Charlie to Lenny]: what? Speak up Lenny.

چي؟ حرف بزن -چارلي لني

Comment: In the first example the idiom have a word with you is translated into صـحبت

It seems that the translator has reduced . خصوصي صحبت كردن whereas its real meaning is كردن

it from the subtitle to create a shorter sentence. Since, including it in the meaning of the

sentence will result the long sentence بـزنيم ميخوايم با هات خصوصي حرف ما . One may think that

there is just the matter of adding one word, i.e. خصوصـي to the subtitle. But it should be

remembered that we are talking about subtitling as a specific kind of translation where

according to Ivarsson and Carroll (1998) shortening or lengthening a word by two to three

characters can make or break the rhythm of a scene and support or sabotage its meaning. In

the second example, the meaning of the particle up is neglected in the translation.

7.3: Literal Translation

Newmark (1988) defines literal translation as a strategy in which a word-for-word translation

is given for the SL idiom. He believes this strategy in most cases results in unnatural or

wrong rendering of idioms. In this study 14.8% of the idioms are translated literally. Consider

the following examples:

Rain Man:

[Dr Bruner]: this is where he can get the best care. We're talking about his well-being.

[Charlie]: yeah, let's just cut through the bullshit.

صحبت مي كنيم در مورد سالمتيش. و دريافت كنههست كه مي تونه بهترين مراقبت ر اين جايي -دكتر برونر

چرت و پرت ها رو قطع كنيم باشه نبذار اي. آره -چارلي

Rain Man:

[Charlie to Lenny]: I didn't buy that kind of time. I just ask you to extend it.

تمديدش كني فقط ازت خواستم. من يه همچين وقتي رو نخريدم -چارلي

Comment: in these two examples the idioms cut through and buy that kind of time are

translated literally. In the first case, although the audience can get the meaning of the


sentence but the offered translation is an unnatural sentence in Persian. However, in the

second case the literal translation has created a nonsense sentence in Persian. Because, the

translator has not recognized it as idiomatic expression and the fact that it should not be

translated literally.

7.4: Over Translation (addition)

It is defined by Newmark (1988) as a strategy in which further meaning is added to the

original. He states that over translation "is more specific than the original and includes more

meanings in its search for one nuance of meaning" (p. 39). Over translation accounted for

1.06% of the overall number of strategies in this study. Consider the following example:

Truman Show:

[Security Guard]: it's none of your business.

[Truman]: if you don't tell me what is happening, I'll report you.

.تو نه به ما و نه هيچكس ديگه مربوط نيست اين نه به -گارد امنيتي

. گيد كه جريان چيه؟ من شما رو لو مي دم شما به من نمي -ترومن

Comment: it is not logically expected to find a large number of over translation in

subtitling. This can be explained due to their conflicting nature. While, subtitling is a

condensed form of translation in which parts of the original dialogue are usually omitted,

over translation is the strategy of adding further elements to the meaning of the original

dialogue. Therefore, they cannot occur together. In this example, which is the only case of

over translation, the translator has opted for this strategy to preserve the synchronicity

between the subtitles and the image.

7.5: Idiomatic Translation

Translating an idiom by an identical idiom which has the same lexical constituency and

semantic content in the TL is called idiomatic translation (Baker, 1992). In this study, 2.12%

of the idioms were translated idiomatically. Consider the following examples:

Midnight Run:

[Tony to Jack]: Let me get right to the point, if may.

خب بريم سر اصل -توني مطلب

Midnight Run:

[Jonathan]: I asked if you were hurt and you said "yeah, I was hurt".

[Jack]: you put words in my mouth.

اره : گفتي ،بهت صدمه زد من ازت پر سيدم - جاناتان .


.ن منگذاشتي تو ده تو اين حرف رو -جك

Comment: in these examples the translator has successfully offered an idiomatic

translation for idioms get right to the point and you put words in my mouth.

7.6: Semantic Equivalent

According to Baker (1992), semantic equivalent is used in cases where the lexical

constituency of an idiom in the SL may differ from its counterpart in the TL, but the semantic

content of the idioms is identical across the two languages. This strategy constitutes 23.4% of

the translation strategies found in this study. Consider the following examples:

Rain Man:

[Charlie to Ray]: I'm going out of my mind. What difference does it make where you

buy underwear? Underwear is underwear.

. پوشهزير پوش زير. چه فرقي مي كنه كه زير پوشت رو از كجا بخري. شم دارم ديونه مي -چارلي

Midnight Run:

[Charlie to Ray]: give me five, Ray. That's a great idea.

. اين ايده عاليه. بزن قدش ري -چارلي

Comment: In all examples of semantic equivalent, like the two mentioned above, the

meaning of the SL idiom is translated into Persian although their lexical constituency is

different.

7.7: Paraphrasing

It is a strategy in which the meaning of the SL idiom is paraphrased into TL. The given

meaning would not be an exact equivalent or semantic equivalent of the SL idiom.

Furthermore, by using this strategy the impact of the idiom and its cultural significance will

be lost (Baker, 1992). In this study a large number of idioms 19.14% are paraphrased.

Consider the following examples:

Truman show:

[Meryl to Truman]: so what? We are just gonna eat into our savings, is that it?

به اين ترتيب بايد -مريل از پس اندازمون خرج كنيم، عجب فكري ؟

Truman show:

[Meryl to Truman]: you let me out Truman, you are not right in the head. You want to

destroy yourself, do it on you own.

. مي خواي خودت رو به كشتن بدي. تو حالت خوب نيست. بذار من برم ترومن -مريل


Comment: In this study examples of paraphrasing were found in two cases: there were

cases, like the first example, where the meaning of the SL idiom could not be stated by an

equivalent idiom in Persian due to lack of that idiomatic concept in the TL. Thus, there was

no way but to paraphrase the SL idiom in the TL.

However, there were other cases where the translator has opted for the strategy of

paraphrasing despite the existence of an equivalent idiom in the TL. This is the case in the

second example in which the translator has paraphrased the SL idiom not right in the head.

Whereas, he could have used its Persian equivalents دارهتو عقلت پاره سنگ بر مي / تو مخت خرابه .

7.8: Mistranslation

Mistranslation refers to any distortion of meaning as a result of misunderstanding the text, or

a conscious decision to skip translating at all (Lung, 1998). Unfortunately about 25.53%

of the idioms in this study are translated erroneously. Consider the following example:

Truman show:

[Truman]: I've gotten mixed up in something.

[Marlon]: mixed up in what?

. يزي گيج شدمچ فكر مي كنم از يه -ترومن

گيج شدي؟ از چي -مارلون گيج شدي؟

Comment: in this example, the translator has carelessly taken the idiom gotten mixed up

in something which means پاي كسي به چيزي كشيده شـدن / در چيزي در گير شدن for the idiom get

mixed up with the meaning of قــاطي كــردن/ گــيج شــدن . This mistake has resulted in

mistranslating the SL idiom.

8. Analyzing the Effect of the Used Strategies on Comprehending the Films

Regarding the second research question which tries to detect the impact of the used strategies

in translating idioms on the overall understanding of the films, the following effects were

recognized by the researcher:

8.1. Lack of Synchronicity

According to De Linde (1995, p. 39) subtitled programmes include three main components:

"image, subtitles and the spoken dialogue". Furthermore, preserving synchronicity with the

original film is the specific peculiarities of subtitling. The translator should create

synchronicity in three different aspects: 1) synchronicity between sound and the subtitle

content, 2) synchronicity between image and subtitle and 3) synchronicity between subtitles


and the camera takes (Ivarsson and Carroll, 1998). The matter of our concern here is the

second kind of synchronicity.

According to Ivarsson and Carroll (1998) by keeping synchronicity between image and

subtitles, it is meant that subtitles should reinforce the image on the screen. In other words,

they should avoid any contradiction between these two- image and subtitle- since this will

"slow down the comprehension process and distract the audiences from the real issue at hand,

the film itself" (p. 75).

In this study, cases were found where the translator`s strategy to render idioms destroys

the synchronicity of the image and the subtitle. Consider the following example:

Truman show:

[Meryl to Truman]: you let me out Truman, you are not right in the head. You want to

destroy yourself, do it on you own.

مي خواي خودت رو به كشتن بدي. تو حالت خوب نيست. ترومن بذار من برم -مريل

Comment: In this scene, Truman and Meryl are arguing with each other. Truman is

driving very fast and unintentionally. Meryl is afraid and is shouting at him to stop the car

and let her out. Meryl is angry, frightened and terrified. All these information is conveyed

through the pictorial channel and the original sound track of the film. However, the given

subtitle dose not transfer the same information to the viewers. It seems that this lack of

synchronicity is the result of paraphrasing the idiom not right in the head, which does not

show the intensity of the situation. As it was explained in 5.2.7, if the translator had used the

Persian equivalents تـو عقلـت پـاره سـنگ بـر مـي داره / تو خل شدي , he could have preserved the

synchronicity in a better way.

8.2. Creating Incoherent Sentences

Any stretch of sentences to be perceived as a meaningful unit should have two characteristics;

cohesion and coherence. The matter of our concern in this part is coherence. According to

Baker (1992), "coherence is a network of relations which organize and create a text" by using

coherence stretches of language are connected to each other "by virtue of conceptual or

meaning dependencies as perceived by language users" (p. 218). Any lack of coherence will

result in lack of understanding between language speakers and they will recognize the text as

an incoherent whole.

The used strategies in rendering idioms in this study have in some cases created

incoherent sentences. Consider the following examples:

Midnight Run:


[Jonathan]: knowing about Serrano, if I go to jail I’ll be dead within 24 hours.

[Jack]: so sooner or later, I’ll have to give you the slip.

[Jonathan]: sure, glad you find it humorous.

. ساعت منو مي كشن 24زيادي از سرانو دارم، اگه برم زندان ظرف چون من اطالعات -جاناتان

. پس چه دير چه زود بايد بميرم -جك

.خوشحالم كه به نظرت خنده دار مي ياد -جاناتان

Midnight Run:

[Jonathan]: they `re gonna come out and shoot us.

[Jack]: what the hell?

. اونا االن مي يان ما رو مي كشن -جاناتان

چه غلطي مي -جك كني؟

Comment: In both of the above examples, the given translation has created a text without

coherence, which in both cases is the result of mistranslating idioms give you the slip and

what the hell.

8.3. Lack of Conveying the Humor of the Scene

One of the other effects of the under translating idioms in this study, is the distortion of the

humor which as a result deprives the audiences of getting the humor and its intention, i.e. to

laugh. Consider the following examples:

Truman show:

[Truman]: let’s go now. I’m ready to go now. Why wait?

[Marlon]: what?

[Truman]: early birds gather no moss, rolling stone catches the worm.

صبر چرا؟. من همين االن اماده رفتنم. بريم بيا همين االن -ترومن

چي؟ -مارلون

ترومن . ....................................-

Comment: Baker (1992) states that idioms do not have flexible patterns, rather they are

“frozen patterns of language” which does not let any kind of “variation in form under normal

conditions” unless a speaker intentionally wants to “make a joke” or “attempts a play on

words” (p. 63). This is exactly the case in this example. Here, the two idioms early bird

catches the worm and rolling stone gathers no moss are combined with each other

incorrectly to create humor and reveal the humorous characteristics of Truman in the scene.


However, the intended humor of the scene is not conveyed in the subtitle because of deleting

the used idioms in this part of the sentence.

8.4. Violation of Collocational Patterns of Persian

In every language a certain set of words usually come together in a specific context. These

“words occurring together are called collocates” (Mollanazar, 1997, p. 11). Most of the times

the range of collocates for a word in the SL and its equivalent in the TL overlap. Mollanazar

(1997) explains that restoring to word-for-word translation, not paying attention to the

context and ignoring the natural acceptable collocations in the TL, will result in “strange and

unintelligible combinations of words” in the TL (p. 12). While, conducting this research

several instances were found which did not follow the collocational patterns of Persian.

Consider the following examples:

Rain Man:

[Charlie to Ray]: we made a lot of money.

. پول ساختيم امروز يه عالمه -چارلي

Rain Man:

[Dr Bruner]: this is where he can get the best care. We’re talking about his well being.

[Charlie]: yeah, let’s cut through the bullshit, okay?

. كنيم صحبت مي در مورد سالمتيش. بت رو دريافت كنههست كه مي تونه بهترين مراق يياين جا -دكتر برونر

.چرت و پرت ها رو قطع كنيم باشه بذار اين. آره -چارلي

Comment: The matter of strange combinations of words is clearly seen in these two

examples. In the first example, the translator under the influence of the SL structure and due

to applying literal translation has introduced the unfamiliar collocation سـاختن پول in Persian.

Whereas, in Persian this concept is stated by the collocation پـول در آوردن. In the second

example again offering a word-for-word translation for cut through has resulted in the

unintelligible collocation چرت و پرت ها رو قطع كنيم.

8.5. Lack of Conveying the Intended Information of the Film

It is always stated that subtitles should preserve the semantic load of the sentences. In other

words, as Cintas (2001) mentions the translator should be careful not to omit information that

is vital to understand the story at a later stage in the film. Otherwise, the viewers have to

strive to find out the missed information in the film.

In the subtitles of the films of this study, cases were found where the information was not

conveyed to the audiences by subtitles. Consider the following examples:


Truman show:

[Marton]: see you later, loser.

[Truman]: you are going to hofta a copy of me, so be careful.

بيا بريم -مارتون بازنده

. تو آخرش هم بايد از من درس ياد بگيري. زدنت باش فهي مراقب حر -ترومن

Comment: the scene is a flashback to the past when Truman was a schoolboy. Truman

and his classmates are talking with each other in the classroom. They are asking him to go out

with them, but he explains that he should finish his studying. Marlon- Truman `s classmate-

calls him loser. Then Truman reminds him to be polite, since he has to have a copy of

Truman. This idiom is translated incorrectly and the information that they cheat on their

exams is not conveyed. This gap of information is felt in latter scenes when Truman and

Marlon- another school classmate- are talking about their school memories and laugh at their

cheatings.

Rain Man:

[Charlie to Ray]: that's why they put you away. They thought you would hurt me.

.ياين دليل دور كردن توست، اونا فكر مي كردن تو ممكنه منو اذيت كن -چارلي

Comment: in this scene, Charlie and his mentally retarded brother- Ray- are talking to

each other. During their conversation Charlie finds out that Ray was living with them when

he was young, but their parents decided to send him to a mental hospital, as they thought Ray

may bother his younger brother. This information is very important since from the beginning

of the story, Charlie was wondering why his brother did not leave with them when he was

young. Now he finds out the answer to his question. However, this information is not

conveyed to the audiences as a result of mistranslating the idiom put you away.

9. Conclusion

Analyzing the data of this study reveals the following conclusions:

1. The subtitlers of the films under study applied different strategies to transfer the

idiomatic expressions of the original films. These strategies vary from; deletion,

under translation, literal translation, over translation, idiomatic translation, semantic

equivalent, paraphrasing to mistranslation.

2. Over translation only forms 1.06 % of the overall strategies, because of its conflicting

nature with subtitling.


3. Although, in subtitling idioms the translator is faced with two problems; translating

idioms which itself is a demanding task and offering that translation for subtitling

that is a specific kind of translation, which poses special limitations on the translator

due to its specific constraints. But, as it was found in this study not all the

mistranslations or inappropriate rendering of idioms was the result of constraints of

subtitling. Rather, it seems that some of them were due to translator's incompetence

and carelessness.

4. Omission only forms 11.7 % of the translation strategies. This shows that regardless

of the internal characteristic of subtitling as a form of condensed translation in which

parts of the original dialogue are deleted, translators tried to keep idiomatic

expressions of the films. Since, they recognized their importance in the context of

the film and revealing specific information about the films and their characters.

5. Throughout this study it was mentioned several times and in different ways that

condensation is the important peculiarity of subtitling. This may lead us to expect a

large percentage of under translation strategy in the findings of the study. However,

as it is seen only 2.12% of the idioms were under translated. This low percentage can

indicate a conflict between the theory and the practical findings of the study. But, it

is not the case. Although, the percentage of under translation is very low, it does not

mean that it is used very little in the study. Rather, many of the other strategies such

as: mistranslation, paraphrasing and literal translation were used to make the idiom

shorter and condensed, although they resulted in an inappropriate rendering of

idioms. In other words, the translators have indirectly applied other strategies to

condense the SL idioms and conform to the rules of subtitling.

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Publishing. pp. 213- 221.


Title

A Survey of Definite Article Usage Errors among Faculty Members of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

Authors

Marjan Gholami (M.A Candidate)

Payame Noor University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Maryam Gholami (M.A Candidate) Esfahan University of Medical Sciences, Esfahan, Iran

Biodata

Marjan Gholami, M.A Candidate, Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Payame Noor University of Tehran, Iran, 2012. Research Expert of Clinical Research Development Center of Nemazee Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Her main interest is in research and teaching methodology, testing, sociolinguistics and applied linguistics, Maryam Gholami, M.A Candidate, Health Care Services Management at Esfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, 2012. Manager of Clinical Research Development Center of Nemazee Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. She has presented several papers at Iranian conferences and published a paper in Iranian journal. Her main interest is in research.

Abstract To support research publication by university faculty members who use English

as a second language, local trainers and editors must deal effectively with

variations in language competencies in order to achieve desirable outcomes.

Relatively little research has investigated the grammatical difficulties faced by

native users of Persian (Farsi) in writing research articles. This study investigated

errors in the use of the English definite article the by faculty members of Shiraz

University of Medical Sciences who used editing services provided by the

Clinical Research Development Center (CRDC) of Nemazee Hospital. The

specific aim was to determine whether use of the definite article is a problematic

area in research manuscript writing. An instrument to test errors in different types

of usage was developed from 50 randomly chosen manuscripts that had been

edited at the CRDC. Analyzing the data indicated that the overall percentage error

rate was very high. Correct use of the definite article was thus found to be a

problematic area in the type of L2 writing studied here. The findings are


potentially useful in improving teaching and training strategies to enable L2 users

to achieve error-free writing in research reports.

Keywords: Definite article, Farsi, L2 errors, Persian, Research article

1. Introduction

In the English language the article system consists of indefinite (a, an), definite (the) and zero

or invisible articles (Ф), which are extremely frequent (Carroll et al., 1971; Corder, 1973;

Master, 1990; Ellis, 2003). Native Persian (Farsi) speakers writing in English must choose

among these three articles to decide which one is correct.

A number of factors affect the way articles are selected. One way is based on the type

of noun that follows the definite article. The definite article is used most often before the

noun head in noun phrases. When a writer uses the, he/she usually assumes that the reader

can identify the noun, which is known or specific to the readers. The definite article may also

be used in superlatives, before an ordinal number, the name of an organization, and some

special words in the context of text. According to Khoshgowar (2004), opinion articles and

nouns are intertwined, and the properties of nouns influence the choice of article use.

Peterson (1974) believes that in most situations in which the writer must decide whether to

add or omit the definite article in a noun phrase, knowing whether the noun is specific or not

can help.

The definite article is considered a subcategory of article, in which “definite” implies

“specific”. In the English language the notions of ‘definiteness’ and ‘specificity’ are linked.

Knowing the meaning of definiteness can help non-native English writers to use the definite

article correctly. Definiteness is described by Peterson (1974) as “when the writer shares

something which can be identified”.

‘The’ is a strange word, regularly omitted or ignored although it is a crucial and

common word in English (Browne, 2001). By using the definite article, the writer is signaling

to the reader that s/he is very likely to know what the writer is referring to, and that the

context of the writing should help readers to identify this. The can be used to refer backwards

to something the writer has already mentioned, to refer forwards to something the writer can

take for granted, and to refer to the common ground or shared knowledge (“Definite &

indefinite articles”, 2012). According to Kohl and Katz, the writer has to be certain that the

reader has the same context or situation in mind as the writer; otherwise, the reader will be

confused by the use of the. These authors believe that complex and subtle rules and


exceptions that govern the use of the definite article make it hard to use correctly in writing,

but because native speakers of English seldom use it incorrectly, any error by speakers of

other languages stands out. Qurirk, et al. (1985) devote 32 pages to article usage, and

Robinson (1967) lists 44 separate rules in one English as a second language (ESL) text

(Norris, 1992).

So this small, widespread morpheme causes considerable difficulties for non-native

speakers and writers. Problems with the definite article may seem unimportant at first, but it

is essential that the use of articles in their English-language writing is as correct as possible.

The learner’s native language and the L2 may or may not have a similar article system

(Dikilitas, Altay, 2011). Little research has been published about ways to predict the

difficulties scientists may have when they must to write in English as a second language.

However, Master (1990) notes that it is difficult to state the rules explaining article usage in

English for non-native speakers (including Persian speakers), and notes that the English

article system is one of the latest to be completely acquired and one of the most difficult

aspects of English grammar for non-native speakers. Thomias (1989) agrees with Master

regarding the difficulty most non-native speakers have in learning the correct use of articles.

He considers the major reasons for frequent Persian English learner errors in the article

system to be the complexity and inconsistency of these rules and exceptions, and the deep

differences between the L1 and L2 article systems. In his opinion, the English article system

is characterized by a large number of inconsistencies and exceptions, which can lead to

difficulty (Corder, 1973; Master, 1990; Ellis, 2003).

Faghih (1997) concludes that because there is no formal definite article in Modern

Standard Written Persian, acquisition of the English definite article is a particular challenge

for native Persian speakers. Tajodini (2008) notes the lack of any single word in Persian

corresponding exactly to the English definite article, and agrees that there is no definite

article in Persian, only indefinite articles. Megerdoomian (2000), Khanchobani Ahranjani

(2010), Saedi. et al., (1989) and several earlier studies concur that Persian, like other

languages such as Finnish, Polish, Turkish, Japanese and Chinese, lacks an equivalent word

for the. Faghih (1997) notes that it is word order which renders a noun phrase definite or

indefinite in Persian, and this language has no bound morpheme equivalent to the in English.

Other languages such as Turkish use word order and the characteristics of the noun phrase

(i.e., whether it is animate or inanimate) (Dikilitaş & Altay, 2011). Polish uses word order,

verbal aspects and demonstratives instead of article system to signal definiteness and

indefiniteness (Ekiert, 2007).


In most cases pressure to publish in English is an important factor in a faculty

member’s career at Iranian academic institutions. Academic research in Iran is highly

competitive, and research journals often require authors to submit their manuscripts in perfect

English to avoid immediate rejection. These factors increase researchers’ motivation to

prepare their manuscripts with as few errors in English usage as possible. Researchers’ efforts

to use the definite article correctly are among the many challenges they face in reducing the

language barrier and getting their manuscripts accepted in science journals published in

English. Most faculty members of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) are

obliged to publish their research findings in international English-language journals to be

eligible for academic promotion and research funding. Because they prefer to submit their

articles to international journals, they aim to make their manuscripts as error-free as possible.

The aim of this study was to determine the most frequent errors in the use of the

definite article in research manuscripts written in English or translated from Persian to

English by faculty members of SUMS. Documenting the types of usage errors by researchers

who write in English as a second language will support efforts to target specific areas in

English proficiency for better future training. This information can also help instructors to

develop better writing support strategies to strengthen the training of Persian-speaking faculty

members, medical students, translators, editors. Other potential users of our findings are

health policy managers and decision-makers at the Ministry of Health, and directors of

institutional writing centers and managers who aim to make the training they provide for

researchers at their centers more effective. It was hypothesized that faculty members of

SUMS have problems using the definite article correctly in noun phrases when they write in

English. The present study investigates errors in usage of the definite article among faculty

members who came to the Clinical Research Development Center at Nemazee Hospital for

scientific writing consultant and language editing of research manuscripts they had written in

English.

2. Material and method

The research population was all male and female faculty members of SUMS who came to the

Clinical Research Development Center at Nemazee Hospital (one of the university’s

affiliated teaching hospitals) in Shiraz, southwestern Iran, for assistance with preparing

research manuscripts in English for submittal to international research journals in

biomedicine and related health sciences. This center, established in 2003, promotes capacity-


building of faculty members by providing training in research manuscript writing in English,

and helps them review and edit research manuscripts written in English or Persian. This

center also provides support for the manuscript submission and review process, and organizes

workshops and other professional development opportunities aimed at enhancing researchers’

publishing capabilities. Among the resources offered by the center are face-to-face individual

scientific writing consultations, group training in English usage and scientific writing, and

printed information. The center is staffed by experts in scientific writing and editing, study

design and statistics, and by other specialist advisors. Users of this service at SUMS receive

many years of instruction in English and acquire a generally high level of proficiency. They

write their articles in English or translate their articles themselves from Persian to English,

and then attend editing consultation sessions with an experienced editor at the center.

This study focused on writers’ grammatical knowledge; they had received no special

training at this writing center on the use of the definite article before the study. At the

beginning of the study a random sample was selected of 50 edited medical research articles

written in English by faculty members of SUMS during a one-year period from December

2010 to December 2011. An initial screening of grammatical errors in the use of the definite

article in the edited versions of the manuscripts determined that most manuscripts had errors.

These errors included omission, overuse, incorrect positioning, and confusion between the

definite article and other types of articles (a, an, Ф). We therefore hypothesized that most of

the writers faced difficulties in using the definite article.

To develop an instrument that could be used to evaluate definite article usage, sample

sentences from the manuscripts were chosen based on the frequency of definite article errors.

All of the sentences were related to the medical or technical content of the manuscript;

sentences that communicated information of a more general nature were excluded. Sentences

which contained redundancies, repetitions and phrases whose meaning could not be

ascertained without discipline-specific knowledge of the context were also excluded. As a

result, the choice of sentences for inclusion was based more on the presence of noun phrases

rather than on the context or discourse. Some sentences contained examples of more than one

rule about definite article usage. A total of 16 sentences were chosen and used to prepare a

questionnaire to obtain data on ESL writers’ knowledge of the correct use of the definite

article in English.

A written format was chosen because when participants are asked to write, they

become aware that they lack basic concepts necessary to guide them in choosing the correct

article (Master (1990). The instrument was designed to measure correct or incorrect use of


the definite article in 14 different situations (14 items) in noun phrases within grammatically

complete sentences. Each item consisted of a Persian sentence that participants were asked to

translate into English in writing. Because of the limited time allowed to complete the

instrument (15 min), key words and phrases in English from each sentence were provided in

parentheses after each sentence in Persian, and the participants were encouraged to use them

in their translations. Participants were not allowed to use dictionaries, grammar books or the

Internet. None of the items was designed to measure usage of the indefinite articles a or an.

The accuracy of the questionnaire items was checked by two experts in English

grammar and usage who were also familiar with medical research texts. One was a native

speaker of Persian with a Ph.D. in English Language Teaching who is also a science editor,

and the other was a native English speaker and experienced professional science editor. The

reliability of the questionnaire was verified by an expert in statistics.

The study was carried out with permission from the director of the center.

Confidentiality of the participants was ensured by assigning a code number (from 1 to 40) to

each printed copy of the questionnaire. The participants’ names did not appear anywhere on

the instrument before or after completion. Participation was voluntary and all participants had

the right to withdraw from the study at any time. The aim of the study was not revealed to the

participants, who were told only that it was a survey. The instrument was piloted in five

faculty members of SUMS referred to the Clinical Research Development Center. Because

the number of items measured in the pilot instrument was the same as in the final version,

their responses were included in the final sample for analysis. There were no differences

between the pilot version and the main version in the actual content of the items.

The total number of participants (including the pilot sample) was 40 (20 men and 20

women), and the number of translated sentences was 16 in the instrument. In each sentences a

correct English translation required the use of the definite article. In all, there were 25 items,

and knowledge of the correct use of the definite article was needed in 14 main items (some

items were repeated in some sentences). An ‘item’ was a place in the English translation

where the participant needed to decide whether to use the definite or the null article (Table

1). The data based on the translation of the 14 main items were extracted, coded and analyzed

to calculate the percentage of participants who made errors in each item. For items that

occurred in more than one sentence, the mean percentage of errors was reported. Items that

were otherwise translated correctly into English were considered missing items if the

participant incorrectly omitted the definite article because of avoidance strategies. Missing

items were excluded from the analysis. Items that were left blank were considered errors. All


data were analyzed with the help of SPSS v. 11.5 statistical software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL,

USA).

3. Results

This research used a self-completed questionnaire to investigate the use of the English

definite article in medical research articles by faculty members of SUMS. The items in the

instrument presented sentences in which different types of nouns or noun phrases should be

preceded by the. Table 1 shows the error rate expressed as the percentage of participants who

made an error in each of the 14 main items.

The sentences used in the questionnaire are transcribed below, each followed by a

literal translation into English of key words and phrases, the correct English translation, and a

brief explanation of the type of usage of the definite article each item was intended to test.

1. /jegar yek ozve pichide as ke baraye hayat zarori mibashad/

The liver a complex organ is that for life necessary is

The liver is a complex organ that is necessary for life.

Most participants (85%) did not use the definite article before the name of the body part

mentioned in this sentence.

2. /in motaleah tavasote komit-ye akhlaghi-ye daneshgahe olome pezeshk-ye shiraz

taeid shod/

This study by the Medical Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical

Sciences was approved.

This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical

Sciences.

In Persian, the ezafe construction sometimes denotes possession, but not always.

Accordingly, this construction in Persian is classified as possessive and non-possessive.

Sometimes in both English and Persian a double possessive construction is used

(Khanchobani Ahranjani, 2010). In this example of a double possessive, about 80% of the

participants did not used the correctly.

3. /in motale dar jonobe iran anjam shod ke dar jahan monheser befard as/

The study in the south of Iran was done and it in the world unique is.

The study was done in the south of Iran, and it is unique in the world.


The mean error rate for use of the definite article before the name of geographical

places was 61%, indicating that a substantial proportion of participants had difficulty with

this rule (sentences 3, 12).

4. /dar in motaleah bimaran barye darman be bimarestan morajehe kardand/

In this study the patients for treatment to the hospital referred.

In this study, the patients were referred to the hospital for treatment.

The definite article is necessary before ‘hospital’ according to American English

usage, but about 60% of the participant omitted it in their English translation of this sentence.

5. / tanha bimare baghimande dar in motaleah, dar roze panjom behtar shode bod/

The only patient surviving in this study, the fifth day began to recover on.

In this study, the only surviving patient began to recover on the fifth day.

The definite article is needed before an ordinal number, but 55% of the participants omitted it

in this sentence.

6. /bimar nemitavanest bad az tasadof chizi ra be khater biavarad/

Patient could not after accident anything remember.

After the accident, the patient could not remember anything.

Most Persian linguists consider the particle ra a marker of a direct object. Karimi (Karimi,

1999) and Rahimian & Hajiani (Rahimian & Hajiani, 2009) agree that the specific noun

phrase, whether definite or indefinite, is always followed by ra in the object position. Others

(Karimi-Doostan, Gholamhossein, 1997) also consider ra as a marker that makes the object it

precedes definite. However, Rahimian & Hajiani (2009) provided some examples that refute

this claim. In Persian, the bound morpheme ra can mark the direct object as specific, but it is

not sufficient in itself, and it is not the only definiteness marker. Geranpayeh believes that in

English, syntax plays a major role in the use of a definite marker, whereas in Persian,

semantics plays that role.

Since it was predicted that the participants would make mistakes with the definite

article in this type of construction, sentence 6 was included in the questionnaire to see if

adding ra affected the participants’ recognition of the need to use the definite article. Half of

the participants (50%) did not use the definite article in their translations before ‘patients’ as

the noun immediately preceded by “after the accident”. Although ‘patient’ is not used in this

example to refer to a previously identified subject, it comes after a dependent clause, which

makes it clear which specific person or thing the writer is referring to (Kohl & Katz, n.d.) and

is therefore a definite noun, which requires the definite article.


7. /khorshid dalile asli-ye saratane post ast/

The sun the main cause of skin cancer is.

The sun is the main cause of skin cancer.

This sentence exemplifies the use of the definite article before a unique thing in the

world, but 42.9% of the participants failed to use it before ‘sun’.

8. /dar in maghale nemodar ha tavasote narm afzare Excel tarrahi shodehand/

In this article the graphs with Ø Excel were generated.

In this article, the graphs were generated with Ф Excel.

9. /alaeme in bimari makhsosan dar marahele ebtedaei namoshakhas hastand/

The symptoms of this disease particularly in the early stages are not distinct.

The symptoms of this disease are not distinct, particularly in the early stages.

10. / in motaleah darbareye rabeteye beyne stress va saratan ast/

This study on the relationship between stress and cancer is.

This study is on the relationship between stress and cancer.

McAnsh et al. (2006) suggest that depending on whether a noun has a unique

reference and depending on the culture of the writer in their own particular academic or

research field, almost any term can be made unique (for example, “unique to academic

culture”). The mean error rate of 34%in sentences 12, 15,8,3,9, 10 indicates that participants

had problems using the definite article in unique academic contexts.

11. / tamame 60 nafari ke dar sobh nam nevisi karde bodand motaleah ra kamel

kardand/

All Ф 60 participants who in the morning enrolled study the completed.

All 60 participants who enrolled in the morning completed the study.

This sentence also evaluates the definite article before a time of day (the morning).

Slightly more than one fourth of the participants (27.8%) did not use the definite article here.

Although this percentage is lower than the rate for other kinds of errors in this study, users of

English who are presumably at an advance level of proficiency would be expected not to

make this grammatical error in their writing. Sentence 11 also evaluates use of the zero article

(Ф) before numbers. Zero articles occur in more than one language, and one of their

properties is that they must be used with a noun, even if the language lacks any overt articles.

A minority of our participants (13.9%) added the definite article before the number ‘60’.

12. /maghale-ye morede nazar dar majale-ye Time dar mahe avril chap khahad shod/

The intended article in Time magazine in April will be published.

The intended article will be published in Ф Time magazine in April.


Sentence 12 evaluates the zero article before the title of a magazine. About 21.1% of

the participants incorrectly used the definite article before ‘Time magazine’.

13. /jameiyate iran balaye 70 melyon ast/

The population of Iran above 70 million is.

The population of Iran is above 70 million.

Sentences 14, 7, 9 and 13 contained descriptive ‘of’ genitive post-modifiers. In

sentence 13, for example, the ‘of phrase’ construction is a form of the possessive

construction. In Persian, the nearest grammatical equivalent is exemplified by the mal and

ezafe constructions. The possessive ezafe construction is an unstressed vowel (-e, or -ye after

vowels) which is used to link together two syntactically related nouns, or a noun and

pronoun, or a noun and some prepositions. Two nouns linked by the ezafe may indicate

possession by the latter of the former. The ezafe construction often, but not always, denotes

possession. For this reason this construction is classified as either possessive or non-

possessive (Khanchobani Ahranjani, 2010). The mean error rate of 17% in sentences 14, 7, 9

and 13 indicates that participants had problems using the definite article in descriptive ‘of’

genitive post-modifiers.

14. / bimar-ye mazkor rayej tarin bimari dar iyalate motahe-ye amirkast ke mitavanad

dar avalin mahe zendegi etefagh beyoftad/

The disease the most common disease in the United States of America is that can

during the first month of life occur.

The disease is the most common disease in the United States of America that can occur

during the first month of life.

Superlative adjectives need the definite article, but this was omitted before ‘most’ by

12.5% of the participants

15. / tavarom va sardard dar yeki az bimaran afzayesh dash/

Ф swelling and headache in one of the patients increased.

In one of the patients, Ф swelling and headache increased.

16. /in tarh tavasote daneshgahe olome pezeshki-ye shiraz tamine etebar shod/

The project by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences was financed.

The project was financed by Ф Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.

Some sentences in the questionnaire tested the use of the definite article before

common names (sentence 15) and before proper names (sentence 8 and 16). In the former

case, the percentage error rate was lowest for the zero article (Ф) before common nouns such

as ‘swelling’ and ‘headache’ (5%). In the latter case the error rate was lowest (mean number


of errors 0.05) before proper names such as ‘Excel’ and ‘SUMS’. This suggests that the

participants may have little difficulty identifying the correct article before these kinds of

nouns.

The descriptive statistics in Table 1 indicate that the most frequent errors were

omitting the definite article before the name of body parts (85%), in double possessives

(80%), before the name of geographical places (61%), before the word ‘hospital’ (in

American English usage) (60%), and before ordinal numbers (55%). The error rate before a

noun preceded by a modifying phrase or clause was 50%, whereas lower percentage error

rates were found for use of the definite article before unique things (42.2%), for a unique

academic context (34%), before a part of the day (27.8%), and before the title of a magazine

(21.1%). The lowest error rates were for use of the definite article before a descriptive ‘of’

genitive post-modifier (17%), the zero (Ф) article before a number (13.9%), and the definite

article before a superlative (12.5%). The lowest error rate was for use of the definite article

before common and proper names (5%). The mean number of errors was high in some noun

phrases but very low in others. Errors were most frequent before the name of body parts, in

double possessive constructions, before the name of geographical places, before the word

‘hospital’ (in American English usage) and before an ordinal number.

In general, the results indicate that the sample of faculty members who completed the

questionnaire did not perform well in their use of the. However, the percentage error rates

differed across categories of usage, which suggests that the participants seemed to be more

aware of some rules than others. For example, most participants correctly used Ф before a

magazine title, before numbers or before a superlative.

Table 1 Results of a self-completed translation-based questionnaire completed by 40 faculty members of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, 2010-2011 Main items

No of questions

Item The rule with an example Percentage error rate

1 1 Definite article before the name of body parts

Use of the with reference to body parts. The liver is a complex organ that is necessary for life.

85%

2 1 Definite article before the double possessive

‘Double possessive’ This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.

80%

3 2 Definite article before the name of geographical places

Use the article before names of some geographical places. The study was done in the south of Iran.

61%a


a For items tested in more than one of the 14 sentences in the questionnaire, the mean percentage error rate is reported. 4. Discussion

To our knowledge, little research has been published regarding native Persian speakers’

proficiency in the use of the definite article in manuscripts of research articles they write in

English. A number of studies have contrasted different pairs of languages and learners’ use of

articles in the target language; most of them have analyzed article errors in communication or

4 1 Definite article before the word ‘hospital’ (in American English)

Use of the before the word ‘hospital’ when used as a noun (in American English) In this study, the patients were referred to the hospital for treatment.

60%

5 1 Definite article before ordinal numbers

Use of the before ordinal numbers. In this study, the only surviving patient began to recover on the fifth day.

55%

6 1 Definite article before a noun preceded by a modifying phrase or clause

A modifying word, phrase, or clause before the noun. After the accident, the patient could not remember anything.

50%

7 1 Definite article before unique things

Use of the with some special nouns that describe unique thing. The sun is the main cause of skin cancer.

42.9%

8 6 Definite article with unique academic context

Use the article before a definite plural or singular noun. In this article, the graphs were generated with Ф Excel.

34%a

9 1 Definite article before a part of the day

Use of the before some times of the day. All 60 participants who enrolled in the morning completed the study

27.8%

10 1 Zero (Ф) article before the title of a magazine

Usually no the before the names of magazines. The intended article will be published in Time Magazine in April.

21.1%

11 4 Descriptive ‘of’ genitive post-modifier

Use the article in most situations with an ‘of phrase’ construction. The population of Iran is above 70 million.

17%a

12 1 Zero (Ф) article before a number

No use of the before numbers. All 60 participants who enrolled in the morning completed the study.

13.9%

13 1 Definite article before a superlative

A superlative makes the nouns specific, so we need the before a superlative. The disease is the most common disease in the United States of America

12.5%

14 3 Names in abstract and general nouns without a definite article

use of the definite article before common and proper names In one of the patients, Ф swelling and headache increased. The project was financed by Ф Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.

5%a


spoken language. However, no research has focused on non-native faculty members’ writing

difficulties–one of the barriers they face in writing and publishing research articles.

In linguistics many approaches have been suggested to classify the ways in which the

definite article is used or misused. Hawkins (1987) suggested eight categories in Location

Theory, which classifies the uses of the non-generic definite article in English as anaphoric,

visible situation, immediate situation, larger situation use relying on specific knowledge,

larger situation use relying on general knowledge, associative anaphoric, unfamiliar use and

unfamiliar use in noun phrases with non-explanatory modifiers ( Dikilitas, K., & Altay, M.,

2011). Liu and Gleason (2002) suggested that this system can be reduced to four categories:

cultural use, situational use, structural use and textual use. Their study instrument consisted

of 91 sentences containing 60 deleted obligatory uses of the definite article (15 per category)

and, as control items, 40 zero articles (10 per category) where the is not allowed. The

participants (41 low-, 49 intermediate-, and 38 advanced-level students) were instructed to

read the sentences and insert the wherever they deemed necessary. Quirk and colleagues used

another classification: immediate situation, general knowledge, direct anaphoric reference,

indirect anaphoric reference, anaphoric reference, sporadic reference, logical use and generic

meaning (Quirk et al., 1985). In the preset error categorization study the use of the definite

article was limited to noun phrases representative of common types of usage in medical

research articles published in English, and was not based on any of the above classifications.

The main reason for this approach was that the participants in this research were faculty

members assumed to have attained an advanced level of proficiency in English grammar, so

our questionnaire was designed to test their knowledge of use of the definite article in

contexts that they were likely to use when writing their own research articles. Because more

mistakes were found in the use of the definite article than in other structural categories, the

sample of sentences in the questionnaire was drawn from 50 medical research articles that

were edited before they were submitted to the journal.

Training in writing skills can help researchers to use the definite article correctly and

produce more fluent texts in English, thus enabling scholars to communicate their findings

more effectively. Nevertheless, practice and many years of experience are necessary along

with a full understanding of the rules for using articles. In answer to the question of whether

articles should be taught or not, Berry believes that there are three good reasons for teaching

them. First, articles are extremely frequent in English, and vary widely in type, distribution

and frequency. According to Berry, the definite article is the most frequent word in English,

and the indefinite article is the fourth most frequent. Adding the two percentage frequencies


(7.3% + 2.4% = 9.7%) shows that articles account for almost every tenth word in English

(Berry, 1991). Another reason is that many non-native English speakers, particularly those

who use English for professional purposes, are concerned about the accurate use of articles,

since repeated errors in their writing may have a negative effect on the reader’s reaction. A

final reason is disagreement with the assumption of many learners (and some teachers) that

articles in English are superfluous and have no effect on communication.

One of the limitations of this study is that because of the workload borne by SUMS

faculty members, it was hard for all of them to find time to complete the questionnaire. The

questionnaire was designed to obtain data on how well participants used the definite article,

as a strategy to identify grammar instruction needs and potential areas to be included in

scientific writing workshops. To save time and encourage participation in the study, we used

a brief, self-completed translation-based questionnaire rather than a longer type of test of the

participants’ proficiency. The present study was also limited to the use of the definite article;

future research could examine errors in the use of other kinds of articles in larger samples of

Persian-speaking university faculty members in different settings.

5. Conclusions

The findings of this study suggest that for SUMS faculty members the definite article is a

problematic area in their knowledge of English grammar. They appear to need additional help

to become competent in recognizing when the definite article or the zero articles is the correct

choice. To help them improve their knowledge and written English proficiency, instruction

should focus on this problem, and instructors should emphasize the distinction between the

definite article and the zero article in contexts where faculty members most often face

difficulties in their medical research manuscripts. Instruction should provide suitable sample

structures that exemplify the use of the definite article or zero article.

One approach to instruction is special writing classes and workshops, such as those

provided by institutional writing centers. In addition, the development of instructional

materials aimed at optimizing ESL writers’ proficiency can be guided by recommendations

offered by earlier research.

We suggest that the solution is initially to make learners aware of their errors, and

then train them and help them to become independent and self-sufficient by means of

consciousness-raising techniques. We also can motivate them by capacity building and

improving good learning strategies to become more independent in writing. Faculty members


at SUMS can also learn from previous corrections of similar errors involving the definite

article in their manuscripts. It is hoped that the results of this study will make their learning

faster and more efficient in the context of training in English writing in the future.

More English language training and writing services at the university would help

improve researchers’ manuscripts and overcome barriers to effective writing and successful

research publishing. Better training in scientific and medical translation with experienced,

professional instructors could also prepare native speakers of Persian (and possibly of other

languages) to write better research manuscripts. However, a major obstacle is that such

trainers are difficult to find in developing countries – a capacity shortage that could be

overcome, in part, by sending trainers, locally-recruited editors and translators abroad so that

they can update and strengthen their knowledge and skills.

Acknowledgements

We thank K. Shashok (Author AID in the Eastern Mediterranean) for editing the manuscript

and improving the use of English and for suggestions about the organization of the

manuscript. we also thank Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran and the Center

for Development of Clinical Research of Nemazee Hospital and Dr. M. Vossoughi for

statistical assistance.

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Title

The Relationship among EFL Learner’s Critical Thinking, Tolerance of Ambiguity and Reading Comprehension

Authors

Nasim Shangarffam (Ph.D)

Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran, Iran

Hedyeh Hosseinnejad (M.A) Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran, Iran

Biodata

Nasim Shangarffam, Assistant Professor of TEFL, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran. She has published several articles in different academic journals and is specifically interested in learners’ performance and the factors affecting it. Hedyeh Hosseinnejad, M.A. in TEFL from Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran. She is currently an English teacher in Tehran Institute of Technology and has taught in several language schools in Tehran.

Abstract

Teachers in EFL/ESL context can benefit from the advantage of utilizing different

thinking strategies, and personality traits in improving different language skills. In

today’s information age, thinking skills have been emphasized as an urgent

requirement for educational system. Another crucial basis for educational system

is dealing with personality traits, which play a significant role in learners’

achievement. This article presents a correlational study to find the relationship

among EFL Learner’s Critical Thinking, Tolerance of Ambiguity and Reading

Comprehension. To carry out the study, 92 students majoring in English literature

and English translation answered a translated version of critical thinking

questionnaire, a translated version of tolerance of ambiguity questionnaire and a

reading comprehension test. To fulfill the objective of the study, Spearman’s Rank

Order Correlation as the non-parametric alternative to Pearson’s Product

Correlation was used to investigate any significant relationship among the 3

variables, due to the distribution of scores being not normal. The results showed

that there is no significant relationship among EFL learners’ critical thinking,


tolerance of ambiguity, and reading comprehension. Therefore, the null

hypotheses of the study could not be rejected.

Keywords: Critical thinking, Tolerance of ambiguity, Reading comprehension

1. Introduction

Recent educational systems emphasize the importance of personality traits, and different

thinking strategies on acquiring different skills. They believe that not only can learning

different thinking strategies improve learning skills, but also focusing on personality traits

such as tolerance of ambiguity can contribute to language achievement. So they need to be

taken more seriously by teachers who want to achieve desirable results in a specific time

(Erten & Topkaya, 2009; Chaffee 1999).

These recent trends in the educational domain also draw attention to the importance of

critical thinking skills necessary for educational achievement. Learners are expected to

question the correctness of concepts in texts or judge the perceptions of other people. Also,

they need to clarify knowledge of all sorts through their understanding and to find reasonable

shortcomings instead of accepting them as they are (Gelen, 1999; Vancı-Osam, 1998; Kaya,

1997; cited in Alagozlu, 2007).

Chance (1986; cited in Alagozlu, 2007) sees critical thinking as “the ability to analyze

facts, generate and organize ideas, defend opinions, make comparisons, draw inferences,

evaluate arguments and solve problems” (p.2). In order to make judgments and evaluate

arguments, critical thinkers spend a lot of time to analyze data; hence it seems that they are

resistant to uncertainty. This is their prominent characteristic not to accept everything. They

ponder the issues based on the evidence that they have. In regards to ambiguous situations,

they process the information and try to make connections based on their background

knowledge to find clues to tackle the issues of uncertainty.

The concept of ambiguity tolerance or its synonyms has engaged research in different

branches of psychology in more than 40 years (Frenkel- Brunswik, 1948). Bunder (1962)

defined tolerance of ambiguity as “the tendency to perceive ambiguous situation desirable”

(p.29). Contrary to intolerance of ambiguity as “the tendency to perceive (i.e. interpret)

ambiguous situations as a source of threat” (p.29).

Furthermore, reading is probably the most important skill that EFL students need for

desirable language achievement. This is because EFL learners scarcely have appropriate

chance to talk to native speakers. On the other hand, they have to read lengthy assignments in


different topics with different degrees of difficulty. Clearly, reading comprehension is a very

important activity in any language class, not just as a mean of obtaining information and an

enjoyable activity, but also as a way of reinforcing and increasing one’s knowledge of the

language (Rivers, 1981).

Reading in a foreign language is more or less considered as an ambiguous process that

involves dealing with unknown linguistic data and cultural input, which might ultimately lead

to uncertainty and/or confusion for readers. Overcoming these difficulties and achieving

comprehension may depend on a variety of factors which is indicated by readers.

Accordingly, tolerance of ambiguity is one of these significant factors during reading

comprehension process (Erten& Razi 2009).

Furthermore, Richards & Schmitt (2002) mentioned that critical thinking in language

teaching is considered as a prominent component of reading comprehension or listening skill

when the learner is able to question and judge what is read or heard. Generally, regarding

critical thinking as a prominent component of reading conveys drawing students’ attentions

more actively to materials in the target language, encouraging a deeper processing of

information by motivating them and showing respectful gestures to students who are

considered as independent thinkers (Richards & Schmitt, 2002).


2.1 Critical Thinking

Over the last several decades, critical thinking has been discussed in educational circles.

Michael Scriven and Richard Paul (2004), define critical thinking as “that mode of thinking -

about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or

her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing

intellectual standards upon them” (P.3). In order to improve their own thinking, it requires

that they develop sound criteria and standards for analyzing and evaluating their own

thinking and continuously use those criteria and standards to improve the quality of their

thinking (Elder & Paul, 2004).

Wood (2002) argues that an ideal critical thinker is open minded, always tries to

explore all new ideas, including those opposed to his/her own. They generally question the

validity of everything in order to find the truth.

Part of understanding the nature of critical thinking is related to its components.

Halpern (1996) argues that critical thinking skills are strategies to reach an aim. In this ways


he believes that critical thinking should be broken down into manageable parts, which are the

practical skills.

Facione’s study (1990) concluded that at the very core of critical thinking are interpretation,

analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self- regulation.

2.2 Tolerance of Ambiguity

The concept of ambiguity tolerance has attracted research in various branches of psychology

for more than 40 years (Frenkel-Brunswik, 1948). It has been viewed as a personality

variable (Budner, 1962) as well as a property of both organizations (Furnham & Gunter,

1993) and national cultures (Hofstede, 1980) and as an individual difference variable of

interest; it is attracted clinical and organizational psychologists (Anderson & Schwartz,

1992).

The concept of tolerance of ambiguity (AT) refers to how an individual or group

“perceives and processes information about ambiguous situations or stimuli when

confronted by an array of unfamiliar, complex, or incongruent clues” (Furnham &

Ribchester, 1995, p.179). Budner (1962, p. 29) defined intolerance of ambiguity as “the

tendency to perceive (i.e., interpret) ambiguous situations as a source of threat”. He defined

(p. 30) an ambiguous situations “one which cannot be adequately be structured or categorized

by the individual because of the Lack of sufficient cues”. He added there are typically three

types of ambiguous situations:

“1. Completely new situations in which the individual has had no experience and therefore

finds no familiar cues,

2. Overly complex situations in which there are too many cues for the individual to process

3. Contradictory situations in which the available cues lead to different and perhaps

mutually exclusive structures” (p.30).

Budner (1962) believed that intolerance for ambiguous situations is usually perceived

as sources of threats. He concluded that tolerant individuals should perform well in new and

complex learning situations. However, intolerant learners may tend to avoid or give up when

encountering ambiguous situations.

2.3 Reading Comprehension

Reading is a basic and significant skill in language learning. Second language learners need

to learn to read for communication and to read greater amount of authentic materials.

Students can probably learn to read more easily than they can acquire any other skills and

they can use reading materials as a main source of comprehensible input as they learn the

language (Chastain, 1988).


According to Chastain “The reading goal is to read for meaning or to recreate the

writer’s meaning. Reading to improve pronunciation and, practice grammatical forms, and

study vocabulary do not constitute reading at all, because by definition reading involves

comprehension. When readers are not comprehending, they are not reading” (Chastain, 1988,

p. 217).

Richards and Schmidt (2002) make a case for comprehension as the identification of

the intended meaning of written or spoken information. Contemporary theories of

comprehension emphasize that it is an active process drawing both on information contained

in the message (bottom up processing) as well as background knowledge information from

the context and from the speakers and listeners intentions (top down processing).

The study of reading comprehension is an important way to understand how fluent

readers comprehend texts. The central components of reading process according to Grabe

(1997) include the following:

Orthographic processing, phonological coding, word recognition, (lexical assess),

working memory activation, sentence parsing, propoitional text model formation,

comprehension strategy use, inference making, text model development of an appropriate

situation model (or mental model ).

In his point of view reading process is generally divided in to two parts, the first part

is lower level process, and the second part is higher level process .Lower level process

includes: (Grabe, 2009).

“Word recognition syntactic parsing (using grammatical information), and semantic

proposition encoding (building clause_level meaning from word meaning and grammatical

information).These processes are carried out as part of working memory, the framework in

which cognitive processing and knowledge resources are integrated for comprehension”

(p.22).

The main component abilities of higher order comprehension processing includes the

following:

“A text model of reader comprehension,

A situation model of reader interpretation,

A set of reading skills and resources under the command of the executive control

mechanism in working memory (strategies goal, inferences, background knowledge

comprehension monitoring)” (Grabe, 2009, p.39).


3. Background of the Study

Since quality of thinking has been generated from cognitive approach, it gained significance

in teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Snow (2002) noted that since writers

cannot clearly express, all the information in the text, it is reliable heavily on the readers to

make necessary deduction in each case, but the readers usually cannot perceive, the intended

points which writers try to include.

Critical thinking is no longer limited just to philosophy courses in college catalogues.

It has entered into such academic instruction as cognitive psychology, philosophy, behavioral

psychology, and educational psychology (Huitt, 1998; cited in Barnes, 2005). Despite the

indicated support of critical thinking as a prominent aspect of teaching, however little effort

is devoted to analyzing it thoroughly (Baker, 1981). On the other hand, ambiguity tolerance

has been perceived as a resource of both organizations (Furnham & Gunter, 1993) and

national cultures (Hofstede, 1980) and as a personality trait (Bunder, 1962) too (cited in

Furnham & Ribchester, 1995) . It seems, however, that AT as a personality trait, like critical

thinking is not investigated extensively either.

Research into tolerance of ambiguity so far has concentrated on its relationship to

language achievement (Lori, 1990; Naiman, Stern & Tedesco 1978; Chapelle & Roberts,

1986), and reading comprehension (El-Koumy, 2000) as well as other personality traits (

Ehrman & Oxford, 1990; cited in Erten & Topkaya, 2009). The results of these studies

indicated that there are positive correspondence between the degree of tolerance and the

levels of language achievement.

Recent research on reading emphasizes the effective reading strategies that increase

students’ comprehension (Guthrie, 1996). Some research done over previous decades has

changed our view of reading as the only process of decoding. As Carrell and Eisterhold

(1983) state, EFL/ESL reading theory has been changed during the past three decades by

Goodman (1967) who views reading as a “guessing game” in which “the reader reconstructs,

as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer” (cited in Alyousef, 2006,

p.1).

Considering the above-mentioned issues, reading as a receptive skill which leads to

productive ones should be considered with different kinds of personality traits, and thinking

strategies because knowing the relationship among these three variables will facilitate

conducting appropriate reading strategies.


4. Method The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is any significant relationship

among EFL learners’ critical thinking, tolerance of ambiguity, and reading comprehension.

Furthermore it was attempted to see whether there is any difference between EFL learners’

critical thinking and tolerance of ambiguity in predicting their reading comprehension. The

research questions investigated in the study were as follows:

1. Is there any significant relationship between EFL learners’ critical thinking ability

and their reading comprehension?

2. Is there any significant relationship between EFL learners’ tolerance of ambiguity

and their reading comprehension?

3. Is there any significant difference between EFL learners’ critical thinking and

tolerance of ambiguity in predicting their reading comprehension?

4.1 Participants

In order to investigate the research questions of the study and the hypothesized relationship,

the researcher chose 92 students majoring in English translation and English literature, at

Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran as the main participants of this study. Both males

and females took part in the study and their age range was from 22 to 40.They were students

of 5th, 6th and 7th semesters of their education. Also 30 students similar in characteristics to

that of the target participants of this study were chosen to participate in the piloting of the

instruments of the present research.

4.2 Instrumentation

4.2.1 Critical Thinking Questionnaire

Peter Honey’s critical thinking questionnaire was selected by the researcher to measure

learners’ critical thinking. Peter Honey’s (2005) critical thinking questionnaire includes 30

items. The Likert-type CTQ is a reliable (0.86 on Cronbach’s Alpha), valid (highlighted by

the literature), and practical (easy to administer, score, and interpret) measure of critical

thinking ability which allows researchers to investigate micro-skills of note-taking,

summarizing, questioning, paraphrasing, researching, inferencing, discussing, classifying,

outlining, comparing and contrasting, distinguishing, synthesizing, inductive and deductive

reasoning more effectively (Niani, 2005).

4.2.2 Tolerance of Ambiguity Questionnaire

The participants’ level of tolerance of ambiguity (AT) is measured by McLain’s (1993)

Measure of Ambiguity Tolerance (MSTAT-I). It has an established reliability 0.86 (McLain,


1993). “MSTAT-I is designed for Likert responses, the seven response anchors ranged from 1

strongly disagree, to 7 strongly agree” (McLain, 1993, p.184).

4.2.3 Reading Comprehension Test

A reading comprehension test was given to the participants to measure their reading

comprehension. The test was a PET (preliminary English test, 2010) reading comprehension

section. It consists of 5 texts (35 items) which mostly involves comprehension based

questions. It was piloted by a group of 30 participants. Item facilities and item difficulties

were calculated. The internal consistency of the reading comprehension test was estimated as

well.

4.3 Procedure

In order to investigate the null hypotheses of the research study and to investigate any

significant relationship between critical thinking, tolerance of ambiguity and reading

comprehension, the following steps were carried out. As the first step, the researcher piloted

two questionnaires and the reading comprehension test. The instruments were piloted by a

number of 30 participants similar in characteristics to the target participants of the research.

The item analysis and reliability estimates for the PET were conducted as well as reliability

estimates for critical thinking and ambiguity tolerance questionnaires.

In the second step, 92 participants were provided with a translated version of 22 item

questionnaire of tolerance of ambiguity. The recommended time was 11minutes. Besides the

questionnaire of tolerance of ambiguity, the translated version of the critical thinking

questionnaire, which consists of 30 items, was administered to the target participants in the

next stage. To avoid any misunderstanding, the researcher used the translated version of the

questionnaire provided by Harrirchi (2010). The recommended time was15 minutes. Besides

these two questionnaires, a 35 item reading test was also added in the last session. The time

allocated was 50 minutes. All of the instruments have been administrated in one session.


5.1 Piloting Procedure

In order to make sure of the reliability of the instruments of the study, the researcher piloted

the three instruments, namely, the PET reading comprehension, the critical thinking

questionnaire, and the tolerance of ambiguity questionnaire with a number of 30 participants

similar in characteristics to that of the target sample.

Table 5.1 Descriptive statistics of reading comprehension test piloting


N Range Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Variance

Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic

PETpilot 30 21.00 14.00 35.00 25.9333 4.60834 21.237

Valid N

(listwise)

30

Table 5.2 Descriptive statistics of critical thinking questionnaire piloting



CTpilot 30 60.00 68.00 128.00 101.4667 13.74079 188.809

Valid N

(listwise)

30

Table 5.3 Descriptive statistics of tolerance of ambiguity questionnaire piloting



TOLERANCEpilot 30 27.00 56.00 83.00 68.5333 6.26283 39.223

Valid N (listwise) 30

Table 5.4 Reliability estimate of reading comprehension test

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's

Alpha N of Items

.88 35

Table 5.5 Reliability estimate of critical thinking questionnaire


Cronbach's

Alpha N of Items

.78 30

Table 5.6 Reliability estimate of tolerance of ambiguity


Cronbach's

Alpha N of Items

.81 22

5.2 Descriptive Statistics

After making sure of the reliability of the instruments the researcher felt confident to

administer the questionnaires and the reading comprehension test to the target sample of 92

participants of the study. Table 5.7 presents the descriptive data of the three sets of scores.


Table 5.7Descriptive data of the main administration of the three questionnaires

N Range Minimum Maximum Mean

Std.

Deviation Variance Skewness

Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic

Std.

Error

Reading 92 22.00 10.00 32.00 24.4022 4.84044 23.430 -.828 .251

Tolerance 92 32.00 52.00 84.00 67.2283 5.72080 32.728 -.415 .251

Criticalthinking 92 58.00 72.00 130.00 103.9674 13.62726 185.702 -.291 .251

Valid N

(listwise)

92

5.3 Testing the Null Hypotheses

To investigate the null hypotheses which were stated before, the Pearson Correlation

Coefficient had to be run. Since the study had an ex post facto correlational design, before

conducting a correlational analysis some assumptions needed to be checked such as

normality, linearity, and homoscedasticity. Table 5.8 presents the details of checking the

normality of the distributions of scores of the three measures.

Table 5.8 Normality of the distribution of scores Skewness/Std Error of Skewness Reading comprehension -.828/.251= 3.29

Tolerance of ambiguity -.415/.251= 1.65

Critical thinking -.291/251= 1.15

As can be seen from the above table, the distribution of scores turned out to be normal for

tolerance of ambiguity and critical thinking, yet, the scores of the participants on the reading

comprehension scores were not normal.

Since the assumption of normality of the distributions was violated, the researcher had

to employ a non parametric statistical analysis to investigate the research hypotheses.

Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation as the non parametric alternative to Pearson’s Product

Correlation was used to calculate the relationship between the variables and to see whether

there was a significant relationship among them or not. Table 5.9 presents the results.

Table 5.9 Correlation of the participants’ scores on reading comprehension, tolerance of ambiguity, and critical thinking questionnaires.

Reading Tolerance Criticalthinking

Spearman's rho Reading Correlation Coefficient 1.000 -.077 .158

Sig. (2-tailed) . .464 .132

N 92 92 92


Tolerance Correlation Coefficient -.077 1.000 .105

Sig. (2-tailed) .464 . .318

N 92 92 92

Criticalthinking Correlation Coefficient .158 .105 1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) .132 .318 .

N 92 92 92

As can be depicted from the table, none of the variables proved to be correlated with

each other. In other words, there was no significant relationship among reading

comprehension, tolerance of ambiguity, and critical thinking of the participants. Therefore,

the null hypotheses of the study could not be rejected.

This study was also done with parametric alternative by eliminating the extreme scores.

However the use of Pearson’s Product Correlation hasn’t changed the result. It has confirmed

the lack of correlation between the variables of the study as did the nonparametric analysis.

5.4 Discussion

As the results of this study demonstrated there is no significant relationship among EFL

learners’ reading comprehension, tolerance of ambiguity, and critical thinking.

It means that more successful readers are benefited neither from critical thinking

ability, nor from tolerance of ambiguity. Bearing a good degree of critical thinking ability and

tolerance of ambiguity, the findings revealed, therefore, would be no guarantee to desirable

reading comprehension performance.

There are several studies which confirm the above- mentioned results. For example,

Naeini and Pandian (2010) found no positive relationship between ambiguity tolerance and

scores on the listening test. Since listening is a receptive skill, it has characteristic of reading

comprehension. In regards to critical thinking no contradictory results can be found. Most of

the research in this regard found a positive relationship between critical thinking and reading

comprehension. (Fahim & Bagherkazemi, 2010).

According to Ellis (2008) “Doubts about the use of questionnaires in individual

differences’ research, especially about their validity have been voiced on the grounds that

asking learners to report general tendencies is invalid, because learners can only report their

approach to learning in relation to the specific learning activities they engage in” (p.646).

Generally, studies of measuring different personality traits are based on using

questionnaires. However, the results obtained by different studies were inconsistent and

inconclusive (Eliss, 2008). Thus, for example, whereas Naiman, Stern & Tedesco (1978)


found a positive relationship between tolerance of ambiguity and the scores on a listening

comprehension tests, he failed to find any relationship between the same scores and the

scores of imitation tests. Chapelle and Roberts (1986) also reported low correlations between

tolerance of ambiguity and criterion measures of L2 proficiency. “One explanation is that

different instruments were used to measure the same personality variable, but this is not

always the case (as can be seen in Naiman’s result). The main problem is that there is no

clear theoretical basis for predicting which personality variables would be positively or

negatively related to which aspects of L2 proficiency” (Eliss, 2008, p.673).

Early research failed to demonstrate a clear relationship between personality and

language learning. Thus, the research overall has been somewhat disappointing. Dornyei

(2005 cited in Elis, 2008) offers a number of reasons for this:

1. “The effects of personality may be situation-dependent, evident in some learning

contexts or tasks but not in others. This may be why generalized linear associations

are frequently not found.

2. The correlational approach to investigate the relationship between personality and L2

learning is somewhat naive, as it ignores the fact that the effects of personality may be

mediated by other variables such as language-related attitudes, motivation, and

situational anxiety.

3. Various methodological deficiencies (for example, the use of convenience samples,

the time gap between the measurement of personality and language proficiency, the

use of different measures of L2 performance/proficiency” (p.676).

6. Conclusion To sum up, the study sought to investigate the relationship among EFL learners’ critical

thinking, tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension. Critical thinking is inherently

linked to effective learning. Being able to think about what one is learning while interpreting

and making relations is an important part of the learning process (Paul, 2005). Ambiguity is

an inevitable reality of learning a new language and people do tend to have different levels of

ambiguity. As reviewed above, research indicates that AT is related to achievement in

language learning (Erten & Topkaya, 2009).

Based on logical reasoning, the researcher of this study presumed that there might be

a relationship among EFL learners’ critical thinking, tolerance of ambiguity and reading

comprehension. However, the findings indicated no significant relationship among EFL

learners’ critical thinking, tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension.


Although the researcher of this study was not able to find any significant relationship

among the three variables of the study, she feels that the replication of the research may

conclude differently since the literature has some inconsistencies regarding the matter.

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Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53, 183-189.

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http://www.robinwood.com/democracy/GeneralEssays/criticalthinking.pdf.


Title

Translation of English Epistemic Modals in Orwell’s Animal Farm

Authors

Habibollah Mashhady (Ph.D) University of Zabol, Iran

Masoumeh Yazdani Moghadam (M.A)

University of Zabol, Iran

Biodata

Habibollah Mashhady has received his Ph.D in applied linguistics from Tehran University. He is now an assistant professor at English Department of Zabol University, and teaching different B.A and M.A courses to EFL students. Masoumeh Yazdani Moghadam is the instructor of English Department at university of Zabol, Iran. She got her M.A. in English translation studies.

Abstract

Translation is an activity that has effects on our everyday life. Nida and Taber

(1969) define translation as “the reproduction in a receptor language of the closest

natural equivalence of the source language message, first in terms of meaning, and

secondly in terms of style” (p. 208).The purpose of this study was to identify and

classify the most common strategies which the Persian translators of Animal Farm

used in translating English modal verbs(epistemic modals)into Persian. To this end,

the intended book was studied from the beginning to the end, and instances of

modal verbswere extracted. Then, effortswere made to see which of them indicates

probability. Based on the results of this research, translators did not translate

English epistemic modal verbs in most cases, and among those which were

translated, the translators applied lexical equivalents rather than grammatical ones

in the process of translating epistemic modal verbs.

Keywords: epistemic modal verbs, probability, English language, Persian language

1. Introduction

"Translation, both commercial and literary, is an activity that is growing phenomenally in

today’s globalized world. The study of translation, an interdisciplinary field known as


translation studies, has also developed enormously in the past twenty years"(Hatim and

Munday, 2004,p.xvii).

Translation from one language into another language has its own problems and difficulties,

especially when the differences between Source Language (SL) and Target Language (TL)

are so much. Languages differ from each other in many aspects such as structural, lexical,

phonological ,etc..So, Persian and English languages are not exception in this regard. They

differ from each other in many cases. One of which is the linguistic differences between these

two languages.

The verbs can, could, may, might, will, would, shall (mainly British English),should, must,

and ought to are called modal auxiliary verbs; they are used before the infinitives of other

verbs, and add certain kinds of meaning connected with certainty, or with obligation and

freedom to act.(Swan,2005,p.325).

Regarding the meaning of the modal verbs, Teschner and Evans (2007, p. 82) claim that

"what makes modals interesting linguistically is the extent to which they are ambiguous

semantically: many of the modal verbs have several different meaning". They further express

a substitution test to determine probability and possibility of the modal verbs; so, if the phrase

BE probably and BE possibly are substitutable for the modal verbs, then they express

probability and possibility respectively. Modal verbs express a broad range of meanings such

as permission, probability, possibility, physical and mental ability, making request, offer,

frequency, willingness, ability, etc. (Eastwood, 2003; Hewings, 2002; Side & Wellman, 1999;

Swan, 2005, Murphy, 1994).

Modal verbs have no-s in the third person singular. Questions, negatives, tags, and short

answers are made without do.

According to Swan (2005),"we do not normally use modal verbs to say that situations

definitely exist or that particular events have definitely happened; we use them, for example,

to talk about things which we expect, which are or are not possible, which we think are

necessary, which we want to happen, which we are not sure about, which tend to happen, or

which have not happened" (p.326).

He also mentions two kinds of meanings of modals verbs: one is to do with degrees of

certainty, modal verbs can be used to say for instance that a situation is certain, probable,

possible, or is impossible; the other is to do with obligation, freedom to act, and similar ideas:

modal verbs can be used to say that somebody is obliged to do something, that he /she is able

to do something, that there is nothing to stop something happening, that it would be better if

something happened (or did not),or that something is permitted or forbidden. (p.354)


Side and Wellman (1999) enumerate key difficulties with meanings of modal verbs:

(a)The same modal can express different meanings or perform different functions; (b)

different modal verbs can express similar meanings; (c) the exact meaning can change

according to context or intonation; (d) modals can affect the level of formality and politeness;

(e) a sentence with modal verbs can have two possible meanings according to the way it is

spoken or the knowledge people have of the situation (p. 63).

1.1. Statement of the Problem

When we translate from one language into another, different problems will arise such as

cultural, lexical, etc.; how to solve these issues so that they will match the target language and

culture is of great importance in translation. The translator should be able to identify

epistemic modals and translate them into the target language since they show the intention of

a writer and bear part of the meaning of a text. Languages apply different methods to transfer

this aspect of meaning; some of them have lexical counterparts for epistemic modals, others

use grammatical ones, and the others may have not any meanings for them and omit them in

translation from one language into another. Anyhow, the translator should consider the type of

text, the purpose of translation, and the readerships. If translators ignore them, they deprive

the readers from the close and accurate translation and finally, results in misunderstanding of

messages from one language into another. Some examples of epistemic modals are as follows:

-The price of these would pay for enough grain and meal.

-It might be in a week or in a hundred years

-The cat could never be found.

-Jones will sell you to the knacker.

-It must be due to some fault in ourselves.

In all of the above instances, Persian translators preserved the epistemic aspect of these verbs

by applying words that show probability in Persian language. All in all, giving meanings to

epistemic modals and identifying their translation strategies is of an absolute necessity for

carrying close and natural meanings.

1.2. Purpose and Significance of the Study

Epistemic modals are verbs that carry meanings of probability aspect. Therefore, in

translation from one language into another, the translator should be aware of different kinds of

meanings that these verbs might have in the context. The translator should try to understand

the intended meaning of the author; and translate it in the best possible way for the target

language readers.


The purpose of the study was to identify the strategies which are involved in the translation of

epistemic modals from English into Persian. It is hoped that the study be helpful to translation

of epistemic modal verbs. Therefore, researches in the related area can help translators

especially Persian ones in the process of translating epistemic modals in different genres, and

it reveals differences and similarities of the two languages in the case of epistemic modals and

modality. So, it is expected that the study be to the benefit of authors, translators, and

translation students and be helpful for the pedagogical purposes of translation.

1.3. Research Questions

Based on what was mentioned above, the following research question was raised:

What is the most common strategy in translation of English epistemic modals in the process

of translating from English into Persian?


Different notions are expressed by modality such as probability, necessity, duty, hope, etc.;

but epistemic modals consider probability of actions. Mansouri (2009) in his article studied

the modal verbs in English translations of the holy Qur'an. He considered the frequency of six

modal verbs in seven translations of the Qur'an. His study showed that there is a significant

difference in the frequency of each of these modal verbs in the seven translations; there is also

significant difference between native and non-native translators in using modal verbs, his

study further indicated that translators use different modals in similar situations. Another

study was done by Ebrahimi (2008). He studied modality in English and German; he

compared modality in these two languages and concluded that creating close equivalents for

modality in translation to express intention helps language users to understand each other

better. Yan (2008) also compared modal verbs and reiterated that illocutionary meaning of

modal verbs is incredibly important in translation.

Based on Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, Finegan (1999), "nine central modal auxiliary

verbs are used to express modality: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must;

these are invariant forms taking the role of auxiliary." (p. 483) They also state that "modals

cannot co-occur with each other in the phrase; however, some regional dialects allow modals

in series such as might could or might should." (p.483)

Pollock (2000) maintain that although modal verbs are usually used to indicate time,

expressing different kinds of meanings is their main job.


According to Biber, et al. (1999) there is a group of verbs which is called "marginal auxiliary"

verbs such as: need (to), ought to, dare to, and used to; they express that " these verbs behave

like modals in taking auxiliary negation, and yes-no question inversion (needn't, ought we to,

she dare not, etc.)" (p. 484). They further put it forward that" there are a number of fixed

idiomatic phrases with functions similar to those of modals: had better, have to, have got to,

be supposed to, be going to" (p. 484). So, based on their views, these expressions are called

semi-modals ('quasi-modals', and 'periphrastic modals').

Regarding different meanings of modal verbs, Frank (1972) states that modal verbs add

special effect to the meaning of the main part of a verb. Biber, et al. (1999) also assert that

"each modal can have two different types of meaning, which can be labeled intrinsic and

extrinsic (i.e. 'deontic' and 'epistemic' meaning); the intrinsic modality refers to actions, and

events that humans (or other agents) directly control: meaning relating to permission,

obligation, or volition; extrinsic modality refers to the logical status of events or states,

usually relating to assessments of likelihood: possibility, necessity, or prediction" (p. 485).

2.1. Equivalence in Translation

When we talk about comparison of texts in translation, we deal with equivalence; whether in

style, form, meaning, etc. It is a challenging issue in translation. Different scholars have

considered equivalence, but there are not common agreements among them on the definition

of equivalence. Thus, there is no universal approach to the notion of equivalence.

"There is ordinarily no full equivalence between code-units among languages" (Jakobson,

1959 Cited in Munday, 2001, p. 36). Jakobson introduces the concept of “equivalence in

difference” which provided the way for the theoretical analysis of translation and proposes

three kinds of translation based on this concept:

(a) "Intralinguistic translation involves transferring a message from a language into the same

language, e.g. when rewriting a scientific article as a press release; (b) Interlinguistic

translation is translation proper, i.e., transferring a message from one language into another;

(c) Intersemiotic translation involves transferring a message from one sign system into

another, e.g. from book to film" (Gonzalez Davies, 2004, p. 55). “Dynamic equivalence is

therefore to be defined in terms of the degree to which the receptors of the message in the

receptor language respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source

language” (Nida and Taber, 1969, p. 24). Others also believe that if the concept of

equivalence “is applied during the translation process, it can maintain the stylistic impact of

the SL text in the TL text; even if semantic equivalence of an expression in the SL text is


quoted in a dictionary or a glossary, it is not enough, and it does not guarantee a successful

translation” (Vinay and Darbelnet, 1977 Cited in Leonardi 2000, ¶ 3).

House (2001) also argues that "it is obvious that equivalence cannot belinked to formal,

syntactic and lexical similarity alone because any two linguistic items in two different

languages are multiply ambiguous, and because languages cut up reality in different ways" (p.

247). She chooses functional, pragmatic equivalence for describing relations between

originals and translation. House further states that it is this type of equivalence which is

related to the preservation of “meaning” across two different languages and cultures. From

Baker (1992)'s perspectivein order to translate words and utterances intoanother language,

translator must understand the meaning of words and utterances very precisely. In her view,

“the choice of suitable equivalence in a given context depends on a wide variety of factors.

Some of these factors may be strictly linguistic, others may be extralinguistic” (p. 17).

Koller (1989Cited in Mundy, 2001) also describesdifferent types of equivalence:

1. Denotative equivalence which is related to equivalence of the extralinguistic content of a text.

2. Connotative equivalence is related to the lexical choices, especially between near-synonyms.

3. Text-normative equivalence is related to text types, with different kinds of texts behaving in

different ways.

4. Pragmatic equivalence, or 'communicative equivalence', is oriented towards the receiver of

the text or message. Formal equivalence, which is related to the form and aesthetics of the

text, includes word plays and the individual stylistic features of the ST. (p. 47)

Bassnett (2005)phrases it “equivalence in translation, then, should not be approached as a

search for sameness, since sameness cannot even exist between two TL versions of the same

text, let alone between the SL and the TL version.”(pp. 37-38)

2.2. Definition of a Word

Jackson (2002) defines words from two perspectives: writing and speech. According to him,

in writing words refer to “a sequence of letters bounded by spaces; in speech words are

composed of sounds, syllables, and they follow one another in the flow of speech without

spaces or pauses.” (p. 1) He identifies two classes of words namely large class and small

class. The items in large class are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; the small class also

consists of pronouns, determiners, prepositions, and conjunctions. Jackson adds that the large

class is dynamic but the small class is static and is used to link the members of the large class

in making sentences. To identify an element of a word, Jackson uses the term morpheme and

states that “words are composed of morphemes.” (p. 8) Thus, in Jackson’s standpoint, in cases


which words consist of one morpheme, they are called ‘simple’ words and if they have more

than one morpheme, they make compounds.

According to Hartmann and James (1998) a term is defined as “a word, phrase, or

alphanumeric symbol used by the practitioners of a specialized technical subject to designate

a concept” (p. 138).

3. Method

This is a descriptive case study which tries to investigate epistemic modals with their

translation counterparts in Animal Farm. It is one of the classic stories of modern English

fiction of twentieth century by George Orwell (1946). Among existing translation of the book

in Persian, the translation by Hossieni, and Nabi zadeh was better and more accurate in terms

of style, so it was chosen for the purpose of this study.

3.1. Data Collection Procedures

As it was mentioned before, the research aims at considering the most common strategy used

in translation of “modal verbs” indicating “probability". To find those modals indicating

“probability", the book was read from the beginning to the end, and all instances of modal

verbs were underlined. Then, effort was made to see which of them indicate “probability". So,

they were identified, and their Persian equivalents were also identified. Each of them with its

Persian equivalents was written on a separate data note card, those data note cards were

classified based on the degrees of certainty of modal verbs and those strategies which were

used by translators. Then the researcher analyzed all data and calculated percentage.


The following texts constitute instrument and corpus of the study:

(a)Animal Farm, an novel writtenbyGeorge Orwell(2005): Longman fiction; was studied as

the originaltext (source text) in the research; and (b) atranslated text (target text) which was

analyzed in the research was thePersian translation of Animal Farm produced by two Persian

translators: Saleh Hosseini and Masoumeh Nabi Zadeh, (2007) published in Tehran: Dostan

publications.


To provide answers to the research question already proposed, descriptive analyses of the data

are given about the percentage of English epistemic modals with their translation strategiesin

tables and figures as follows:


Table 1

Percentage of English Epistemic Modals within the Original Text

As table 1 indicates "would" has the highest percentage (42.59%) in the original text in

comparison with the other types of epistemic modals and shall and must contain the lowest

percentages (3.70%).

Descriptive findings on percentage of translation strategies of epistemic modals in

thetranslated text are given as follows:

(1)Would (42.59%):

a)would→ Øno translation(80.43%)

b)would→ certainty(8.69%)

c)would→ probability(8.69%)

d)would→ grammatical cases(2.17%)

Figure 1

Percentage for the Translation Strategies of Would in the Translated Text

In English "would" indicate complete certainty, while the Persian translators did not translate

it in most cases (80.43%) based on figure 1.

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

would could might will should shall must

0

20

40

60

80

100

Ø certainty probability grammaticalcases

would

per

centa

ge


(2)Could(15.75%):in English "could" indicates weak possibility, probability, offering and

other layers of meanings regarding context while the Persian translators did not translate it in

94.11% as for figure 2. And translate it into possibility only in 5.88%.

Figure 2

Percentage for the Translation Strategies of Could in the Translated Text

3) Might(14.8%):

In English "might" indicates weak possibility, probability, etc. based on the situation while

the Persian translators applied possibility for it in 81.25 as figure 3 indicates as follows:

a)might→(81.25%) =possibility

b)might→Ø(18.75%) = in 18.75% it was not translated by the Persian translators.

Figure 3

Percentage for Translation Strategies of Might in the Translated Text

0

20

40

60

80

100


could

per

cen

tag

e

0

20

40

60

80

100


might

per

centa

ge


(4)Will(11.11%):

In English "will" indicates complete certainty, time, willingness, and so forth, while the

Persian translators used the following degrees of certainty as figure 4 :

a)will→ Ø(83.33%)

b)will→ probability(8.33%)

c)will→ certainty(8.33%)

Figure 4

Percentage for Translation Strategies of Will in the Translated Text

5) should(7.40%):

In English "should" indicates probability(deduction ,saying that something is logical or

normal), advisability, and other different shades of meanings while the Persian translators

used the following degrees of certainty based on figure 5 as follows:

Figure 5

Percentage for Translation Strategies of Should in the Translated Text

a)should→Ø(87.5%)

b)should→probability(12.5%)

0

20

40

60

80

100


should

per

centa

ge

0

20

40

60

80

100


will

per

centa

ge


6)Shall(3.70%):in English "shall" indicates complete certainty, time, etc.while the Persian

translators translate it into other grammatical cases in the act of translation process from

English into Persian as figure 6 indicates:

shall→ grammatical cases(100%)

Figure 6

Percentage for Translation Strategies of Shall in the Translated Text

7)Must (3.70%):in English "must" indicates complete certainty, obligation,

probability,etc.while the Persian translators used the following degrees of

certainty as figure 7:

a)must→ probability(75%)

b) must→certainty(25%)

Figure 7

Percentage for Translation Strategies of Must in the Translated Text

0

20

40

60

80


must

per

centa

ge

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

certainty probability grammaticalcases

shall


All in all, based on the above figures, "would", "should", "will" and "could" were not

translated in most cases and "must". "shall" and "might" are among those epistemic modals

that were translated by the translators, and Persian translators applied "probability" procedure

with the highest percentage for "must" and "might" and used grammatical equivalents for

"shall" in the process of translation regarding the context and situation in Persian.

In this study, the attempt was made to identify and classify the different strategies which

the Persian translators of Animal Farm had used in translating the English epistemic modal

into Persian. Based on the research, the Persian translators did not translate English modal

verbs in most cases, and among those which were translated, the translators used lexical

equivalents rather than grammatical ones. Considering the study, translators used different

strategies in the act of translating English epistemic modals verbs; and they did not apply a

single strategy for all of them; they, for example, translated MUST into probability in most

cases and did not translate SHOULD in most instances . It may be because of the following

reasons:

(a)syntactic structure of Persian language imposes certain limitations on the way message

may be conveyed and organized in it; (b)grammatical items constitute a closed system ,while

lexical items constitute an open-ended one ,then choice of lexical items is much easier than

grammatical ones; (c) epistemic modal verbs are both grammaticalized and lexicalized in

English but in Persian they are largely lexicalized which this leads to some changes in

conveying information in the process of translation ;or( d)it seems that translators wanted to

present communicative translation rather than semantic one.

5. Conclusions and Implications

Considering different types of epistemic modal verbs and their translation strategies, it can be

concluded that the translators apply different procedures in translating them from one

language into another one. As it was stated earlier, lexical equivalence was the most common

translation strategy used by the Persian translators in translating English epistemic modalinto

Persian. In general, based on this research, it is better that English modal verbs indicating

probability be translated into their Persian equivalents as much as possible to convey all

aspects of meaning.

The findings of this study like any other research is expected to help other interested

researchers in translation studies, in translating different types of modal verbs especially those


which indicate probability, it also helps to identify problems regarding modal verbs; so, the

study enrich vocabulary of the Persian language.

5.1. Suggestions for Further Research

This study was descriptive in nature, and can be extended for further studies. It is an open

window for other interested researchers in this regard. So, in order to be able to make

generalization as for the research results with more complete certainty and also to expand this

topic, the researcher put forwarded the following suggestions.

First, regarding the subject matter of the study, one can choose only one type of modal

verbs and consider their translation procedures.

Second, this study can be replicated in the other fields of study such as medical,

psychology, journalistic texts, etc.

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