در ضرب المثل ها نکات بی شماری نهفته است که از ورای آنها می توان به برخی ویژگی های قومی هر دیار دست یافت. بسیاری از ضرب المثل های ایرانی مکتوب نشده و به صورت شفاهی سینه به سینه منتقل می شوند. در این مقاله سعی شده شماری از این دست ضرب المثل ها، متعلق به حوزۀ اجتماعی شیراز قدیم، جمع آوری و مفهوم شناسی شوند. روش تحقیق به دو شیوۀ میدانی و کتابخانه ای بوده است. ابتدا برپایۀ مصاحبۀ حضوری از تعدادی کهنسالان ساکن بافت قدیم، تعداد 37 ضرب المثل پربسامد جمع گردید و بعد از آن، آوانگاری و مفهوم یابی شده، نحوۀ کاربرد آن درمیان مردم تبیین گردید. در این ضرب المثل ها، در سطح زیبایی شناسی دو نکته درخور توجه است: یکی طنزآمیز بودن اغلب این مثل ها و دیگر کنایی بودن شمار درخور توجهی از آنها. پرونده مقاله

Practicing innovative, constant, dynamic, ongoing and process-oriented assessment techniques with constructive and communicative feedback can consolidate and stabilize learners’ instruction and learning. This study investigated the impact of the think-pair-share (TPS) formative assessment (FA) strategy on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension skill and vocabulary knowledge. Sixty male intermediate EFL participants from two intact classes took part in the revised Cambridge Preliminary English Test and forty-eight students were chosen by analyzing their scores considering two standard deviations above or below the mean. The participants were from Allameh Jafari high school of Marand. They were assigned to two intact groups of twenty-four learners. This quasi-experimental study was implemented by using a pretest and posttest design to quantitatively collect data so as to compare the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG). The EG was assessed through the TPS assessment technique, while the CG was assessed using the product-oriented summative assessment (SA) tool. To find out the effect of the assessment techniques on reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge, the two groups of the study were assessed for twenty weeks. Then, Independent Samples T-test and the one-way ANCOVA were used to compare and analyze the pretest and the posttest scores of the participants in the two groups. The findings indicated that the EG with the TPS FA technique outperformed the CG with the SA strategy in reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. The findings can be pedagogically rewarding for learners, teachers and theoreticians and may cast light on SLA research in applying FA techniques. پرونده مقاله

Although there is controversy surrounding the place of grammar in foreign language teaching, it remains of great importance for learners. This explanatory mixed methods study aimed to investigate Iranian EFL learners’ perceptions of the teaching effectiveness of three computer-assisted grammar teaching methods, which mainly differ in the degree of explicitness. The participants in the quantitative phase of the study were 70 Iranian EFL learners chosen from Payam Noor University of Tabriz. Besides, 15 participants were randomly selected for the qualitative phase of the study. The participants were divided into three groups of grammar teaching, including Traditional Explicit Instruction (TEI), Implicit Input Enhancement (IIE), and Guided Discovery Method (GDM). The data was collected through the Students’ Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The results of descriptive statistics showed that the participants in all three instructional groups generally had positive perceptions of computerized grammar teaching approaches. Despite opposing views, the qualitative data analysis also confirmed the effectiveness of the methods. This study concludes with some important implications for EFL teachers, learners, and educational administrators to improve the quality of education. پرونده مقاله

This study aimed at surveying two types of scaffolding impact on reading skill performance of learners in Iranian EFL context. For this purpose, 60 Iranian intermediate EFL were selected out of 100 participants. A placement test was carried out and their performance could determine their level as intermediate. The selection was done randomly and they were set into three groups (two experimental and one control). Each group consisted of 20 learners. To check the homogeneity of the participant, a reading comprehension pre-test was administered and no significant difference was observed. The experimental groups received one of the designated treatments, hard or soft scaffolding which lasted for twenty sessions, but the control group got just usual classroom reading teaching. Eventually, their reading skill was evaluated through the use of a post -test of reading comprehension performance. The results of one-way ANOVA disclosed that hard scaffolding group exceeded the others and soft scaffolding group transcended the control group. The implications are being talked about regarding the effectiveness of hard and soft scaffolding to indicate whether they can enhance EFL learners' reading comprehension or not. This study could be useful to classroom teachers who wish to make a variation in their classrooms and to English learners as well. They can be better readers and help each other to work out the challenges of language learning. پرونده مقاله

Language and culture are closely interrelated and besides linguistic knowledge, cultural knowledge is crucial for a translator. Culture and linguistics specifically intertwine during poetry translation. To manifest this interconnectedness, the present study was focused on the poems of Parvin Etessami, a 20th-century Persian poetess, to determine the cultural elements in her poems and investigate their English translation. Eighteen couplets of Etessami’s poems were randomly selected to represent her poetry as a whole. The method was comparative-descriptive and the theoretical framework was based on Newmark’s (1988) strategies of translation. The concept of culture was studied within the paradigm of linguistics. The results of the analyses implied that in the majority of cases, Pazargadi resorted to two or more translation strategies for translating a cultural item simultaneously, indicating Newmark’s translation strategy of “couplets”. The second most frequent translation strategy was “modulation”. The translation strategies of “synonymy” and “reduction” were the least frequent ones. The strategies of “recognized translation”, “translation labels”, and “compensation” were not present in the selected samples. Hence, these strategies are not mentioned in the theoretical framework. The analyses indicated that the translator applied a literal translation besides different strategies to convey the intended meanings and preserve the style of the original poems. پرونده مقاله

Despite a growing interest in the study of the introduction sections of research articles, there have been few studies to investigate how academic writers engage with other voices and alternative positions in this academic genre. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to show how native-speaking (NS) and nonnative-speaking (NNS) writers take position and stance in research article introductions. For this purpose, engagement resources based on the appraisal framework were investigated in 60 articles written by English NS and Iranian NNS writers published in journals of applied linguistics. It was found out that the mean occurrences of heteroglossic items in both corpora was larger than those of monoglossic items but comparing the means of monoglossic engagements between the two corpora, it was revealed that NS writers’ corpus had larger mean occurrences of monoglossic engagements than NNS writers’ corpus implying the natives’ stronger authorial stance in the texts. The results also revealed that there was no significant difference in the use of contractive and expansive engagements by NS writers (t = -0.995, p > 0.05), indicating a balanced use between the two options. However, the higher mean occurrences of expansive options compared with contractive options in the NNS corpus may suggest that NS writers open up more dialogic room for alternatives positions in the introductions. The findings of this study may help writers to better perceive the creation of a strong authorial position using appropriate engagement resources in research article introductions. پرونده مقاله

The purpose of this study was to show how expert and novice writers take position and stance in Research Article and Master of Art theses Introductions, so Engagement resources were investigated in 30 Research Articles and 30 Master of Art theses written by non-native Iranian speakers. Through paired samples t-test analysis, we found out that the mean occurrences of heteroglossia items in both RA and Master thesis Introductions were larger than those of monoglots items, indicating the awareness of both groups of writers to ‘engage’ alternative positions in Introduction sections. The results also revealed that wide choices were preferred over contractive options in both corpora, implying both groups of writers’ respects to alternative voices cautiously by welcoming rather than closing down the possibility of different perspectives and stances. Furthermore, unlike novice academic writers who used more Attribute features than Entertainment ones in their MATs introduction sections, expert academic writers employed a balanced number of Entertainment and Attributed in their RA introduction sections. The balanced deployment of Entertain and Attribute features in RA Introductions by expert writers might be characteristics of the writers’ demonstration of politeness, which is commonly accepted as an essential feature in academic writing discourse. Finally, through qualitative analysis, it was demonstrated that MAT writers as novice academic writers suffered from lacking appropriate evaluative stance and authorial voice towards propositions پرونده مقاله